Carly Buxton, PhD

As a startup founder, I’m often put in touch with clever, talented people who have expertise to share. Maybe they’re moms seeking some sort of part-time consulting situation as they settle back into the working world. Maybe they’re founder-types or C-suite hopefuls looking for their next gig. They cross my desk all the time, either via LinkedIn outreach (not the spammy kind) or via referrals from a friend. 

The trouble is: it’s never obvious how to use them. It’s possible that they’ve found me at the exact moment that I have a concrete project that I can’t get to (or don’t have the skillset to treat properly), budget to spend, and I’m ready to put them to work. But that’s only happened twice, and I’ve had hundreds of people who could have done the same sort of project work for me, if they’d just reached out at a different time. The two I hired basically timed it just-right.

Now I find myself on the other side of the equation. I’m the Swiss Army Knife consultant-hopeful. I tackled this 30-day blog-writing challenge to “get myself out there,” ultimately with the goal of gaining consulting work from the effort. But how can I make it clear the ways your company can put me to good use?

1. Use me as your “CXO for a day (or two)”. Most seed-stage startups can’t hire a CXO, Head of Research, or even Head of Product. BUT they might be able to hire a fractional CXO for a quick, bootcamp style, “learn everything and prioritize” sort of micro-partnership. I’ve developed a VIP-Day experience as my flagship consulting offering, and it could be just what you’re looking for if you’re an early stage founder with a small team, looking to tackle some growth / product challenges and needing a peer/sounding board-type of person to run the project and structure the conversation.
2. Lean on me for your most thorough-yet-digestible research ever. Sample: I reached out to a person who is building a new “type” of university, Polymath University, earlier this year. I thought his project was interesting, and I wanted to be top of mind, should he ever have budget to hire a #2 (or faculty, for that matter). We had a video call, and as a next step, he asked me to read this book and let him know what I thought about it. Rather than write a book report, I drafted a prototype presentation of what I would DO based on what I’d read in the book. He hasn’t hired me (yet), but I really believe the work was valuable, and I loved doing it.

I have a handful of hours to give each week. I could, without a doubt, take a full-time job and cover all responsibilities on a part-time schedule. But I know myself well enough to realize that this would get stale quickly; I crave learning curves too much for a steady gig.

And yet, I have SO MUCH energy and talent to bring to teams, as a thought partner, a #2, an insights leader, a customer service expert, a fixer. Maybe this doesn’t hit YOUR desk at the exact-right time, but I hope you’ll consider relying on me in the future. Let’s talk about it!