Idea
Strategy
Insight that makes a difference. We sharpen the idea into a strategy with a clear commercial case: who pays, what it is worth and what to do first.
Realising the value in good ideas
You own something worth more than it earns: content, data, rights, an audience, or an idea the business has not yet got behind. We find where the value is and build a plan your team can deliver.
Talk to us
Which of these is you?
Who we work withAmbitious businesses, often in media, whose value is shifting as AI rewrites the model. They need to change course within 18 months and have no spare team to do it.
Unrealised opportunity
You sense there is more in the asset, but you don't know how to reach it, or you have run out of ways to try from the inside.
The AI question
An AI company wants your content or data, or the board wants an AI plan, and nobody owns the answer.
Value deadline
An exit, a sale, a raise or a major renewal is coming.
Revenue shock
A core income line is falling fast.
And for investors: commercial diligence before you commit, or a value plan for a business you already own.
Hare and Tortoise finds where the value now is and builds a plan your team can deliver inside 18 months.
We've run revenue at scale, built platforms, started companies and sat on both sides of the deal. So the plan is tested from every seat at the table: the board that has to back it, the team that has to deliver it, and the buyer or investor who has to believe it.
The name is the method. The market moves at hare speed, so the first results come in weeks. The plan is built to last, so it still holds when the team is running it without us.
What we do
01Plan
Implementation planning
A practical plan to realise it: roles, hand-offs, decisions, budget and a small number of measures that matter, so the plan survives contact with the team.
Action
Delivery
New products, pricing, partnerships and deals, live in market. The work redesigned so people and AI deliver it at pace, in daily use within weeks rather than a pilot on the side.
Alongside
Commercial diligence and strategy
The work we have always done. Commercial diligence on media, ad tech and creative businesses for PE, VC and family offices, buy-side or vendor-side. Growth and monetisation strategy for publishers, platforms and brands. Fractional commercial leadership for a defined period.
How we work
- 1. Sprint reviewTwo to three weeks to find where the value is and what is in the way.
- 2. Plan and deliverA three to six month plan, delivered with your team against measures agreed at the start.
- 3. Ready for the dealA raise, a sale, a licence or a renewal: the story, the materials and the introductions. Where regulated activity is involved, we work with an FCA-authorised partner.
Each stage has a fixed scope and price. No 200-page decks.
Where we are starting
Media, publishing and information
From large groups whose models are under pressure to specialist titles that have found a profitable new model and want to scale it. Also B2B data, events and membership businesses that own more than they earn from.
PE portfolio companies
An exit that needs a new equity story, or a value creation plan with a data and AI line nobody owns.
Funded ventures
Early-stage businesses that are funded and viable, and need the structure to turn the idea into a plan and the plan into action.
About
02
Tim Gentry
Co-founder
Led digital revenue at The Guardian, ending as Global Revenue Director, and founded the Pangaea Alliance with CNN International, the FT, Reuters and The Economist. Since 2018, adviser to media owners and investors on growth and deals. Has built AI into the daily workflow of his own businesses, including music startup TokenTraxx, wound down in 2026.
Steve Edwards
Co-founder
Has worked in media as a specialist, a client and an adviser. Board director at MediaCom and Client Services Director at MGOMD, where he founded the growth strategy unit Beyond. Specialises in showing the business impact of work across disciplines, and in making a plan stick: he has put AI to work inside clients' teams, not just on paper.
Nick Sargent
Partner
More than 20 years driving the commercial success of some of the world's best-known media brands: growing P&Ls, consumer and commercial revenue, award-winning content and audiences, and launching apps, websites and digital products. Builds and rebuilds brands, with deep agency and client relationships. Currently fractional CEO of The Rake, leading its four-pillar transformation and investment strategy.
Associates
Senior specialists from our network where a project needs them: media agency, brand, technology, AI and finance.
Example clients
- The Rake
- Vitruvian Partners
- Bauer Media
- PAMCo
- Archant
- Outbrain
- Mumsnet
- Intersection
- Ascension Ventures
- Allied Irish Bank
- UN Women
Contact
03Got a good idea that isn't moving? Tell us what it is and what's in the way, and we'll tell you, in a short call, whether we can help.