How we engage
Your stage, our model,
aligned incentives.
This page answers the questions founders bring to a first call: what working with a startup studio actually looks like, what it involves at your stage, how the four engagement models differ, and how the equity option works — including when it doesn't apply.
Think of it as how we align, not what we charge. Every engagement starts with the same question: what does this venture need at this stage, and what structure puts our incentives on the same side of the table as yours?
30 minutes with a founding principal.
The principle
Structure follows the venture, not the invoice.
Most vendors sell you a package and fit your problem into it. We work the other way round. Your stage determines what support you need; what you need determines the team we allocate; and the nature of the work determines how the engagement is structured — full fee, fee plus equity, embedded support, or a longer-term partnership.
That order matters. It's why we can work with a pre-seed founder validating a concept and a Series A company scaling infrastructure without pretending they need the same thing. And it's why the first conversation is a diagnosis, not a pitch.
The best outcomes happen when strategy, technology and operations move as one.
Where you are shapes what you get
What support looks like at your stage.
We flex support intensity, team allocation and engagement structure to your stage of development — the highest-leverage intervention at each phase, never a one-size package. Find your row; the narrative under the table explains what it means in practice.
| Stage | Your focus | Entry Life support |
|---|---|---|
| Pre-Idea / Pre-Seed | Concept validation, problem–solution fit, rapid MVP scoping | Founder coaching, market research, business model design |
| Seed | Product buildout, first-hire strategy, early customer acquisition | CTO-as-a-service, pitch deck development, investor readiness |
| Series A & Growth | Scaling tech infrastructure, hiring leadership, entering new markets | Board advisory, operating model design, growth architecture |
| Mature / Expansion | Platform modernisation, M&A readiness, global expansion | Digital transformation, R&D lab, ecosystem partnerships |
Pre-Idea / Pre-Seed — prove it's worth building.
The most expensive mistake at this stage is building the wrong thing quickly. We work with you on the questions that come before code: is the problem real, who pays to solve it, and what's the smallest product that tests the answer? You leave with a validated business model and an MVP scope your future engineers can actually build against — because they may well be the same team.
Seed — build the product and the company at once.
This is the stage where founders most often carry a CTO's decisions without a CTO's experience. CTO-as-a-service puts senior technical leadership beside you — architecture, hiring judgement, build discipline — while the studio ships the product. In parallel, we prepare you for the raise: pitch narrative, business model and financials that survive diligence. Investor readiness means making the venture worth backing; it is never a promise of funding.
Series A & Growth — scale what worked.
What got you here starts creaking: the infrastructure, the hiring, the operating rhythm. We work at board and operating-model level — growth architecture, leadership hiring, the systems that let the company run faster than its founders can personally push it.
Mature / Expansion — modernise and extend.
Platform modernisation, M&A readiness, new-market entry and R&D. Longer-horizon work, usually structured as a strategic partnership rather than a project.
How we align
Four ways to work with us.
Every engagement uses one of four structures. Which one fits depends on your stage, your capital position and the length of the road we'd be walking together.
- Model 01
Full-fee delivery
A conventional engagement: you pay for senior capability, we deliver it. Clean and simple. The right fit when you're funded for the work and want a straightforward commercial relationship.
- Model 02
Hybrid fee + equity
Reduced fees in exchange for equity. We carry part of your risk; we share part of your upside. The right fit when runway is tight but the venture's potential justifies both sides taking a longer view.
- Model 03
Embedded studio support
Our team works inside yours — same stand-ups, same tools, shared accountability. The right fit when you have a team and a direction but need senior capability woven into it rather than bolted on beside it.
- Model 04
Strategic & operating partnerships
Longer-term, board-level or portfolio-level relationships for funds and corporates. If you're an investor considering us for portfolio companies, the investor pathway explains how deployment works.
| At a glance | Best for | We hold equity? |
|---|---|---|
| Full-fee | Funded ventures, defined scope | No |
| Hybrid fee + equity | Tight runway, strong mutual fit | Yes — documented plainly |
| Embedded support | Existing teams needing senior capability | Sometimes |
| Partnerships | Funds & corporates, portfolio-level | Case by case |
The question your lawyer will ask
How the equity option works — and when it doesn't apply.
