Your Competitors Are Moving Faster. The Gap Is Probably Not What You Think.
We partner with ambitious organizations to find better answers faster — and build the capability to keep finding them.
Most organizations don’t have an innovation problem. They have a validation problem. Big bets get made on incomplete information. New initiatives get resourced before they’re tested. Technology gets adopted because a competitor did it, not because it solves a specific problem. And by the time the answer is clear, the cost of being wrong is already baked in.
We work differently. We come in as your idea partner — not to run workshops or deliver frameworks, but to think alongside your leadership, diagnose problems with precision, design solutions worth testing, and move fast enough that learning is cheap.
We’re not afraid to say the answer is wrong. We’re not afraid of the hot seat. And we don’t leave until something is working.
What Makes This Different
The innovation consulting space is full of facilitators who run offsites, strategists who write reports, and technology vendors who sell solutions before they understand the problem. We’re none of those things.
We bring three things most organizations don’t have internally
An outside perspective that has seen the pattern before.
Having worked across D2C, healthcare, manufacturing, financial services, and PE-backed companies, we recognize problems faster than teams who are too close to them. We’ve seen what the next chapter looks like from the outside — which is the only place you can see it clearly.
The ability to think and do simultaneously.
Strategy without execution is a deck. Execution without strategy is expensive trial and error. We do both — which means ideas get tested, not just presented. We stay in it until something is working, not until the engagement ends.
Speed that internal teams can’t match.
Internal innovation moves at the speed of consensus. We move at the speed of decisions. When the market is shifting or a competitor is gaining ground, that difference is the whole game. We validate before you commit — so you find the answer before you scale the question.
The Problem You’re Navigating
The issue isn’t capability. It’s that innovation requires a different kind of thinking than operations — and most organizations aren’t structured to do both at the same time.
Three Capabilities. One Innovation Practice.
Rapid Problem Diagnosis & Solution Design
Most organizations are solving the wrong problem — not because they’re not smart, but because they’re too close to it. The presenting issue is rarely the actual issue. We come in fast, ask the questions that don’t get asked internally, and get to the real problem quickly. Then we build solutions worth testing, not solutions worth presenting.
Who feels this pain:
Operators three to six months into a new role who’ve inherited a business with problems they didn’t create. CEOs who keep getting different answers from different people about what’s actually wrong.
The outcome:
Clarity on the real problem, a solution worth testing, and a decision framework that makes the path forward defensible to any stakeholder.
Typical engagement: 2–6 weeks
New Market & Product Experimentation
Growth through acquisition gets companies to a certain size. Growth beyond that requires finding the next revenue vector — a new market, a new product, a new channel, a new customer segment. Most organizations know they need to find it. Few have a disciplined way to test before they commit. We build the experimentation infrastructure that lets you validate before you scale — reducing the cost of being wrong and accelerating the path to being right.
Who feels this pain:
CEOs with a growth mandate and a board that wants the next revenue stream. PE operating partners who need portfolio companies to demonstrate organic growth before exit.
The outcome:
Validated growth opportunities, a repeatable experimentation methodology, and a much shorter path from idea to revenue.
Typical engagement: 6–12 weeks per experiment cycle
Technology & AI Adoption
Every organization is being told AI will change their business. Most don’t know where to start — or they’ve started in the wrong place, adopting technology because a vendor sold them on it rather than because it solves a specific problem. We start with the problem and work backward to the technology, not the other way around. We help organizations cut through the noise, identify where technology actually changes outcomes for their specific business, and build the adoption infrastructure that makes the investment stick.
Who feels this pain:
Leadership teams watching competitors move faster and unsure if technology is the gap. Operators who’ve been handed a technology roadmap and aren’t sure it’s the right one.
The outcome:
Technology investments that connect to business outcomes, an AI adoption roadmap grounded in your actual problems, and a team that uses the tools rather than tolerating them.
Typical engagement: 4–8 weeks for assessment and pilot design, ongoing for adoption support
strategic innovation
Who This Is For
CEOs & Founders
You see the market shifting and you’re not sure your current model captures the opportunity. You need a thinking partner who can challenge your assumptions, pressure-test your ideas, and help you move from question to answer faster than you can alone.
Operators & Division Leaders
You’ve been hired to run something and you’re realizing the playbook you inherited doesn’t fit the current situation. You need someone who can help you diagnose fast, design the right approach, and execute alongside you — not hand you a framework and leave.
PE Operating Partners
You need portfolio companies to find organic growth vectors, adopt technology intelligently, and demonstrate innovation capability before exit. Speed and accountability matter more than methodology.
We have a dedicated practice for PE-backed organizations.
Innovation & Strategy Teams
You have the mandate but not always the outside perspective or the execution bandwidth. We augment your team’s thinking and help move ideas from concept to tested reality — without the overhead of a large consulting engagement.
