Strategy · Software · Implementation

Your whole business,
finally in view.

So you know what's actually happening — and can decide for yourself. CLEAR VANTAGE GROUP brings the scattered pieces of a business into one clear picture its owner can act on, gives an honest read, and then builds the systems that picture proves you need. The software you commission is yours outright — to run, change, and extend, with or without us. We're owners ourselves, and we use AI to do in weeks what traditional firms take a year and twenty people to do.
Operators, not theorists Read-only until you trust us You own your data and your software
How an engagement grows

Start small. Every step earns the next.

You never have to bet on us all at once. Each step is a small, self-contained engagement that delivers on its own — and gives you the evidence to decide whether the next one is worth it. Each step stands on its own, and the software you commission is yours.

→
01 · UNDERSTAND

Discovery

One week that turns how your business really runs into a quantified picture and a roadmap.

→
02 · BUILD

Development

The systems the discovery proved you need — built to production standard, then handed over as yours to run.

03 · RUN (OPTIONAL)

Operate & Advise

Optional. Your discovery dashboard stays live on an ongoing subscription — new data in, questions answered, the picture current. The software you commissioned is yours either way.

Deal & Opportunity Analysis sits alongside these as standalone, owner-level diligence work.

What we do

Click any card for the full method

Company Discovery

A consultant-grade, hypothesis-driven investigation into how a business really runs — quantified, triangulated, and compressed into a week. Our crown jewel.

Explore the method →

Software / App Development

Production, enterprise-grade systems built under the "Bedrock" doctrine — the systems a discovery proves you need. Anyone can generate code now; the hard part is building something that holds up, and that you own outright.

Explore the doctrine →

Deal & Opportunity Analysis

Decision-grade diligence for investments, acquisitions, and new ventures — gated, quantified, red-teamed. So you can make the big call with eyes open.

Explore the approach →

How it all connects

Discovery gives you the clear picture and shows what's actually worth building. Development builds it, and the software you commission is yours. Your discovery dashboard stays live alongside it on an ongoing subscription. Each step earns the next — you never have to bet on us all at once.

Start with Discovery →
Demo · a fictional company
Capstone Surfaces · Discovery Portal (sample)

Everything your discovery delivers

This is a sample of the private portal a discovery client logs into — for Capstone Surfaces, a fictional company we invented for this demo. Everything here is made up; it shows the format and the breadth. The financial dashboard is just one piece of it.

What's in your discovery

A closer look — the Executive Dashboard

Demo · built from Capstone's (fictional) 2025 & 2026 P&Ls
2025 Revenue
$12.7M
Sales $12.8M · 2026 goal $27M
2025 Gross Margin
45%
they price to ~35% — they earn more
2025 Net Income
$2.7M
~21% net · essentially debt-free
2026 Net, by mid-June
$3.2M
already > all of 2025

Revenue trajectory

$8.3M
2023
$12.7M
2025
$27M
2026 goal

Steady growth, with 2026 loading heavily in the second half as the anchor builder program ramps. The goal is a stretch on today's pace — worth tracking monthly, not assuming.

The sales engine

Close rate (once in contact)~98%
Quote → close win rate93%
Sales cycle2–3 wk
Repeat business80–90%
Active jobs right now60–80
Jobs per year400–480
Strength

Healthy & debt-free

~45% gross / ~21% net on no real debt. Deposits fund materials up front; collections are rarely a problem.

Watch

Client concentration

One national homebuilder program is a big, growing share of the book (1,000 homes over 36 months). A wonderful opportunity — and a dependency to keep an eye on.

Watch

Cash timing

Commercial jobs hold a 10% retainer for 60 days–6 months. Worth a simple “what's owed and how old” view as commercial grows.

How the real version works: a live dashboard updates itself each month, pulling jobs and pipeline from the client's job-tracking system and the financials from QuickBooks — so the owner opens it any morning and sees exactly where the business stands, instead of waiting for tax season. This page is a static snapshot of a fictional company, built to show the format.

