Strategy for the decision in front of you.
Cureton Advisory Services works with founders, nonprofit leaders, and small-business operators on the questions that move organizations forward: investor readiness, fundraising strategy, operational scale, and how to bring AI into the way you work.
AI is changing what small organizations do internally, what gets automated, and where leadership attention belongs. That may mean identifying where AI can take work off your plate, building a better research workflow, or shaping adoption across a small team. We bring practitioner-level experience to those decisions.
Structural Health & Stakeholder Trust
This is the honest read on whether the organization will still be operational, funded, and trusted three years from now, and the work required to close the gaps. It draws on the K-Score™ / 5M’s™ structural-health methodology and direct work with boards, EDs, and stakeholder coalitions under scrutiny.
This work fits nonprofits navigating board–ED tension, foundations and DAFs running diligence on grantee portfolios, small businesses approaching lender or SBA scrutiny, and growth-stage organizations preparing for institutional partnerships, mergers, or leadership transitions.
Typical engagements
- Structural-health diagnostic (5M’s framework) for boards, funders, or leadership teams
- Board & ED alignment during transitions or post-crisis
- Stakeholder recovery and narrative reset following public scrutiny or governance fracture
- Pre-grant or pre-investment diligence support for funders and lenders
- Governance redesign that holds under real stakeholder pressure
This service draws on the K-Score / 5M’s framework in development with Kinetiq.
Organizational Turnaround & Realignment
Fixing what's misaligned so execution can actually happen. This work draws from hands-on experience stabilizing operations inside growing, stretched, or transitioning organizations. We step in when roles are unclear, decisions stall, or teams are misaligned, and help leaders restore clarity, accountability, and follow-through.
Typical engagements
- Post-growth stabilization after a funding milestone or rapid scale
- Operating model redesign to remove decision friction
- Executive team realignment following leadership change
- Governance & accountability frameworks that actually hold
Operating Model & Systems Design
Building the operating model and systems that support growth without adding unnecessary complexity. Governance structures, operating rhythms, and day-to-day execution that hold up under real-world pressure.
Typical engagements
- Executive operating rhythms (weekly, monthly, quarterly cadence)
- Decision rights & escalation frameworks
- Functional leadership alignment
- Systems to translate strategy into operating priorities
Strategic Direction & Growth Alignment
Supporting founders and leadership teams navigating growth inflection points, from early-stage build to scale, funding readiness, or increased public and stakeholder scrutiny. Focus is on translating vision into systems, pressure-testing strategy, and preparing organizations for what comes next.
Typical engagements
- Growth strategy alignment across leadership & board
- Pre-raise strategic clarity & business model coherence
- Market positioning & competitive framing
- Transition planning between funding stages
Executive & Founder Advisory
Steady advisory for founders, CEOs, and small-business operators navigating growth inflection points, funding readiness, and the decisions that come before the next stage of scale.
This is the work for leaders who don’t yet need a board-level structural review. They need a senior thinking partner to pressure-test the next move, narrate the decision to investors or partners, and stay close as it unfolds.
Typical engagements
- Strategic advisory retainer: steady judgment over time
- Pre-decision pressure testing for critical moments
- Narrative & positioning for investor or board audiences
- Executive sounding board & external perspective
Cohort & Event Partnership
Accelerators, university entrepreneurship programs, angel networks, and foundation pitch competitions depend on founders walking into high-stakes rooms prepared. That readiness does not happen by accident. Shan provides senior-level pitch and investor-readiness support across the cohort: narrative work, deck pressure-testing, live dry runs, Q&A preparation, and day-of support.
Current engagements include SDSU ZIP Launchpad’s Social Venture Challenge and the San Diego Angel Conference founder cohort.
Typical engagements
- Full cohort pitch preparation across 3–12 teams, from narrative to delivery
- Investor-readiness diagnostics grounded in the Investor Readiness Playbook™ framework
- Live dry runs with direct feedback on narrative, financials, and executive presence
- Day-of event support, including judge Q&A prep and real-time coaching
- Post-event debriefs and readiness mapping for each founder’s next stage
This service is built for program directors, cohort managers, and event leads at accelerators, university entrepreneurship programs, angel investor networks, foundation pitch competitions, SBDCs, and startup conferences. It is not designed for individual founders. The Pre-Pitch Intensive (see Pricing) exists for that. Engagements start at $5,000, scoped to cohort size and event scale.