Strategic Advisory for Growth-Stage Leaders

Helping growth-stage CEOs
scale profitably.

You've proven the model. Now the business needs to grow beyond you. Wirth Advisory helps VC and PE-backed companies navigate the transition from founder-led growth to professionally managed, scalable operations — without losing the speed that got you here.

Who We Serve

Built for a specific moment
in a company's life.

Growth-stage companies between $10M and $200M in revenue, backed by VC or PE, facing the same inflection point: the systems and behaviors that drove early growth are now the ceiling.

You're still in every decision

Growth has outpaced the team's ability to operate without you. Delegation is happening, but accountability isn't following.

Revenue growth is masking operational debt

The P&L looks fine — for now. But the processes, tooling, and team structure underneath aren't built for the next stage.

The board wants a plan, not just a number

Your investors are asking for scalable ops, repeatability, and AI adoption. You need someone who can translate those expectations into an executable roadmap.

AI is on the agenda, but not working yet

Tools are deployed. People aren't using them well. Nobody's sure if it's a technology problem or a people problem — and the spend is piling up.

Ideal Engagement Profile

"We've grown fast, we have the backing, and now we need to build the operating model that earns the next stage."

VC or PE-backed company
$10M – $200M in revenue
CEO or founder in the leadership seat
Scaling team of 25 – 500
Board expectations growing faster than ops
AI tools deployed but underperforming

Our Approach

Enterprise discipline.
Growth-stage reality.

20+ years of operating experience — building enterprise rigor at Accenture and applying it inside VC and PE-backed companies navigating exactly this transition. That combination is rare, and it's what Wirth Advisory brings to every engagement.

01

Operational Scale-Up

The org that got you to $10M won't get you to $50M. When everyone knows enough of everything and informal coordination still works, the cracks are invisible — until they aren't. Identify where founder-led behaviors have become bottlenecks, build the management layer between you and the business, and create the accountability structures and operating rhythm that let your leadership team run without you in every decision.

Operating Model Management Layer Accountability Leadership Alignment

02

Growth Architecture & Activation

Most growth-stage companies have a market opportunity they're underexploiting — a segment, a vertical, a customer type — where the instinct is right but the model isn't built to win. Diagnose what's actually happening in the market, design the organizational and commercial model to compete there, and activate the motion that turns the opportunity into traction. This is the work that happens before you hire a leader or build a team around an assumption that hasn't been validated.

Market Diagnosis Segment Design Commercial Model Activation

03

Embedded Advisory

Some challenges don't resolve in a project. They require someone with real context, sustained presence, and a seat close enough to the work to see what's actually happening — and the standing to say so. Available for select engagements as Fractional COO, Board Member, or Advisory Board Member, depending on what the organization needs and what the moment requires.

Fractional COO Board Member Advisory Board Ongoing Engagement

04

AI / Applied Intelligence Adoption

Every organization made the shift from typewriters to computers. Not because it was optional — because the ones that didn't got left behind. AI is that moment, right now, for your business. The question isn't whether to adopt it. It's whether your people are actually using it in ways that remove work, raise output quality, and connect to business outcomes — or whether you've bought the tools and called it done. From how your operations run to how you enter new markets, AI belongs in the fabric of how the business works. Not bolted on. Built in.

AI Readiness Orchestration Layer P&L Impact Adoption & Culture

AI Orchestration Framework

01
Tool Foundation
Are the right tools in place? Is the investment matched to actual use cases — or deployed speculatively?
02
Process Readiness
AI layered on broken workflows makes the problems faster. Process clarity has to come first.
03
Orchestration Layer
The operating system for AI: individual ways of working, team operating models, and curated tool integration guidance that makes AI useful at the employee level — not just accessible.
04
Adoption & Culture
Diagnosing whether the root issue is change management, workforce intellectual curiosity, or a talent gap — and advising the right response.
05
P&L Connection
AI spend that can't be traced to capacity unlocked or output quality raised is waste. Every layer connects back to business outcomes.

Deliverable Format

Diagnostic Assessment + Prioritized Roadmap

A structured evaluation across all five layers — scored, sequenced, and grounded in your actual P&L — with curated tool and integration guidance specific to your team and stack.

Strategic Advisory Only

No technical implementation. The work is helping leaders make smart decisions and build the operating model that makes AI adoption stick — and connect to the P&L.

Engagement Formats

Structured to fit where you are — not a fixed model imposed on every situation.

Advisory Retainer

Ongoing strategic counsel — a thought partner in the leadership conversation without a full-time hire.

Scoped Engagement

A defined deliverable — diagnostic, roadmap, or framework — with clear scope and a clear end.

Embedded Role

Sustained presence with real context and standing — as Fractional COO, Board Member, or Advisory Board Member, depending on what the moment requires.

AI/Applied Intelligence adoption is a foundational element of every engagement — not an optional add-on.

About

Ross N. Wirth

Wirth Advisory was founded on a straightforward observation: the skills that build a $10M company are not the same skills that scale it to $100M. And most growth-stage CEOs are too close to their business — and too busy running it — to architect the transition themselves.

Ross Wirth brings more than 20 years of operating experience — first as a Managing Director at Accenture, where he led the Insurance practice and was responsible for more than $100M in transformation revenue across the partner practice; then as a Leadership Team member at CyberCube Analytics, a VC and PE-backed company, where he owned more than 75% of company revenue at NRR above 130% and grew the partnership pipeline more than 1,000% annually.

That combination of enterprise rigor and growth-stage reality is what makes the work different. Not strategy theater. Not pure operations. Both — in the right sequence, at the right pace, for where you actually are.

Start a Conversation

Background
Wirth Advisory
Founder & Principal · Chicago, IL
CyberCube Analytics
Leadership Team · VC and PE-backed
>75% company revenue · NRR >130% · Partnership pipeline >1,000% annual growth
Accenture
Managing Director · Insurance Practice
>$100M transformation revenue · Partner practice leadership
Chicago Architecture Center
Board member (through 2024) · Active Docent

Let's Talk

Is this the right moment
for your company?

If you're navigating the transition from founder-led growth to scalable operations — or trying to make AI actually work inside your business — let's spend 30 minutes finding out if there's a fit.

No pitch deck. No intake form maze. Just a direct conversation.