For founders & operators with many moving parts

A clear read on the call you keep circling.

The decisions that matter now run across everything, product, marketing, AI, sales, the lot. Bring me the tangle and I'll cut it down to what matters and the few moves worth making, in one focused hour.

Anna Downey

Twenty years behind the read

I've been featured in
Brands I've worked with Google · HBS · World Bank · Financial Times · L'Oréal · Gap · Dr. Martens · Barclays Eagle Labs Incubator · ORS · Kofax

Sound familiar?

It usually sounds like one of these.

  • No experienced peer in-house to test it with. You've got the experience. What's missing is a cross-domain peer inside to sound the big calls off before you commit.
  • The real question keeps moving. You came in with a marketing question. Underneath, it's a business one, or a product one. The hard part is knowing which to back.
  • Plenty of good input, no obvious call. Everyone has a view. None of it quite adds up to a decision you'd bet on.
  • More priorities than any week holds. You know most of it already. You just want a clear read on which few actually move the needle now.

There's more on the table than any one person can weigh at once.

How it works

There's no framework to learn and nothing to sit through, just twenty years of cutting through complex, cross-domain problems, brought to yours for an hour. What you notice is how fast the noise drops and the real decision comes into view.

You leave with a decision you can act on, not a deck, not a retainer.

Cross-domain

Connect what's useful.

Seeing the problem clearly is only half of it. The other half is knowing what connects, the right dots, people, tools and routes, and ignoring the rest. Sometimes I can point you to the person. I can always tell you who you need.

  • 01 Message & market

    Marketing is often a business problem in disguise, and rarely fixed by doing more. The skill is knowing the few tools that actually fit, and which to leave well alone.

  • 02 Tools & systems

    The right tool can save you weeks. The wrong one quietly eats them. AI especially: leverage when it serves the decision, a distraction when it becomes the strategy.

  • 03 People & routes

    Often the missing piece isn't an answer, it's a person or a skill: one you haven't met, one already on your team who could be doing something different, or simply the right next conversation. Part of the work is seeing those connections.

Founding conversations

One hour. One experienced read.

Bring the call that's been sitting, the one with many moving parts and no obvious answer. In one focused hour you get a sharp, cross-domain read: what matters, what to drop, where to double down. Not sure where something like AI even fits? That's exactly the kind of call this is for.

The Clarity Hour

Sixty minutes, one-to-one. You bring what's on your plate. I cut the noise and leave you with the few commercial moves worth making, captured in a short written Clarity Note afterwards. No deck, no retainer.

60 minutes · one focused read · a written Clarity Note

£150 founding rate

A limited run of founding conversations while I shape what comes next, this rate rises after.

Book your hour

Who it's for

Founders, operators and marketing leaders whose decisions now run across everything, product, sales, AI, tools, launch. You're the expert in your own thing. I'm the cross-domain peer you don't have in-house, so you leave knowing what to back. Not a coach, not a consultant.

And who it isn't.

  • You want it taken off your plate and built. I help you find the move. Running it stays yours.
  • You want a yes. You'll get an honest read, even when it's not the one you hoped for.
  • You want someone to go deep in one lane. My value is the opposite, seeing across all of them.

Why me

Twenty years, around a thousand founders and teams, across communication, marketing, behaviour, product and organisational dynamics. That's the overlap where the real friction usually lives, and it's what lets me cut the noise fast and see the pattern most people miss.

What people say

Working in AI I'm never short of ideas. The hard part is choosing. Anna helped me cut through the noise in one session and helped me focus my product and sharpen my offer so it lands with the right clients. I think far more clearly about my own business now.
There's no shortage of marketing advice. The hard part is knowing which of it is actually for you. In one session, Anna helped us cut through the generic 'best practice' and get clear on our real marketing priorities: what our industry and our clients actually respond to, not what everyone says you're supposed to do. We left knowing exactly where to focus.
Process

What to expect

  1. Book & payGrab a slot and pay at booking, no application, no wait.
  2. IntakeA few quick questions so I arrive already prepped.
  3. SessionSixty focused minutes, one-to-one.
  4. Clarity NoteA clear, written read on what's next.

Bring what's on your plate. Leave knowing what to back.

Book an hour