Operations Map

How Capstone Surfaces runs today — the whole business in one place. Click through the tabs.

The one-line readCapstone is more profitable than the day-to-day shows — and more dependent on a few key people than the org chart admits. A healthy, essentially debt-free broker with a real key-person and concentration risk to manage as it scales.

What they sell

  • Curate — concierge slab selection and the client shopping trip. The differentiator: the owner walks each client through the material themselves.
  • Craft — fabrication and install, orchestrated across a network of contract shops. Light-asset: no shop of their own, no shop debt.
  • Care — sealing, maintenance, and warranty follow-through.

Who they serve

  • Luxury residential — custom homes, high-end remodels.
  • Production builders — anchored by Summit Ridge Communities (1,000 homes over 36 months, exclusive installer).
  • Commercial — clubhouses, offices; jobs run $150K–$600K.
★The model. A deliberately light-asset broker — Capstone owns the client relationship and the network, not the fabrication plant. That is a strength (no shop debt) and the exact place growth capacity is most worth watching.

The core workflow, lead to installed countertop. Material is 50–70% of a job cost and labor is near-fixed, so the proposal comes after slab selection, not before.

  1. Source & qualify the leadDiane spots and warms the relationship; hands Marcus a warm intro. Cold bidding was dropped — it landed ~1 in 20.
  2. The concierge shopping tripMarcus or a design consultant takes the client to select slabs — the signature experience that gives the builder time back.
  3. Estimate & proposalAutodesk takeoff → CounterGo drawing → slab-priced quote. A labor quote goes out first (nailed within a few hundred dollars) so the client knows what is left for stone.
  4. Close & depositEntering the job into Moraware is the win signal; it generates a deposit invoice through QuickBooks. Signed invoice + deposit = on the books.
  5. Order material & manage the holdMaterial deposit → supplier holds the slab 10–14 days. Hold expirations are tracked reactively off the shared inbox today.
  6. Template on-siteField-measure the installed space. Install is scheduled 7–10 days out.
  7. Fabrication — the shop network~7 days for standard edges, ~10 for waterfalls and miters. Work is load-balanced across ~10 contract shops.
  8. Install & QC1 day for most jobs, 2–3 for large customs (400–500 sq ft). Marcus is the final quality check.
  9. Invoice & collectSecond invoice at completion. Commercial jobs hold a 10% retainer for 60 days–6 months.
The patternMost of the critical work runs through Marcus (field, closing, QC) and Priya (finance, systems, the numbers) — with backups that are thin relative to where the company is headed. This is the single biggest thing to de-risk as Capstone scales.
Diane Vale
Co-owner & CEO
Vision, business development, lead sourcing, key partnerships, PR & brand.
Marcus Vale Key person
Co-owner & COO
Lead closer, the concierge shopping trip, templating oversight, the fab-shop network, install QC. Out a month = trouble.
Priya Nash Sharpest key person
Director of Finance & Systems
QuickBooks, Moraware, estimating oversight, every system, the numbers. Nothing happens in the computer without her.
Ana Ruiz
Lead Estimator (+2 estimators)
Takeoffs, drawings, and quotes — 30–40 bids/week across the team.
Dwight Okafor
Shop Network Manager
Manages ~10 contract fab shops; relationship-based, no contracts, negotiated pricing.
Field & design team
4 project managers · 2 design consultants
Templating, install coordination, and the concierge slab-selection experience.

The tools mostly already exist — the gap is adoption and capacity, not missing software.

The stack

  • Moraware CounterGo — estimating & drawing; priced by the slab, not the square foot.
  • Moraware Systemize — job tracking. Owned but underused — the field does not keep it current.
  • QuickBooks — invoicing (two invoices per job: material, then fab/install) & accounting.
  • Autodesk (plan measurement), a custom slab-pricing sheet, Gusto (payroll), Google Drive (all files).