FAQS
Common Questions About Leadership + Innovation Services
How is this different from hiring a strategy consultant or innovation firm?
Strategy consultants give you a brilliant deck and a handshake. Innovation firms give you workshops with sticky notes and a vision board. We give you neither. What we actually deliver is a diagnosis of what’s broken or missing, a clear plan for what to do about it, and then we stay in the room while it gets built.
We’re not here to impress you with frameworks — we’re here to move your business. The difference isn’t methodology, it’s accountability. We don’t get paid to be right. We get paid to help you get results. If that sounds blunt, good. You’ve probably already paid for advice that didn’t go anywhere.
We already have smart people internally — why do we need an outside partner?
You probably do have smart people. That’s not the problem. The problem is that smart people who are also running your business have almost no capacity to challenge the assumptions baked into how the business runs. You’re too close to it. Blind spots aren’t a sign of weakness — they’re physics.
An outside perspective sees things your team can’t, not because we’re smarter, but because we haven’t been living inside your constraints for three years. We also bring pattern recognition from working across industries and problems your team hasn’t faced before. The best engagements aren’t us replacing your team — they’re us making your team significantly more effective.
How do you approach AI adoption without just selling us technology?
We don’t sell technology. Full stop. We’re not a software reseller, we don’t have a platform we’re trying to push, and we don’t get paid when you buy a tool. That matters because it means our only incentive is to give you honest advice about where AI actually creates value in your business and where it doesn’t. We start with your workflows, your bottlenecks, and your people — not with a product. If AI genuinely accelerates what you’re trying to do, we’ll show you exactly how and help you implement it. If it doesn’t, we’ll tell you that too. The hype around AI is deafening right now. We cut through it.
What does the first engagement typically look like and how fast do you move?
Week one, we’re in discovery mode — stakeholder conversations, current state assessment, understanding what’s actually going on beneath the surface. By week two, we have a clear picture of priorities and we’re aligning on the roadmap. Week three, we’re building. Week four, you’re already seeing movement. We move fast because we’ve done this enough to know what matters quickly. We also move fast because slow strategy work is expensive and demoralizing. You won’t spend your first month in kickoff calls. If you want a partner who brings urgency to the work the same way you do to your business, that’s us.
Can you work alongside our existing strategy or technology teams?
Not only can we — that’s usually the best setup. We’re not here to replace your team or make them look bad. We’re here to bring capacity, outside perspective, and execution support that makes them more effective. We’ve embedded alongside internal strategy teams, IT departments, operations leads, and executive teams at all stages of growth.
We adapt to how your team works, not the other way around. The one thing we’ll be clear about upfront is decision-making authority and accountability — not because we’re difficult, but because ambiguity kills momentum and we refuse to let that happen.
What happens if the diagnosis reveals a problem bigger than the original scope?
We tell you. Immediately and directly. We’re not going to quietly expand the engagement to bill more hours, and we’re not going to look the other way because it’s uncomfortable. If we come in to help with go-to-market strategy and discover the real issue is a product positioning problem, or a leadership alignment issue, or a fundamental operational constraint — you’re going to hear it.
What you do with that information is your call. We’ll give you our honest read on what needs to happen, the order it needs to happen in, and what we can help with. Some of the most valuable things we’ve ever done for a client were conversations that changed the direction of the whole engagement.
How does Strategic Innovation connect to the other work Big Climb does?
Everything we do connects, by design. Strategic Innovation is often the entry point — it’s where we figure out what’s actually limiting your growth and what needs to change. From there, the path forward might run through Business Growth & Scaling, Digital Marketing & Transformation, Leadership Development, or all three. We don’t silo our work because your business doesn’t work in silos.
A company that needs to innovate its go-to-market approach also probably needs sales process work. A leadership team navigating a transformation also needs a clear strategy to execute against. We see the whole picture, and we help you build the whole thing — not just one piece of it.
How do you measure success on something as ambiguous as innovation?
By refusing to let it stay ambiguous. Before we start any engagement, we define what success actually looks like in concrete terms — new revenue from a new offering, time-to-market on a specific initiative, adoption rate of a new process, cost reduction from an operational change, or pipeline impact from a repositioning. “We’re more innovative now” is not a KPI.
We’re not interested in innovation theater. We’re interested in what changed, what it produced, and whether it was worth the investment. If we can’t define what winning looks like at the start, that’s the first problem we solve together — because work without a clear definition of success is just activity, and we don’t do activity.
Ready to Find the Answer Before You Scale the Question?
If you’re navigating a problem that keeps resisting the obvious solutions, or you’re trying to move faster than your current structure allows, let’s start with a conversation. We’ll tell you honestly what we see and whether we’re the right fit.