# =============================================================================
# Consulting - Overview
# =============================================================================
# Core Purpose:
#   Entry point for Cedric Ancellin's consulting offering: what he helps with,
#   who it fits, how engagements are structured, his approach, and the standard
#   pricing and terms. Forward-looking availability, grounded in the demonstrated
#   competency record (not a claim of specific past client outcomes).
#
# Governed by ../LAWS.
# =============================================================================


summary: >
  Cedric Ancellin takes selective advisory and hands-on consulting at founder,
  CTO, and CEO level. What he helps with depends on who you are; the four client
  types below are the most common fits. This is the thin overview, with the
  detailed services, engagement models, pricing, and terms in the linked pages.

commitments:
  title: "Working across competing parties"
  intro: "Cedric works with competing parties, and a strict wall between clients is exactly what makes that safe. Without the express approval of a client he has been engaged by, he will not:"
  items:
    - "research, assess, or discuss that client"
    - "review or evaluate that client's technology"
    - "review or evaluate that client's business, commercial, or staffing"
    - "use that client's confidential information or insights to benefit another client or himself"
    - "solicit that client's staff or customers"
  also:
    - "He discloses any material conflict before accepting an engagement, and declines any he cannot take on cleanly."
    - "These commitments continue after the engagement ends."

client_types_title: "Who Cedric helps"
client_types:
  - name: "Series B Tech"
    fit: >
      The ideal profile is a Series B tech company, though the same help extends
      to other stages. The goal is to expand the tech team, dev and product, fast
      and efficiently while spreading knowledge so it is not siloed; adapt the
      SDLC, project management, and ticketing (including capex and opex tracking);
      harden infrastructure and security; and decide what to keep, refactor, or
      rebuild, with the AI, roadmap, and architecture set alongside.
    services:
      - "Expanding dev and product teams fast and efficiently"
      - "Spreading knowledge across a growing team"
      - "SDLC, project management, and ticketing (with capex and opex)"
      - "Infrastructure and security hardening"
      - "What to keep, refactor, or rebuild"
      - "AI, roadmap, architecture, and technical due diligence"

  - name: "Tech Merger and Acquisition"
    fit: >
      Companies buying, selling, or merging, both pre-deal and post-deal, where
      the technical, data, and team integration decides whether the deal delivers.
      Cedric captures the target's codebase and architecture into a queryable
      Oracle, so due diligence sees the real system, its risks, and its blast
      radius rather than just a data room, and he sequences the integration so
      standards hold.
    services:
      - "Pre-deal technical due diligence"
      - "Codebase and architecture captured into a queryable Oracle"
      - "Code review, impact, and blast-radius analysis"
      - "Post-merger systems and data integration"
      - "Team and organization integration"
      - "Tech-stack consolidation"

  - name: "Hospitality Tech"
    fit: >
      For companies whose product is hospitality technology, or who are evaluating
      one, the question is whether it fits the market, the domain's real
      requirements, and the competition. Cedric has worked with almost all of the
      hospitality groups in
      Las Vegas and most of the largest hospitality groups outside it, so he knows
      operators' real pain points and roadmaps, and assesses a product's fit,
      competitiveness, and hardening for hospitality against that.
    services:
      - "Technical architecture and roadmap"
      - "Engineering organization, staffing, and infrastructure"
      - "AI and agentic commerce"
      - "Solution and feature fit for hospitality requirements"
      - "Enterprise hardening for hospitality (security, compliance, reliability)"
      - "Technical due diligence and assessment"

  - name: "Hospitality Group"
    fit: >
      For operators, casinos, resorts, and nightlife or entertainment groups
      choosing and adopting technology. His relationships here run deep, spanning
      nearly every hospitality group in Las Vegas and most of the largest ones
      beyond it. Cedric can advise on assessing vendors, scouting and planning
      tech, designing solutions and integrations, bringing AI in, and building a
      technology roadmap that aligns with where the hospitality space is heading.
    services:
      - "Vendor and tech assessment"
      - "Tech scouting and feasibility planning"
      - "Technology roadmap aligned with the hospitality space"
      - "Vendor onboarding"
      - "Solution design and third-party integrations"
      - "AI inclusion"

how_to_engage: >
  Start with a short scoping conversation to define the question and the areas in
  scope. From there, a fixed-scope engagement (a set number of working days) or an
  ongoing advisory arrangement. The work is captured in a structured, queryable
  Oracle, so you keep a durable, navigable asset rather than a one-off slide deck.


details:
  services:          { $ref: "https://zc8.com/consulting/services" }
  engagement_models: { $ref: "https://zc8.com/consulting/engagement_models" }
  approach:          { $ref: "https://zc8.com/consulting/approach" }
  pricing:           { $ref: "https://zc8.com/consulting/pricing" }
  terms:             { $ref: "https://zc8.com/consulting/terms" }


implicit:
  - "Consulting offerings are forward-looking availability, grounded in the competency record, not claims of specific past client outcomes."
  - "Pricing and terms here are the standard basis; a specific engagement is agreed and documented individually."