The friction

  • Double data entry — the slab-pricing sheet is re-keyed into CounterGo; QuickBooks lines entered by hand.
  • No Inventory module (~$500/mo at their scale) — so usable remnants get re-bought.
  • Adoption gap — Systemize would give live job status, but it is only as current as the field keeps it.
  • No real-time margin view — the numbers only truly surface at tax time.

How a job is priced

Material as share of job cost50–70%
Stone cost ÷ 0.7~30–32% margin
Labor / fabrication markup~38%
Blended margin they price to~35%
Blended margin they actually earn~45%

Because material is most of the cost and labor is near-fixed, the proposal follows slab selection.

The healthy part (often missed)

  • ~45% gross / ~21% net on essentially no debt.
  • Deposits fund materials up front; collections are rarely a problem.
  • Invoices set due same-day, so nothing reads as overdue.
  • The owners under-appreciate their own margins — the business earns about ten points more than it prices for.
Cash-flow watch-outCommercial jobs hold a 10% retainer for 60 days–6 months. Worth a simple what-is-owed-and-how-old view as commercial grows.
Watch

Client concentration

Summit Ridge is heading toward ~1/3 of the book (1,000 homes / 36 months). A wonderful opportunity and a real dependency.

Watch

Broker / shop capacity

The whole model rides on ~10 contract shops. One slipping is the named breaking point for the Summit Ridge ramp.

Watch

Key-person risk

Marcus and especially Priya are single points of failure. The biggest value detractor — and the clearest thing to fix.

Strength

Healthy & debt-free

~45% gross / ~21% net, essentially no debt, 93% quote-to-close, 80–90% repeat.

Quick win

Turn on what they own

Systemize (owned) + the Inventory module (~$500/mo) close the live-status and remnant gaps without new software.

Quick win

Kill double entry

The slab-sheet to CounterGo re-key is the cleanest automation in the shop.

Operations Playbook

The owner's manual — how Capstone does it, written so the business can be trained and handed off.

The core workflow, documented step by step so any trained operator can run it.

  1. Source & qualify the leadSpot the opportunity, warm the relationship, confirm it fits the book before spending estimating time.
  2. Run the concierge shopping tripWalk the client through slab selection in person — the signature experience.
  3. Estimating & the proposalTakeoff → CounterGo drawing → slab-priced quote; labor quote out first.
  4. Close & take the depositEnter the job in Moraware (the win signal); QuickBooks deposit invoice; signed + deposit = on the books.
  5. Order material & manage the holdSecure the slab; track the 10–14 day supplier hold so nothing expires.
  6. Template on-siteField-measure precisely; schedule install 7–10 days out.
  7. Fabrication & the shop networkRoute to the right contract shop; load-balance across the network.
  8. Install & QCInstall and inspect against the standard before sign-off.
  9. Invoice & get paidSecond invoice at completion; chase commercial retainers proactively.
  10. Keep the job tracker currentEvery job's live status in Systemize — the single source of truth.

The three service lines

  • Curate — concierge slab selection + the client shopping trip. The differentiator.
  • Craft — fabrication & install via the contract-shop network.
  • Care — sealing, maintenance, warranty follow-through.

Key standards & numbers

Margin check per job~35% blended
Material (kept separate)50–70% of cost
Fabrication lead time7–10 days
Install after template7–10 days
Supplier slab hold10–14 days
The rule that protects marginMaterial is always priced and tracked separately from fabrication — because material is most of the job cost, a small slab-pricing error is where a $100K job becomes a $10K mistake.

A one-page takeoff standard so every estimate is built the same way, by anyone.

