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Advisory

Strategic advisor to CEOs, founders & boards.

I'm not a consultant. I spent sixteen years as a CEO, running businesses through launches, turnarounds and every kind of cycle. What I offer is a second chair: someone to think out loud with before the big calls.

Who I Work With

Who I work with.

01

Startup founders

The decisions that don't come with a playbook: growing past the first idea, building a team that outlasts you, and telling your story to customers, investors and the press.

02

SMEs and growth-stage companies

The next stage of growth: pricing, expanding into new markets, the leadership team, and deciding where new technology, including AI, genuinely helps.

03

Family-run businesses

Succession planning, professionalising the business, and scaling it up. Also the story behind the business, told clearly to investors, lenders and the market when you are raising money.

04

Media, ad tech and digital companies

Audience, revenue and the business model, from someone who has run the P&L through each shift in how these businesses make money.

05

Private equity and venture capital

A clear view of the team and the business before you invest, and a sounding board for portfolio companies after.

06

Boards and CEOs

A sounding board for the hardest conversations: succession, strategy under pressure, and the calls a CEO usually makes alone. As an independent adviser, or on a board.

07

International companies entering or growing in India

How to make the Indian market work: who to partner with, how to build the first team, how to price and sell for Indian buyers, and what to expect and when.

Why Me

What I bring.

Twenty-eight years in media, sixteen of them as CEO: P&Ls, launches, turnarounds and leadership changes, in a market of 1.4 billion people.

I ran the Indian businesses of global brands: CNN, CNBC, Forbes, History and A+E. Earlier roles at J. Walter Thompson, Discovery and Star showed me India from the multinational side too.

I give you my view and my reasons, not a framework.

Avinash Kaul
How It Works

Scoped, short and written down.

  • A first diagnostic. A short, paid conversation or review to define the problem and what would help.
  • A standing conversation. A regular call with a founder or CEO, monthly or fortnightly.
  • One decision or project. Help over a few weeks with a specific call: an India entry plan, a pricing change, a leadership hire, an investment.
  • A board or advisory seat. Independent adviser to a board or a company's advisory board.

Every engagement has a defined scope, duration and fee. I keep the client list short.

At a certain level, your job isn't to be right. It's to make it possible for the right thing to happen.

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Executive Coaching · By Invitation

Privately.

Separately from advisory, I coach a few founders and senior leaders one to one. Sometimes advice is the wrong thing. What helps is someone who has sat in that chair, staying with you while you work it out.

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