Business advisory & consulting
Advisory for Organizations Making High-Stakes Innovation Decisions
Get senior business, entrepreneurship, and innovation counsel when you need to test a venture, fix a stalled strategy, find the right partner, or make innovation work inside your organization.
Consulting and advisory services.
Federal innovation consulting
Turn innovation goals into clear portfolios, roles, programs, measures, decisions, and repeatable organizational practice.
FoundersStartup advisory, SBIR and STTR
Test assumptions, understand the customer, shape the business model, pursue traction, and assess non-dilutive funding paths.
UniversitiesUniversity and HBCU partnerships
Build university, industry, government, and ecosystem relationships around mutual value, governance, and execution.
LeadersExecutive coaching and facilitation
Work the human side of a stalled strategy: authority, trust, roles, and the operating rhythm that carries a decision.
Questions this work can help answer.
- Who is the real customer?Separate assumptions from evidence.
- What should we build next?Prioritize learning, value, and traction.
- Why is strategy not moving?Align the formal plan with the human system.
- Which partners matter?Build relationships around mutual value.
- Is non-dilutive capital a fit?Assess readiness and position the opportunity.
- How do we sustain momentum?Create an operating cadence people can use.
You do not need another stack of generic answers.
You need enough structure to see the real problem, enough honesty to name what blocks progress, and a next decision your team can make. The work may take the form of business consulting, founder advisory, executive coaching, leadership facilitation, innovation program design, or partnership strategy.
I am Tyrome Smith, and I draw on more than 25 years across government, business, higher education, and startups. My background includes Lean Startup and business-model coaching, organizational development, technology commercialization, HBCU innovation ecosystems, federal innovation, non-dilutive capital readiness, and cross-sector strategic partnerships.
Each engagement is shaped around the problem and the people who must carry the solution. It can begin with one focused working session or continue through an ongoing advisory cadence. Planning an event instead? Explore speaking and facilitated sessions. Working through the people side of strategy? Read “Hope is only part of the strategy.”
How an engagement starts.
Share the problem
Send what you are working on, the pressure behind it, and the result you need. No polished brief required.
Hear back from me directly
I read every inquiry myself and respond within two business days, usually with a clarifying question.
Scope the right engagement
Together you decide the shape of the work: one focused session, an ongoing advisory cadence, or a facilitated offsite.
Start moving
No preset packages. The engagement begins at the size the problem actually calls for.
Planning an event instead? Speaking and facilitation follow the same starting point. Check availability.
Start with a useful example.
Watch the tools in use, hear the questions founders face, and see how customer discovery changes a real project.
Design your business with the Business Model Canvas
Watch me walk through value creation, customers, and the choices behind a business model.
Watch the workshop →Case exampleCustomer discovery in practice
Read how a team used interviews to understand the people behind a mission-driven problem.
Read the article →PodcastWhat Problem Are You Solving?
Hear direct conversations about founders, customers, traction, and better product decisions.
Watch on YouTube →Who I advise
Founders and small-business leaders
For leaders moving from an idea or early traction toward a repeatable business model. Work may include customer discovery, positioning, offer design, partnership strategy, decision-making, and preparation for non-dilutive funding paths.
Executives and leadership teams
For teams facing a stuck strategy, organizational transition, new initiative, or cross-functional problem. I combine business analysis with attention to the human system: how authority, trust, roles, and unspoken dynamics affect implementation.
Universities, agencies, and mission-driven organizations
For institutions designing innovation programs, commercialization pathways, venture support, or partnerships across industry, government, and academia. I have trained more than 1,500 federal personnel in Lean Startup methods and convened institutions across 29 countries through Lean Innovation Education Summits.
Common questions
How is this different from coaching?
Consulting brings analysis, recommendations, frameworks, and direct pattern recognition to the business problem. Coaching develops the leader’s own thinking and capacity. I use both modes, and I make the purpose explicit so you know when to expect advice, challenge, facilitation, or reflection.
Can the work begin with one session?
Yes. A focused session can clarify a decision, diagnose a constraint, or frame a larger body of work. If the problem requires customer research, stakeholder alignment, program design, or implementation support, the initial session can define the right scope rather than forcing a premature package.
Do you work with organizations outside Maryland?
Yes. Go In Now, LLC is based in Bowie and serves the Washington, DC region in person, while advisory, coaching, workshops, and strategy engagements can be delivered remotely across the United States.
What do engagement formats look like?
The format follows the work. A client may begin with one focused decision session, continue through a short strategy sprint, or establish an ongoing advisory cadence. Virtual working sessions can also be paired with an in-person leadership offsite when the team needs sustained analysis and dedicated decision time.
Unless and until you really get to know your customers, you're really just guessing. Sometimes you actually have to see them in their natural environment.
What decision needs your attention now?
Share the context, the constraint, and the result you need.