Most firms hand you a plan. We hand you the working system.

We find what the way you work today is costing you, then build what fixes it. The people who find the problem build the fix, because the handoff is where most of these projects die.

The gap this fills

Consulting firms stop at the recommendation. Development shops build whatever you spec. Between them sits the owner, holding a deck from one and an estimate from the other, with nobody accountable for whether what gets built is what should have been built. We do both, and we've run the kind of company you're running.

Eric Mandel, founder

More than 30 years as a CTO and an operator.

Title and settlement

Twelve years, first as CTO and then running the operation. He moved a paper-based business to a fully digital office, with escrow accounting reconciled every day.

Factoring and commercial finance

More than eleven years, including running a specialty finance company end to end.

Earlier

He managed news automation tools and a hosted platform for more than 150 TV newsrooms, and implemented and supported the trading platform FX desks worked on all day.

Products

Four taken from business model to production: a payments platform, a grant management system now in daily use, a receivables product and a seller-funding product.

That work taught him what the work is worth: which step to remove, which to keep a person on, and what the difference returns. It's why we price the work in real money before anything gets built.

How a project is staffed

Eric is on every engagement, from the first call to the handover. For each project we bring in the specialists it needs, and you always know who is doing the work.

The name

Operating is the whole company: model, margin, cash and the work itself. Lift is what it should feel like when the weight comes off. Outgrown, not broken.

How we work

We never build to someone else's spec.

If we didn't scope it, we don't build it.

Fixed fee, never hourly.

You buy an outcome and a delivery date.

Price bands are published.

So you can decide before we talk, and the conversation is about scope.

Guarantees in writing.

Every way in has one.

Two or three builds at a time.

When we're full, you get a start date.

We'll say when it isn't what we do.

“That's real work, but it isn't what we do. We'd be guessing, and you'd be paying for it.” You'll hear that if it's true.

Not sure where to start?

Book a 30-minute callOn the call we'll tell you which way in fits your business, or that none does.