AI can explain the map. Operators know where the cliffs are.
Most advice comes from people who have never stood at the edge and made decisions.
Private advisory for founders and operators of B2B software and services companies navigating growth, sales execution, and high-stakes decisions.
No playbooks.
No sales coaching.
No optimism theater.
Revenue problems rarely come from tools or tactics.
They come from decisions being made under pressure with incomplete information.
That’s where experience matters.
I work with founders when revenue situations don’t have clean answers — when execution isn’t matching strategy, deals are uncertain, or growth has made decisions harder, not easier.
Great marketing will create interest, position your solution, educate prospects and create inbound leads. Great sales execution converts that interest into revenue. When the two get confused, execution problems get misdiagnosed — and revenue results can suffer.
You can’t read the label when you’re inside the bottle.
When you’re inside the business every day, it’s difficult to see what’s actually driving results — or where risk is building. An experienced outside perspective changes that quickly.
Where I Help…
Advisory for Critical Growth and Transition Points
I step into situations where:
Sales depends too much on the founder
Execution isn’t matching strategy
Forecasts don’t feel reliable
Deals are stalling or slipping
Something feels off but the cause isn’t obvious
Most leaders don’t need more information.
They need perspective and experienced judgment.
Why Barone Advisory…
Operator Perspective. Not Consultant Theory.
Many advisors analyze businesses from the outside.
I helped build one from the inside — with payroll risk, client risk, and personal risk on the line.
My experience comes from helping build and scale a labor-intensive B2B services company through aggressive growth, operational strain, and near-failure — before stabilizing, continuing to grow and negotiating a successful exit.
Along the way I spent decades inside vertical and enterprise B2B sales environments, negotiating complex agreements and working with executive buyers where decisions carried meaningful financial impact.
That experience shapes how I advise today.
Not frameworks.
Not buzzwords.
Judgment developed under pressure.
Patterns I See…
Growth Problems Are Often Predictable
Over time, the patterns behind stalls and execution problems become recognizable.
Companies hit ceilings for reasons like:
Founder-dependent sales that won’t scale
Weak discovery and poor pipeline quality
Early sales hiring mistakes
Misaligned roles and incentives
Margin erosion during growth
Loss of primary trusted customer relationships
Founder-to-team transition challenges
Strategic uncertainty during AI disruption
These problems are solvable with disciplined thinking and execution.
Engagement…
Work typically begins with a Mercury Test Audit — a focused working session to understand where you are, what’s driving results, and where risk may be developing. Click Here for Details
From there, advisory is structured around the decisions in front of you.
My goal is to help you make better decisions, get unstuck, and move forward — then get out.
Let’s not lose sleep over something we haven’t screwed up yet.
All conversations are confidential.
Insights…
I write Field Memos to capture what actually holds up when you’re navigating growth and high-stakes strategic revenue decisions.
These are not marketing posts. They’re a practical perspectives from the field.
The Book…
Holding It Together
This book grew out of decades spent inside real B2B selling environments — This book is about real life… Not theory or textbook frameworks.
It’s not a sales playbook.
It’s a collection of field notes on what actually holds up when theory breaks down.