Enthusiastic consent,
or no deal.
We only work with people who are a hell yes about working with us, on work we're a hell yes about doing. That includes the number.
Most consulting deals are a game of poker. You hide your budget, we hide our floor, and whoever flinches first loses a little respect for the other. It's a bad way to start a relationship that's supposed to fix trust.
So we play a different game. We work out, together, what Aux Labs should offer for the budget and opportunity you're actually glad to put in. Then we leave room for the mess: the false starts, the findings nobody expected, the part where the plan meets the building. We genuinely enjoy that part, and we like being there to work through it with you.
Would you be happy paying it?
Would we be happy doing it?
Two yeses or nothing. A no costs nobody anything.
Consent Checklist
- Both numbers said out loud
- Nobody is talked into anything
- Either side can stop, at any step
Four moves.
No poker.
You name your happy number.
The amount you'd still feel good about having spent a year from now, even if the finding turns out to be inconvenient.
We name ours.
What we'd be glad to do the work for, and what else would make it worth doing: the data, the case study, the door it opens.
If they don't meet, we change the shape.
We shrink the scope, split it into phases, or change the mix of cash, evidence and upside until both numbers feel good. We won't lean on anyone's feelings to close the gap.
If nothing fits, we part friends.
And we'll usually tell you who might be a better fit. A clean no is a fine outcome. A grudging yes is what we're trying to avoid.
ADAPTED FROM JOE HUDSON'S HAPPY MONEY GAME (ART OF ACCOMPLISHMENT). THE ADAPTATION, AND ANY MISTAKES IN IT, ARE OURS. WITH THANKS TO AALIAH ELNASSEH FOR SURFACING IT.
Why we'd rather not bill by the day.
A day rate pays for time, so the faster we solve your problem, the less we earn. We'd rather not be punished for working quickly, and we don't think you want to pay for slow work either.
We'd rather be paid for what the work produces: a project fee sized to the value, with a share of the upside when it works.
So we'll show you three ways to do it, at three prices. You pick.
WITH A DEBT TO JONATHAN STARK (HOURLY BILLING IS NUTS) AND BLAIR ENNS (PRICING CREATIVITY).
If you need to buy time anyway
$1,200–1,400 / day
Principal day rate. Published so you don't have to guess.
Money is one currency. We're building a discipline, behavioral infrastructure, and a discipline runs on evidence: data and case studies worth publishing are worth real money to us. So is a stake in what the work creates.
Every point in the triangle is a valid deal.
[ ONE_CONDITION ]When evidence is part of the fee, the Firewall governs it. You can check what we publish for facts and confidentiality. You can't edit the finding. That independence is what makes it worth publishing, and worth having your name next to it.
[ AND_ONE_TRUTH ]We're a young firm and we have to stay viable, so most deals keep a cash floor. Evidence and upside ride on top of it. What moves is the mix.
Pick a shape.
Or invent one with us.
Project fee, three ways.
Our default. One problem, three scopes, three prices, each sized to what the result is worth to you. You choose the one that makes you happy.
Ghostwritten CMO.
A monthly retainer. We work inside your team, in your voice, under your name, from strategy down to the sentence. More below.
Evidence trade.
Less cash, in exchange for data access and the right to publish what we learn. Your problem becomes a case study for the field.
Grant partner.
For nonprofits and public bodies. We write the proposal with you, name the research role in it, and get paid if the funding comes through.
Equity that vests with the work.
For companies building something. Part of the fee as equity that vests over the life of the contract, not over four years: if we've delivered the work, we've earned the stake. Or a success fee tied to a result we agree to measure first.
Day rate.
Still here if you need it. Good for a workshop or a second opinion. It's just the one shape that pays us less for being good at this.
A CMO who goes
deeper than a CMO.
A good CMO moves the brand. We're a think-and-do tank, not only a research firm, so we also go after the thing underneath the brand: whether people have a reason to trust it, and whether the good it claims to do actually happens.
Your voice goes out under your name. The evidence goes out under ours, with your consent, under the Firewall's rules.
One principal, and a grand unified theory built out of every discipline on this list, pointed at your problem.
Make it seen
Make it true
Make it last
How the pieces fit is on The Field. Who we've done it for is on 01_COMMERCIAL.
This is for you if:
- You read the top of this page and felt relief.
- You'd rather say your real budget out loud than bluff.
- You like the messy middle and want to steer each piece yourself. We'll be the bench you draw on.
- Or you'd rather hand the whole thing to someone who will steer it. That's the ghostwritten CMO.
- You'd be proud to see your project become a published case study.
- You want a partner who will tell you the uncomfortable thing, kindly, early.
It probably isn't if:
- You need to be convinced. We'd rather you didn't have to be.
- You're shopping for the lowest bid.
- You want to own the finding, or edit it before it's published.
- You want a vendor who says yes to everything.
None of that makes you wrong. We'd just be the wrong fit, and we'd both feel it.
Bring your
happy number.
[ BOOK_A_30-MINUTE_CALL ]
THIRTY MINUTES. YOU SAY YOUR NUMBER, WE SAY OURS. OR WRITE FIRST: IMRAN@AUXLABS.CO