DarkHorse Diagnostic & Advisory
Before you spend another quarter solving the problem you think you have, let us determine what is actually happening.
Strategic business advisory for founders and leadership teams confronting consequential organizational problems. It begins with a Diagnostic, because DarkHorse should understand reality before recommending structural change.
The Diagnostic
A defined 30–45 day business diagnostic and strategic intervention. Not a trial month. Not an audit. Not discounted Advisory.
Depending on the presenting problem, the Diagnostic may include a founder and CEO deep dive, leadership interviews, an economic review, an organizational and commercial review, observation of meetings and work, and review of the relevant business evidence. We look for the combination of beliefs, behavior, incentives, and structure that keeps recreating the problem, including the parts that route back to the founder.
A final working session follows. Then the Diagnostic ends. You may execute independently, engage specialists, or move into Advisory. There is no obligation to continue, and we will tell you if we do not think you should.
The Diagnostic Brief
You receive a written DarkHorse Diagnostic Brief that answers eight questions:
- 01
What is actually happening?
- 02
What are the actual constraints?
- 03
Why are they persisting?
- 04
What should change?
- 05
What should not change?
- 06
What decisions are required?
- 07
What should happen over the next 90 days?
- 08
What does DarkHorse still not know?
Advisory
DarkHorse diagnoses, challenges, designs, and directs. The client owns and executes.
Advisory generally follows a Diagnostic and runs in initial 90-day periods, then reassessed. Scope may include economics, leadership, organization, strategy, positioning, marketing, sales, KPIs, meeting systems, executive evaluation, vendor and agency evaluation, consequential decisions, and quarterly resets.
DarkHorse is most valuable where the problem requires judgment more than labor.
The engagement
Diagnostic + Advisory
The Diagnostic
- Investment
Starting at $10,000. Typical scope $10,000–$20,000+, depending on the size of the organization and the depth of investigation required.
- Duration
30–45 days
- Output
DarkHorse Diagnostic Brief and a final working session
Advisory
- Investment
Typically $5,000–$10,000+ per month. Complex engagements may exceed this.
- Period
Approximately 90 days initially, then reassess
- Prerequisite
Generally a completed Diagnostic
Where the line is
DarkHorse may help build the mechanism. We do not become the mechanism.
We can enter the room where the work happens. We should not become the work. DarkHorse does not become your CMO, your COO, your project manager, your campaign manager, your sales manager, your recruiter, the person approving payroll, the person employees report to, or the permanent owner of a department's KPIs.
If the problem is less about the organization and more about how you, the operator, keep recreating it, the right room is 1:1. If it is one consequential decision rather than a structural investigation, see the Intensive.
The internal test we apply throughout: are we increasing this organization's capability, or compensating for its lack of capability? If an engagement drifts toward the second, we say so and change it.
Who leads the work
Built by an operator, not around a coaching certification.
Dustin Lunde has built and led businesses in the real world. He has carried payroll, customers, contractors, margins, and outcomes. He launched offices from nothing, chose people on potential and paid for overriding evidence, and lived the indispensable-operator identity long enough to see what it costs. He is still an operator.
Begin
The application asks what you believe is happening, what you have already tried, and what it costs if nothing changes for twelve months.
Dustin reads it personally and responds with a real answer, not a calendar link.
Apply for a DiagnosticNot ready to work together?
Stay close to the thinking.
The DarkHorse Journal. Observations on leadership, responsibility, identity, stewardship, and what it actually takes to operate under meaningful consequence.