The model
We would rather earn a stake than bill an hour.
Traditional firms are paid the same whether the recommendation works or not. We are not. A SAFE means our return arrives with your next round — so we optimise for the thing that gets you there.
Cash covers overhead — travel, data, translation, filings. The balance converts at your next priced round, on your lead's terms. Length, bench size and the split move with the problem, so we do not publish rates; you get the whole number in writing before anything is signed.
Where equity-based advisory sits
It is an established idea — advisor equity, services-for-equity, deferred billings — but still rare in Canada as a firm-level offer. Here is the honest map.
Cohort-based, early-stage, and priced for a company that has not found its shape yet. We arrive later, on one decision, for a fraction of that.
One person, monthly meetings, options or restricted stock vesting over two years. Excellent — and not the same thing as a six-person team delivering a scoped piece of work.
Expert access on demand, no dilution, no ownership of the outcome either. Useful for questions; thin for decisions that need someone on a factory floor.
Real rigour, real cash, and an incentive that ends when the invoice clears. Also the largest line item on a Series A operating budget.
We are the fifth box: a scoped operating project, delivered by a bench of operators, priced mostly in equity.
Which paper we use
A convertible note (SAFE)
The balance of the engagement value, converting at your next priced round on your lead's terms. The right instrument for defined project work with a start and an end — which is precisely what the FAST template says it is not for.
The FAST agreement
If one of us stays on as an ongoing advisor once the project closes, we use the Founder Institute's FAST template at its published rates — three-month cliff, two-year vest, and the standard Series A bands rather than a number we invented. One page, no lawyers.
Two instruments, two different jobs. Your counsel sees both before you sign either.
Against the alternative
| Big-firm engagement | Belay Partners | |
|---|---|---|
| Cash out the door | Retainer plus billables, monthly | One nominal fee covering overhead |
| Our upside | Length of the engagement | Your next round |
| Who shows up | Partner sells, analysts deliver | The operators you met on the call |
| End of scope | Report, then re-scope | We hold a small non-voting stake and stay reachable |
| Dilution | None — you paid cash instead | Small, sized to the fee, non-voting, on your terms |
How an engagement runs
Typical engagements run a quarter. Longer ones get staged so you can stop between stages.
What we hold
Non-voting economic interest only — a convertible note for the engagement balance, converting at your next priced round on your lead's terms, or non-voting restricted stock (an RSA) where that suits your structure better. No board seat, no consent rights, no information rights beyond what the instrument itself requires.
What it is not
Not a placement fee, not a success fee on a raise, and not an ongoing advisory grant that keeps vesting after the work ends. One instrument, one engagement, sized to the fee we did not charge you.