  • Areas — measure every countertop surface; calibrate scale from the plan.
  • Pieces & dimensions — each piece sized; natural stone sized manually, quartz auto-counts slabs.
  • Cutouts — sinks, cooktops, outlets — counted and priced.
  • Edges — profile and linear footage (standard vs. waterfall/miter/OG).
  • Splash — backsplash height and run.
  • Material — slab cost ÷ 0.7; confirm slab count against real slab sizes.
  • Adders — tear-out, plumbing disconnect, stairs/access, travel.
  • Margin check — confirm the blended margin clears ~35% before the quote goes out.

If someone is out — who covers what

  • Marcus out — the field/closing gap. Priya can carry the office; a senior PM covers templating; but the concierge close is thinly backed. The exposure to fix first.
  • Priya out — the systems/finance gap. Estimators can bid; but QuickBooks, Moraware, and the numbers run through her. The sharpest single point of failure.
  • An estimator out — well covered; the estimating team backs each other up.
  • A shop unavailable — the network absorbs it, except the high-difficulty specialist work.

Glossary (excerpt)

  • Slab — a single cut piece of stone; jobs are priced by the slab, not the square foot.
  • Template — the exact field measurement taken before fabrication.
  • Remnant — usable offcut; worth tracking so it isn't re-bought.
  • Waterfall — an edge that runs down the side of an island; higher fabrication time.
Accountability & Role Scorecards

Who owns what, what only each person does today, who backs them up, and the numbers each seat carries.

Every core function, and the single owner accountable for it.

  • Vision & business development — Diane Vale (CEO)
  • Field, delivery & quality — Marcus Vale (COO)
  • Finance, systems & the numbers — Priya Nash (Director, Finance & Systems)
  • Estimating & takeoffs — Ana Ruiz (Lead Estimator)
  • The fabrication network — Dwight Okafor (Shop Network Manager)
  • Concierge design & slab selection — the design consultants
  • Install & templating execution — the project managers
Marcus Vale Key person
Co-owner & COO
Only he does: the concierge close, final install QC, fab-shop relationships. Backup: partial (PMs on templating). Carries: close rate ~98%, install quality.
Priya Nash Sharpest key person
Director, Finance & Systems
Only she does: QuickBooks, Moraware admin, the numbers. Backup: none real. Carries: margin integrity, cash visibility, estimating throughput.
Diane Vale
Co-owner & CEO
Only she does: lead sourcing, key partnerships, PR. Backup: partial. Carries: pipeline volume, brand.
Ana Ruiz
Lead Estimator
Owns: takeoffs & quotes with 2 estimators. Backup: good — the team covers each other. Carries: quote turnaround, estimate accuracy.
The recurring patternMost critical seats have no real backup — and the sharpest single point of failure is Priya (nothing in the systems happens without her). This is the biggest thing standing between Capstone and a business that could run — or sell — without its owners in every seat.

Cross-training priorities (in order)

  1. Back up the systems seatGet a second person into QuickBooks & Moraware so Priya isn't the only operator.
  2. Back up the field close & QCDevelop a senior PM toward the concierge close so Marcus isn't the only one who can carry a job.
  3. Back up invoicingA second set of hands on AR/AP and the two-invoice flow.
  4. Document the lead engineWrite down how Diane sources and tiers leads so it survives her calendar.
90-Day Action Plan & Hire Kit

A possible sequence of moves — nothing here requires a big spend — plus a ready-to-use estimator hire kit.

Phase 1 · Quick wins (mostly free)

  • Turn on Systemize for real — make it the single source of job status.
  • Buy the Inventory module (~$500/mo) for remnant tracking.
  • Move logins into a password manager; separate personal from business spend.
  • Set material-hold alerts off the shared inbox; kill the slab-pricing double entry.

Phase 2 · Unlock capacity

  • Hire an estimator to free Priya from ~40 bids/week of takeoffs.
  • Easy field capture for Marcus — voice/photo straight into Systemize.
  • Standardize the takeoff so every estimate is built the same way.

