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Your company is
meant for more
Dave Haviland is the business strategist
who will help you get there
Private companies at every stage run into the same challenge: the path forward isn't obvious, and the people closest to the business often can't see it clearly. Dave Haviland helps owners and leadership teams figure out where they're going and build what it takes to get there. Whether you're growing fast, navigating a transition, or ready for the next chapter.
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Growth changes
the rules of your business
In the startup years, the founder is the strategy. Decisions move fast, the team is small, and personality carries a lot. It works.
Then the company grows. More people, more complexity, more moving parts. The founder-led model that created the success starts creating the constraints. Leadership teams that aren't leading. Strategic conversations that aren't happening.
Growth that's incremental when it should be compounding. Edward Lowe Foundation calls this the Second Stage. Dave has spent 20 years helping companies navigate it.
Strategy | Leadership | AI
Marketing | Talent | Innovation
One integrated practice
Dave works across the whole "Business Growth Stack," because Second Stage challenges rarely live in just one place.
Growth pulls together many parts of the organization - and growth stalling often comes from more than one area.
An advisor needs to understand the system and bring together different parts of the company.
Strategy
Where the company is going, what tradeoffs that requires, and how to make decisions in a fast-changing world.
Leadership
Building the team that can execute the strategy, having the hard conversations, and developing the next generation of leaders inside the company.
Fractional CMO
Strategy leadership and operational direction for companies that need senior marketing thinking without a full-time hire.
Talent & Organization
Who to hire, how to structure the team, and how to develop people for growth.
Private companies where the work is personal.
Dave's clientsare owners and leaders of private companies: family businesses, closely-held companies,and founder-led firms where decisions carry real weight and relationshipsmatter. Not publicly traded. Not on a venture capital timeline. Running on thefounder's conviction, the leadership team's trust, and years of built equity.
These are $1M to$20M companies. Thirty employees or a hundred. Services businesses,manufacturers, professional firms. What they share: a leader who takes the workseriously, cares about the culture they've built, and needs a thinking partnerwho can hold up in the room.
Private companies are where
the work is personal
Dave's clients are owners and leaders of private companies: family businesses, closely-held companies, and founder-led firms where decisions carry real weight and relationships matter. Running on the founder's conviction, the leadership team's trust, and years of built equity.
These are $1MM to $20MM companies. Thirty employees or a hundred. B2B, B2C, services, products - Dave is engaged with a variety of sectors and business models, and his clients appreciate the cross-pollination that brings. What they share: a leader who is open-minded, takes the work seriously, cares about the culture they've built, and needs a thinking partner who can hold up in the room.
The Second Stage company
You've grown past startup and you're hitting the ceiling that growth creates. The systems, the team structure, and the way you make decisions need to evolve. You know it. You're not sure where to start.
The family business or closely-held company
Strategy in a family business involves dynamics that most advisors aren't equipped to navigate. The ownership structure, the relationships, the culture built across generations - overlaid onto business-critical investments and decisions.
The best moves honor the culture and shift it toward what the company needs to become. Dave's worked in this world for two decades and knows how to navigate the family dynamics while driving toward a winning strategy.
The values-driven company
You've chosen to be great rather than just big. You're not optimizing for exit. You're building something worth building. You need an advisor who thinks the same way.
Dave has been a long-time participant in and supporter of the Small Giants community.
Your Business Growth Stack
needs a Growth System
Every business runs on three layers - that make up a Growth Stack.
The Growth System - which includes culture, strategy, leadership - is the one that many private companies struggle with at some point in their growth path. The rules change. The team gets stretched beyond its capacity or capability. The market shifts in ways you didn't expect.
And let's be clear - your Operating System doesn't have the tools to handle what the Growth System does. The Operating System may say you need a 1-page vision and quarterly goals...but it doesn't have the (Growth System) tools to help your leadership team rigorously pick the 3 best investments to make out of the dozen your team is looking at.
That's the layer Dave works in.
The layer that determines whether the company can evolve — not just operate.
Growth System
Operating System
Functional System
"I retained Dave Haviland to help get our firm beyond start-up and into a Second Stage stable business. Dave helped us create a systematic marketing approach, address staffing concerns, and build a solid partnership group at the top. 8 years later, our revenues have quadrupled and we have the strong business foundation I wanted. Dave has been a tremendous advisor to me and the firm."
"Dave has really helped our company tackle some tough issues that we knew we needed to face but did not have the time or energy to do so, including some issues that we did not know we had. Issues ranging from selling approaches, Partner to Analyst compensation, organizational structure, and Marketing budget priorities. His demeanor is perfect for our company; listening when it makes sense, being tough when that is required and overall, just getting us to take action and move things down the field. He's had a big impact on our firm!"
"Since working with Dave we've been able to gain a better focus on our growth plan. What is unique about his approach is the ratio of listening to talking and directing he does. Most coaches are eager to share their knowledge, where Dave is eager to listen. His value is in his ability to listen and hear beyond our words to extract the heart of our goals. At that point, he steps in and provides clarity and actionable ideas."
25 years + dozens of companies
= deeply informed judgment
Advising private companies since 2001 - through recessions, leadership transitions, ownership changes, and the unique chaos of rapid growth.
5000+
Strategy meetings
facilitated
4x
A client's revenue
over 8 years
10 years
Average engagement
with current client set
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