Founder-led access. Three slots open.
Capital Refinery is early. We work with a small cohort of advisors, fractional CFOs, bankers, independent sponsors, founder-prep specialists, and middle-market operators to validate the Institutional Readiness methodology on real engagements. No sandbox demos. No synthetic pipeline claims. If we run the assessment, we do it on actual materials and walk through the findings directly.
What a design partner gets
- A real IRA on a real engagement
Bring one operating company, portfolio position, or founder-led business preparing for sale or financing. We run the full 10-axis grade on the actual materials — not a sandbox, not a slide deck. Output is the same artifact a paid IRA produces: composite verdict, named blockers, partner brief, and verification token.
- Founder-led walkthrough
60–90 minute working session reviewing the artifact with you. The thesis, the conditions, what would survive institutional review and what wouldn't. Direct engagement with the founder, not a CSM.
- Reduced early-partner pricing
Discounted from the standard $4,500 IRA Gap Review or full IRA pricing. Exact rate set per engagement based on scope and feedback commitment. The reduction reflects the value of methodology validation, not a discount on the artifact quality.
- Methodology influence
Cohort feedback directly shapes the engine: which axes need refinement, which sub-lane thresholds are wrong, which refusals need tightening. Your engagement experience is captured as a structured input into the next round of doctrine work.
What a design partner gives back
The exchange is simple. In return for early access at reduced pricing, we ask three things:
- Honest feedback. Not endorsement. Critique of where the methodology breaks down, where the language is wrong for your audience, where the refusals are too strict or not strict enough, where the artifact misses something a real reviewer would catch.
- A real engagement. One actual deal, portfolio position, or business preparing for an institutional review. Synthetic cases don’t stress the engine. Real ones do.
- Permission to anonymize. If the engagement goes well, permission to write up the results in an anonymized case study (firm size, sector, outcome — never names, never identifying details). Optional on-the-record quote if the result earns it.
That’s the full ask. No equity, no exclusivity, no long-term commitment. The relationship ends when the engagement ends, unless both sides want to continue.
Who fits
The design-partner cohort is intentionally cross-role. The methodology is used in different shapes by different people, and the early validation needs to span them. Strong fits:
- Fractional CFOs
preparing a portfolio company for sale, financing, or board review
- Boutique bankers
working sell-side mandates on lower-middle-market businesses
- Independent sponsors
underwriting real opportunities without a fund infrastructure
- Modernization consultants
needing an independent measurement layer attached to AI / automation engagements
- Family-business advisors
walking owners through what would survive a sophisticated buyer's review
- Founder-prep specialists
prepping a founder-led business for the next round, sale, or recap
- Operating partners
at a small PE shop running diligence on a portfolio company
- Middle-market operators
planning a sale or financing in the next 6–18 months
Separate from the paid wedge offers
The design-partner program is one path. The paid offers are the other. They coexist cleanly:
- Design partner cohort (this page). Three slots. Reduced pricing. Methodology feedback expected. We select.
- Readiness Gap Review ($4,500). Open. Self-serve. Five business days. Top-five blockers a sophisticated reviewer would surface first.
- Modernization Impact Review ($3,500 + $2,500). Open. Self-serve. Independent measurement layer attached to a partner’s engagement.
If the cohort is full and the timeline is now, the paid surfaces are the right path. Nothing about the artifact differs — only the relationship terms and the price.
Apply to the design-partner cohort.
Every application lands directly in the founder’s inbox. We read every one and respond personally within one business day. There is no sales loop, no qualifier call, no automated nurture sequence. Either we’re a fit for the engagement you’re describing or we’re honest that we’re not.
If you’d rather talk first, the founder Calendly is on the contact page.
Audit the methodology before you apply.
The doctrine is consolidated on one page. Read it, find what you'd refuse to accept, then apply with that critique.
Built by Duaine McDonald, an AI strategist and fractional Chief AI Officer with 20+ years across enterprise automation, transformation, governance, and AI strategy. The consulting practice runs separately as Enterprise Refinery; Capital Refinery is the software layer that came out of those conversations — the institutional measurement artifact operating companies, advisors, and investment teams kept asking for and could not find anywhere else. Early engagements are reviewed directly by the founder.
Capital Refinery is early. We do not show customer logos we have not earned.
Instead, we show the methodology, two fixture-based proof cases (one per audience), the verification flow, and the live artifacts a buyer, lender, board reviewer, or advisor would inspect. Most early-stage products would invent a logo wall. We refuse on purpose — the same discipline that makes the artifact credible.