Phase 3 · Strategic

  • Adopt the Playbook for training and build backups for the key seats.
  • Stand up a sustained lead pipeline; diversify beyond Summit Ridge.
  • Explore a Care maintenance subscription — recurring revenue nobody local is doing.
The roleEstimator / Project Coordinator — reports to Priya. The single highest-leverage hire: it reclaims Priya's most bottlenecked time and removes the sharpest key-person risk in the business.

What they own

  • Takeoffs and CounterGo drawings from builder plans.
  • Slab-count and material pricing to the estimating standard.
  • Keeping Systemize job status current.
  • Coordinating templates, fabrication, and install dates.

30 / 60 / 90

Day 30Shadowing; owns simple residential takeoffs.
Day 60Runs most estimates start to finish, checked.
Day 90Owns the estimating queue; frees Priya for design + finance.
★The ROI. Estimating is the bottleneck that crowds out everything else. A trusted estimator reclaims the owner's most valuable hours — and turns the sharpest key-person risk into a backed-up seat.
Transferable Value Brief

What makes the business worth more and easier to hand off — how it scores today, and the moves that raise it.

Buyers pay more for businesses that are profitable, transparent, predictable, and not dependent on their owners.

Profitability & marginsStrong
Repeat / predictable revenueStrong
Growth trajectoryStrong
Brand & relationshipsStrong
Clean, documented systemsImproving
Real-time financial clarityImproving
Customer diversification (Summit Ridge)Watch
Compliance / bondabilityGap
Owner / key-person dependenceGap
  • Reduce owner dependence — back up the Marcus and Priya seats. The single biggest value lever.
  • Give buyers clean, real-time numbers — margin and cash visible any morning, not at tax time.
  • Diversify beyond one account — grow the book so Summit Ridge is a strength, not a dependency.
  • Add recurring revenue — the Care maintenance subscription.
  • Tidy compliance — the housekeeping that makes the business bondable and clean in diligence.
The headlineCapstone is already a strong, profitable, growing business. The value it is leaving on the table is almost entirely owner dependence and financial visibility — both fixable, and both on the 90-day plan.
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UnderstandOur crown jewel

Company Discovery

A consultant-grade investigation into how a company actually runs — not how the org chart says it runs. We interview every function, pull the real documents behind what people say, reconcile the two, and reason across all of it at once. The deliverable is a quantified current-state picture plus a prioritized roadmap — working prototypes, not a binder — in about a week.

Model
Fixed-fee sprint
Timeline
About one week
Deliverable
Quantified picture + roadmap
Your systems
Read-only, always
The core ideaThis is an analytical engagement, not a filing exercise. Capturing transcripts and organizing files is the floor. The product is the thinking — a living set of hypotheses about the business (the Working Diagnosis) that get strengthened, weakened, or killed by each interview and each document pulled.

The five non-negotiables

  • Source systems are read-only. We read, list, search, and copy out — never write, edit, move, or delete. This is the trust barrier that lets the work happen at all.
  • The Working Diagnosis moves after every interview. If the analysis didn't move, the interview wasn't processed.
  • Triangulate. Self-report is not fact until it's checked against the document or dataset behind it.
  • Quantify every pain. "Manual and slow" isn't a finding; "2–3 hours every week" is. No number, no ranking.
  • Eliminate before you automate. Run every process through the 5-Step Algorithm — automating a step that shouldn't exist just makes waste run faster.

What makes it different from an audit

  • Hypothesis-driven — every interview aims to test a theory, not tick a fixed list.
  • It red-teams itself — argues the opposite case, names what isn't being asked, surfaces whose interests aren't represented.
  • Owner goals are a standard early question — including exit intent, because an owner eyeing a sale is our highest-value, most-motivated client.
★Good for: pre-ERP/PM-system clarity, operational due diligence on an acquisition, post-acquisition integration, or any moment an owner needs a defensible outside read.
How the work flows