Equity is one of four engagement models. It is never a requirement, and we don't push it — it only makes sense where the fit is strong enough that we genuinely want to hold part of the outcome.
Where equity is used, three things are always true:
We're happy for your counsel to join the intro call or a follow-up.
It's documented plainly.
The structure is written for your counsel and your cap table, not buried in a services agreement. Your lawyer should scrutinise it; that's healthy, and we'd worry if they didn't.
It aligns, rather than complicates.
The point of fee-plus-equity is that we do better only if your venture does. If we were optimising for billable hours, equity would be a terrible business model. That's the point.
It's decided together, early.
Whether an engagement is full-fee or hybrid is settled in the proposal, before work begins — never renegotiated mid-build.
Why we say no
A small senior team, by design.
We're a small senior team by design. We take on a limited number of partner ventures at a time, because embedded co-building doesn't scale like an agency — and shouldn't.
That has two consequences you should know before you apply. First: we say no more often than yes, usually on fit rather than merit — stage, sector, timing or capacity. Second: if we take you on, you get senior attention. Both founders are hands-on in every engagement; there is no junior team behind a senior pitch.
Continuity is part of the same design. Everything we build is documented to survive any individual — code, processes, hiring — because we've inherited enough undocumented codebases to refuse to create one.
The intake process
From enquiry to engagement, step by step.
1. You apply or book
The founder application walks you through a short form — stage, sector, what you need (strategy, build, operations or all three), and timeline. It takes a few minutes; prefer to just book an intro call? The contact page carries the same questions.
2. Intro call
Thirty minutes with a founding principal — not a salesperson. It's a screening conversation in both directions: you assess us, we assess fit. We'll tell you honestly if we're not the right partner, and where we can, we'll point you somewhere better.
3. Scoped proposal
If there's a fit, you receive a proposal matched to your stage: the work, the team on it, the engagement model, and the terms. Nothing begins until both sides have signed off on all four.
4. We embed and build
The team joins yours — stand-ups, tools, shared accountability — and the engagement runs against the outcomes in the proposal, not a timesheet.
Before you ask
The questions we hear most.
Answer-first and self-contained — every answer stands on its own.
An engagement starts with an intro call and ends with a scoped proposal matched to your stage — the work, the team, the engagement model and the terms, agreed before anything begins. From there, the Entry Life team embeds inside your venture across whichever pillars the work demands: strategy, technology, operations or all three. Support intensity flexes to your stage, from pre-seed concept validation through to Series A scaling and beyond.
No. Equity is one of four engagement models — full-fee delivery, hybrid fee-plus-equity, embedded studio support, and strategic or operating partnerships — and it's never a requirement. Where equity is used, the structure is documented plainly for your lawyer and your cap table, and it's settled in the proposal before work begins. We'd expect your counsel to scrutinise it; that's healthy.
Every engagement is scoped individually against your stage and the work required, so the honest answer starts with a conversation rather than a rate card. What we can tell you now: the engagement model (full-fee or fee-plus-equity) is agreed up front in the proposal, terms are never renegotiated mid-build, and reduced-fee structures exist precisely for ventures where runway is tight. The intro call is free and carries no obligation.
Fit, more than merit. We take on a limited number of partner ventures at a time, so selection weighs stage, sector, timing and our current capacity alongside the strength of the venture. The application form asks for stage, sector, need and timeline; the intro call settles the rest. When we decline, it's usually about fit or capacity — and where we can, we'll point you to a better-suited partner.
Co-building is the model, not a side business. Working inside many ventures at defined stages is how the studio compounds its judgement — every partner venture benefits from the pattern library the last ones built.
Your move
Ready to see if we fit?
You now know how we engage: stage-matched support, four models, equity only where it genuinely aligns, and a selection process that respects your time and ours. The remaining questions — yours and ours — belong in a conversation.