What you pay us
The engagement fee is paid to Managers & Directors for running the search and presenting a shortlist of three vetted Sydney-based mentors. The fee covers the pre-engagement calls, the written brief, the search, the vetting, and the shortlist presentation. It does not cover any business outcome you achieve with the mentor afterwards. That work belongs to you and the mentor.
There are two engagement fee tiers.
Standard Match. $4,500 plus GST. This is the published starting price for engagements where the brief calls for a category of mentor with multiple suitable people in the existing Sydney pool, or where fresh sourcing is straightforward. Most engagements run as Standard Match. The fee is fixed at $4,500 unless the brief changes materially during the engagement.
Specialist Match. Scoped at the first call. Used when the brief is for a specific industry, a niche skill set, a board-grade mentor, or a problem where there are only a small number of suitable people in Sydney. Specialist Match takes longer to search and requires more of John's time, and the fee reflects that. The number is set in the engagement letter after the brief is taken on the first call, not after we've started searching.
Whichever tier applies, the final fee is set in writing in the engagement letter before the search begins. The number doesn't move during the engagement. If the brief shifts materially mid-search and the search effectively becomes a different one, we'll talk about whether that's a clarification or a fresh engagement before any new fee is discussed.
What you pay the mentor
Session fees are agreed directly between you and the mentor. We don't set them, and they don't pass through us. The mentor invoices you for sessions and you pay the mentor.
Mentors in the pool charge differently. Some price per session, some per hour, some on a monthly arrangement. We don't publish a range on this page because the variation is real and quoting a range that doesn't apply to your specific mentor would mislead more than it would help. What you can do is set your own ceiling. If you tell us during the brief that your fee expectation is, say, $500 per hour and not above, that constraint goes into the brief and into the market. We won't shortlist a mentor whose rate is materially above what you've told us you're prepared to pay.
We talk through what to expect on the first call, before you commit to anything. You'll know roughly what session fees look like for the kind of mentor your brief calls for, and you can set the fee constraint then or in the written brief. The shortlist pack carries an indicative session fee range for each of the three mentors presented. The final figure is what you and the chosen mentor agree, in writing, when the mentor sends you their own engagement letter.
Payment timing
The engagement fee is paid in two halves.
50% on signing the engagement letter. This is what triggers the search. We don't begin sourcing until both the signed letter and the deposit have arrived. Either alone is not enough.
50% on shortlist presentation. Invoiced at the time the shortlist pack is delivered to you. Net 7.
The reason the second half is invoiced at shortlist rather than at placement: by the time the pack is in your inbox, the work the fee pays for is done. Search complete, three vetted mentors briefed, interviews being arranged. Whether you proceed to engage one of those mentors is a separate decision, and that decision sits with you. The engagement fee is for the work delivered up to that point.
Payment is by bank transfer by default. We can take card payment via Stripe if speed matters, John's call per engagement.
What happens in the unusual case where the deposit doesn't arrive after signing, or where the second 50% is unpaid, sits in the engagement letter. In practice, if the deposit doesn't arrive within 14 days of signing, we treat the engagement as not started and the search doesn't begin. We don't pursue a non-starter as a debtor.
The built-in shortlist fallback
The standard shortlist is three vetted mentors. For a genuinely specialist brief, the shortlist may be two. If the engaged mentor isn't a practical fit within the first three sessions of the engagement, you can move to another mentor from the same shortlist at no further engagement fee. The fallback is written into the engagement letter, not held as goodwill.
What this means for the money: the engagement fee you've paid covers the search and the shortlist, and that work doesn't need to be repeated to give you a different mentor from the same three. We approach the new mentor, make the introduction, and step out again. There's no second engagement fee triggered by the swap.
What sits outside the fallback: a fresh search beyond the original shortlist. If you and John conclude that none of the three mentors on the shortlist is the right fit, that's a different situation and the engagement letter sets out how the fee is handled. The operational detail sits on the How it works page.
The optional retainer
After a successful placement, an optional ongoing arrangement may be offered to clients who want priority access for future searches. It's discussed at the time, not pitched up front. If it suits how you're using the service, John will raise it. If not, he won't.
The engagement fee you pay for a Standard or Specialist Match is a one-off fee for that search. There is no monthly cost attached to a placement, no automatic renewal, no recurring billing. The retainer, if it ever applies to you, is a separate conversation after a successful placement, with its own terms agreed at that time.
What's not included
Business outcomes. We don't guarantee what the mentoring relationship will deliver for your business. The engagement fee is for the search and the presentation of three suitable mentors aligned to your agreed brief. What you and the mentor build together depends on the mentor, on you, and on your business. The engagement letter sets out the Australian Consumer Law condition of due care and skill that applies to the search, separate from any outcome of the mentoring.
Mentor advice quality. The advice the mentor gives you is not supervised by us. We choose the mentors carefully, but once the introduction is made, the conversations are between you and them. We don't sit in, we don't review session notes, we don't audit advice. A disagreement with the mentor's recommendations is a conversation between you and the mentor.
Other commercial arrangements with the mentor. If the mentor delivers a piece of work for you (a financial model, a hire, a strategy document), or the relationship develops into something else (a board appointment, an advisory contract, an investment), those arrangements are between you and the mentor on terms you agree directly. The exception is where you ask us to help structure a formal appointment, in which case we'd treat that work as a separate engagement.