Raw input on the left → finished deliverable on the right

  1. Raw transcriptsUntouched recorder output from interviews across every function.
  2. Cleaned transcriptsEditorially cleaned and merged.
  3. Discovery notesStructured per-person summaries.
  4. AssetsThe real documents each interviewee shares, plus material copied out of each source system.
  5. SynthesisCross-cutting analysis — the Working Diagnosis, the lenses, process flows. The spine of the method.
  6. DeliverablesFinal, sponsor-facing outputs — the quantified current-state picture and prioritized roadmap, with live prototype demos.
One method, any industryThe method is rigorously separated from company-specific facts, so the same disciplined process works for a law firm, a manufacturer, a clinic, or a logistics company — what changes is your business, not the rigor.
The current process, end to end

From interviews to a living, client-owned discovery

A discovery doesn't end at hand-off. Everything we produce lands in a private, isolated folder on a secure server at our office. Your data is yours — we'll export it for you whenever you ask. The live dashboard on top of it is what the subscription keeps running, whether or not you ever commission a build.

01 Engage

Interview every function & pull the real evidence

Two passes per person (Meeting 1 + Meeting 2), plus read-only access to the live systems where the work actually lives. Nothing on a source system is ever written to.

Interviews — every function, Meeting 1 + 2
Source systems — read-only, copied out
▼
02 Process

The pipeline — raw input becomes quantified analysis

Each file moves left to right as it's processed. The Working Diagnosis — the living set of hypotheses about the business — is re-evaluated after every interview and every document pulled.

Raw transcripts
→
Cleaned
→
Discovery notes
→
Assets
→
Synthesis · Working Diagnosis
→
Deliverables

Client-visible: discovery notes, synthesis & deliverables.  Internal only: audio recordings and raw/cleaned transcripts — never shared with the client.

▼
03 Secure

Everything lands in an isolated client folder on CLEAR VANTAGE GROUP's secure office server

A dedicated, private folder built on a secure server at our office — one client, one isolated space, with private client access. Their data never mingles with any other client's, and it stays theirs — exportable on request.

▼
04 Live

The discovery keeps working — a living asset, not a binder

Once the discovery is complete, the client keeps private access to their folder and can keep getting value from it — even if they never move on to a build.

1
Review

Explore the discovery notes, synthesis, and prioritized roadmap anytime — the finished analysis, never raw recordings or transcripts.

2
Ask — API brainstorm

Interrogate the discovery through an AI brainstorm interface: ask questions, test ideas, and pull answers straight from your own data.

3
Feed new data

Keep adding documents and data over time so the diagnosis stays current instead of going stale the day it's delivered.

4
Improve & create

Use it to review and sharpen their methods — and to draft new files, documents, and processes from the discovery — build or no build.

Two ways to keep accessAfter delivery you choose how you hold the discovery: a one-time export — your data and deliverables, yours to keep — or a living subscription that keeps the dashboard dynamic: ongoing access, the ability to feed new data, and the AI brainstorm interface. Your data is always yours, and we'll export it on request. The living dashboard is what the subscription buys — access to it ends when the subscription does. Audio recordings and interview transcripts stay internal — you receive the discovery notes, synthesis, and deliverables, never the raw recordings or transcripts.
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Build

Software / App Development

Custom systems, built for your business and no one else's — the ones the discovery proved you need: production, enterprise-grade software built under the "Bedrock" doctrine. A capable operator directs an AI engineer, wrapped in enough structural discipline that the predictable failure modes of both AI and solo builders are caught before they cause harm. These systems can carry real money: payroll, contracts, customer data.

