Revenue Diagnostic
A 2-week assessment to find missed revenue opportunities and the next best growth levers.
- Revenue and channel audit
- Priority map and executive readout
Best fit Leaders who know revenue is leaking but cannot name where.
Unlock revenue growth through smarter partnerships and better execution.
For companies whose growth outran their revenue engine. Most stalled growth is not a lead problem or a closing problem. It is a structure problem, and structure is what I fix.
Revenue growth is a systems problem. More headcount just makes the system more expensive.
Growth Design Sprint
A 4–6 week sprint to design the right revenue motion and a plan the team can execute.
- Targeting and commercial model
- 90-day execution roadmap
Best fit Leaders with a target who need the motion designed before spending on it.
Retained Partnership Leadership
I build the channel and run it with you, month over month: sourcing partners, structuring the deals, and getting them producing revenue. Most companies I work with have nobody who owns this yet.
- Partners sourced, signed, and producing revenue
- Your team trained to run it as we go
Best fit Leaders with no one who owns partnerships today.
Partnered, advised, and built alongside
Companies and ecosystems represented in prior work
Not sure which fits?
Compare the engagements.
Most companies start with the Revenue Diagnostic.
| Shape | Best fit | You end up with | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start here Revenue Diagnostic | 2-week fixed engagement | Leaders who suspect revenue is leaking but cannot name where it is happening | An opportunity map and executive readout: the problem named and prioritized |
| Then Growth Design Sprint | 4 to 6 week fixed engagement | Leaders who know the target and need the motion designed before spending on it | A commercial model, targeting, and a 90-day roadmap the team can execute |
| Retained Retained Partnership Leadership | Monthly retainer, 6-month minimum | Leaders with no one who owns partnerships, who need it built and run | Partners signed and producing revenue, and a team trained to run it |
Each engagement stands on its own. Most companies work through them in order, but you can start anywhere and stop anywhere. The free 30-minute discovery call comes first either way, and it is where we figure out which one is the right fit and what it costs.
Authored by Ankur Desai
Why companies bring me in.
I built $40M in partnership ARR at TaxAct and helped enable 54+ countries during Twilio hypergrowth. I combine business development, GTM strategy, corporate finance, and cross-functional execution to fix revenue problems that cut across strategy, economics, product, legal, and delivery.
The engine behind that work is PROS, my Partnership Revenue Operating System: a structured way to package what I do so it runs without me in the room.
$40M
ARR from partnerships at TaxAct
54+
Countries enabled for Uber, Airbnb, and others at Twilio
~73%
Lower CAC from partner-driven revenue
+34 pts
Retention lift from partnership-driven acquisition
Start here
Book a free 30-minute discovery call.
No pitch. We talk through where revenue is being missed, what is likely causing it, and whether there is a reason to go further.
Inside the engine
The system behind every engagement.
A structured engine powers the work, and the value stays with you:
- You keep the diagnostics and the execution plan
- You choose who executes it, me or someone else
- No lock-in, no dependency on any single person
Partner Intelligence Engine
Find the revenue opportunities that deserve attention before the team wastes time on weak targets.
Explore module →Partnership Pitch Framework
Build the business case from the other side's incentives instead of leading with your product story.
Explore module →Deal Architecture
Design the commercial structure, economics, and ownership logic before the contract starts lying for you.
Explore module →GTM Integration Playbook
Turn signed agreements into live channels with activation logic that survives product, legal, and GTM friction.
Explore module →Partnership CAC/LTV Model
Pressure-test the economic case so the channel can survive finance review, not just CEO enthusiasm.
Explore module →Ecosystem Mapping
Map where leverage sits in the market and where non-obvious revenue opportunities can compound faster.
Explore module →Executive Narrative
Build the internal story that keeps the revenue motion funded, protected, and understood by leadership.
Explore module →AI Acceleration
Use AI where it sharpens signal, speed, and decision quality instead of turning the work into shiny nonsense.
Explore module →
Results
Proof that the work holds up outside a website.
Real operating outcomes from prior engagements, documented with scope, impact, and what changed inside the business.
TaxAct: built a $40M partnership revenue engine
Scaled partnership revenue from $300K to $40M ARR, built a 15-person cross-functional tiger team, and turned partnerships into the second-largest revenue stream.
Review case study →Payment Partner Upgrade: increased ARPU and retention
Led a payment infrastructure overhaul that reduced fees by 18 percent, improved checkout conversion by 12 percent, and unlocked more than $4M in incremental revenue.
Review case study →
Partnership & Growth Insights
Business Development Insights That Hold Up in the Real World.
Practical thinking for CEOs, founders, and revenue leaders on stalled growth, partnership economics, and the execution realities that make or break the BD function.
Don't Hire a $300K VP of Sales Before You Validate Distribution
The most expensive mistake post-Series A founders make: hiring a senior sales leader to run a machine that does not exist yet. Fix the channel engine first, then hire the army.
Read on LinkedIn →Build the Demand Engine Before You Hire the Sales Team
Hiring an expensive sales leader before you have a repeatable way to generate demand is one of the fastest ways to burn a round. Build the system, then hire the people to run it.
Read on LinkedIn →The Only Business Case That Holds Up With a CFO in the Room
Skip the vendor fiction about 85% cost savings. A real business case is partner CAC 34% lower than paid media and LTV up 44%: numbers you can run through a model and defend to the board.
Read on LinkedIn →
FAQ
Questions a smart buyer should ask.
Is this consulting, implementation, or a product?
It is a structured service business powered by a proprietary system. Buyers engage for outcomes, support, and implementation. They do not buy a transferable product license.
Do clients get access to PROS itself?
Clients receive the outputs, recommendations, plans, and live support generated through PROS. They do not receive the underlying trade secret, prompt architecture, or internal decision logic as a transferable asset.
We already have a VP of Sales. Where does this fit?
Usually right alongside them. A VP of Sales owns a quota and a team. Partner-sourced revenue is a different motion with different economics, a longer ramp, and dependencies across product, legal, and finance that no sales leader has time to run on top of the number. I build that motion so it hands off cleanly to the team that already exists. If your VP of Sales is the person who should own it long term, then the work is to get it stood up and transferred to them, and I will say so.
What if the answer is that partnerships are the wrong channel for us?
Then I tell you that, on the discovery call if it is already clear or at the end of the Revenue Diagnostic if it takes real work to establish. It happens. Some companies have a pricing problem, a retention problem, or a positioning problem wearing a partnerships costume, and bolting a channel onto it makes the underlying issue more expensive. I take no referral fees and I do not sell software, so there is nothing pushing the recommendation toward a bigger engagement. A short, clear no is a better outcome for both of us than a project that cannot work.
When should someone book the free discovery call?
When revenue growth feels slower than it should, when channels are not compounding, when deals stall after initial excitement, or when internal teams disagree on where growth should come from next. The call is free and there is no obligation attached to it. It is 30 minutes to establish what the problem is and whether I am the right person for it.
Can you work alongside internal teams and existing leaders?
Yes. That is often the right setup. The work is designed to complement existing product, finance, GTM, and leadership teams rather than pretend one advisor can replace all of them.
Book a call
Start with a free 30-minute discovery call.
No pitch. A direct conversation about the revenue growth problem in front of you, what is likely causing it, and which engagement makes sense if there is a fit. Paid work starts only after this call, once we both know what we are solving.
- Best for CEOs, founders, Heads of BD, and senior operators.
- Response within one business day.
- If there is no fit, I will tell you quickly.