Model
Fixed build + managed run plan
Timeline
Weeks, not quarters
You own
Code, data & docs — all of it
Handover
Yours to run — code, data & docs
Why this mattersAnyone can generate code now. The hard, valuable part is a system that survives contact with a real business — correct, secure, and genuinely yours. You get the working system, the data, and the documentation to run it without us.
The doctrine

Five invariants that never break

  1. Security overrides every other goalAuth on every endpoint, secrets server-side only, every write confirmed, every AI system kill-switched. If it ships fast but compromised, it didn't ship.
  2. Wrong data must be visible, not silentConfidence scores route low-certainty output to human review; provenance and "AI says" vs "human confirmed" are first-class; every extraction is logged.
  3. Every system must be reversibleRollback at code, database, and data levels. Non-destructive migrations, daily backups, quarterly restore tests, PITR for live financial data.
  4. The architect must be able to walk awayEvery project ships with CLAUDE.md, SECURITY.md, RUNBOOK.md, and CONTINUITY.md. The system outlives any single builder — this is what "you own it" actually means.
  5. Proportionality — every system earns its weightNo more than 3 active projects; "almost done" for 30 days is presumed stuck; unmeasured success metrics at 60 days are presumed adrift. Attention is the scarcest resource.

The proven build sequence

  • Genesis (day one): the whole skeleton end-to-end — security and data foundation, durability gate, core schema, import the real customer book, build the one differentiating "wedge," deploy to prod.
  • Spine before operations. A hard-won lesson: build the core account graph first, then hang everything off it — bolting separate apps together later is the expensive way around.
  • Audit waves — Security → Correctness → Data-safety → Infra — run as dedicated passes. Not optional polish; this is where the real bugs were caught.
  • Then domain modules — projects, safety/compliance, receipts — hung off the same spine.

Built to be used — and then handed over

Most people who can build software ship something nobody uses. We design against that from day one, then leave you owning it:

  • Secure the executive mandate up front — "if it's not in the system, it doesn't exist."
  • Make the new way the path of least resistance; retire the old way.
  • Roll out in waves, not all at once — and hand over with the documentation and training to run it yourselves.
  • Measure adoption with a real number — and treat the rollout as unfinished until that number moves.
★Worked example — a full CRM in three weeks. A self-contained CRM with a Kanban pipeline, email sync, and a read-only, citation-required AI agent with spend caps and full audit logging — ~7,500 lines, built in ~3 weeks over 256 commits. An independent enterprise-readiness analysis found it visibly carries the doctrine's fingerprints: central auth, idempotent additive migrations, non-destructive deletes. And we run our own companies on systems built exactly this way — including the company-wide platform behind a Texas precision manufacturer.
If your data can't leave the buildingSome businesses can't have their data leave the building — attorneys, CPAs, anyone holding other people's confidential information. We can stand you up on your own private server, running your own model, with no outside connection. And we build to CJIS-compliant standards — the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services security policy — if that's the level you need. Most companies don't. We deliver the server side and can tell you exactly what the physical access requirements are; we don't install locks and door controls. Either way, the server is yours.
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Standalone · Owner-level judgment

Deal & Opportunity Analysis

Decision-grade diligence for investments, acquisitions, and new ventures. We ingest a messy, high-stakes opportunity and produce a sober, quantified, red-teamed read an owner can actually decide on — with the risks named, the numbers sensitivity-tested, and a gated plan that caps spend until each hard question clears.

Model
Fixed-fee engagement
Posture
Sober analyst; you decide
Reference
Operation Heavy Stone
Who it's forOwners weighing a decision too big to get wrong — an acquisition, a major investment, a new venture. We bring the owner-level judgment we apply across every engagement and put it entirely in service of one question: should you do this deal, and on what terms?

What we produce

  • A plain-terms opportunity thesis and partnership/structure map.
  • A quantified financial model — scenario tabs, live assumptions, working-capital bridge, probability-weighted EV, all sensitivity-tested.
  • A diligence checklist and document-request list for every unverified claim.
  • A gated, capped-spend plan — hard go/no-go gates so nothing past the next gate is funded until it clears.
  • A risk framework with the single highest-consequence risks named explicitly.

How we think about it

  • Sober and professional — decision-grade, no hype, no casual tone.
  • Treat every claim as unverified until documented. Distinguish owner from middleman, fact from self-report.
  • Flag where licensed counsel is required — we advance the project and protect the principal; the owner makes the call.
  • Value often lives in the tail — we say plainly when something is a venture-style bet, not a safe cash-flow business.
Reference engagement

Operation Heavy Stone

A feasibility-and-diligence engagement on a cross-border critical-materials supply venture — high upside, real physical and counterparty risk. Six decision-grade deliverables produced before a dollar of capital was committed. Details anonymized to protect the principal — the same confidentiality your deal would get.

Opportunity Evaluation

The thesis in plain terms, the partnership structure, market tailwinds, a 33-question diligence checklist, and a six-phase gated plan.

Multi-Perspective Briefing

Independent stakeholder assessments — industry expert, investor, security, operations — plus a financial synthesis with an interactive model.

Operating-Risk Map

The sites, routes, and infrastructure the deal depends on, with illustrative risk tiers across the ground it has to cross.

Chain-of-Custody Flow

The end-to-end source-to-customer flow with sealed custody events — the traceability that was the actual product.

Financial Model

Base, best, and probability-weighted scenarios with live assumptions — every key number sensitivity-tested against price reversion.

Phase-1 Diligence Package

A verification document request, an independent site-visit & security-assessment scope, and a hard-capped Phase-1 budget.

The discipline on displayTwo hard Phase-1 gates — independently verify the core claim and commission an on-the-ground security assessment — with a hard spend cap, and nothing funded past them until both clear. That's the product: turning an exciting, dangerous opportunity into a decision an owner can make with eyes open.
← Overview
Who we are

Operators who've sat in the owner's chair

CLEAR VANTAGE GROUP was built on a frustration we lived ourselves: you can buy software and advice for years and still not have a clear view of your own business, or systems your people actually use. We're operators who have built, scaled, and sold companies of our own. We give you the clear picture, build what it proves you need, and hand it to you to own and run. We won't suggest anything we haven't been willing to do in our own companies.

Mitchell Ellis

Co-Founder

Mitchell is Chief Strategy Officer of a national pipeline-integrity company operating across the United States and Canada, where he brokered the $20 million sale of half the business and now leads the build of the unified management system that runs its operations. He co-founded La Palmilla Texas, a press-recognized boutique hotel and resort in Glen Rose, built from raw land to a fully operating property. Through his own aviation company he personally designed and deployed a nine-module operations platform — the same kind of production software he now builds for clients, at a fraction of the usual cost and timeline.

Before business, Mitchell spent more than a decade in law enforcement, much of it in tactical and investigative units where discretion, integrity, and performing under pressure were the job. He is a commercial helicopter pilot and a 2026 Fort Worth Inc. 40 Under 40 honoree.

What that means for youWhen Mitchell looks at your operation, he sees it through the eyes of someone who has run the back office, closed the deal, and shipped the software himself — not someone reading from a playbook.

John Pastusek

Co-Founder

John is the owner of D&J Technologies and a portfolio of companies primarily in oil & gas manufacturing and acquisitions — businesses he has built and continues to run today. He co-founded La Palmilla Texas alongside Mitchell. Right now, John is applying the very methods Clear Vantage Group offers inside his own portfolio: running operational discoveries and building live, AI-powered dashboards across his companies to sharpen how they run.

What that means for youJohn has already done, in his own businesses, exactly what Clear Vantage Group proposes to do in yours. We've lived the problems you're facing — and we've built the solutions.

The team behind the work

The founders are backed by specialists who extend CLEAR VANTAGE GROUP's reach, so a company can go from “we know something needs to change” to a working system it owns and runs itself.

Why this mattersMost firms either advise or build — rarely both, and almost never with people who have genuinely sat in the owner's chair. We give you an honest read of your own business, build what it proves you need, and hand it over. The software you commission, you own and can run — with us, or without us. That's the difference between a report on a shelf and a business that actually runs better.