A fixed-fee diagnostic of how your business actually runs. What’s working. What’s costing you. What’s worth fixing first. You take the report — and decide what comes next.
As you scale, you bring in a CFO for the finances. You bring in an ops manager for the day-to-day. But almost no one brings in someone for the systems and technology — the layer that quietly decides how far you can actually grow. That’s the gap we fill.
No discovery dragging on. No surprise change orders. You know the price, the timeline, and what you’re getting before week one. The report is yours — take it anywhere, share it with whoever needs to see it.
Three tiers, scaled to the size and complexity of the business. We quote in writing within 24 hours of the discovery call. No hourly billing. No scope creep priced in.
Every audit ships the same set of documents. You own them outright. Take them to another firm, hand them to your bookkeeper, use them in a sale — they’re yours.
20–40 pages of findings, ranked by cost-of-doing-nothing. Plain English, no consultant filler.
90-day, 6-month, and 12-month buckets. Each item costed and sequenced.
What every unfixed friction point will cost you over the next 12 months, in dollars.
What to do first, what depends on what, what you can safely defer.
We sit with you (and anyone you bring) and walk through every recommendation. Recorded if you want.
Clarifying questions after delivery are included. No clock.
Most audits stand alone. Ours can — you can take the report anywhere — but it’s designed as the diagnostic that makes Phase 2 (implementation) and Phase 3 (retainer) work. Here’s the shape of the relationship if you want it.
The diagnostic that maps how your business actually runs, ranks what’s costing you, and produces a roadmap you own outright.
Fixed-scope sprints to execute the highest-ROI recommendations. Two to four projects per stage, each with a stated payback window.
Ongoing fractional-CTO cover once the implementation work is in place. The same person who ran your audit stays on the relationship.
“Why is the audit paid, not free?”
Free audits attract tyre-kickers and devalue the recommendations. You receive an audit you can act on — with or without us — and the price is fixed before week one so there’s no surprise.
“What if my business doesn’t fit your size range?”
Under $5M revenue: we’ll refer you to Flow Core, our productised offering for smaller operators. Over $30M or 100+ staff: a tailored engagement instead. Either way, the discovery call is free.
“Do we have to implement with you?”
No. The report is yours. Take it to anyone — your in-house team, another vendor, a freelancer. We often suggest other firms for specific work. There is no obligation to continue with MRLabs after Stage 3.
“How is this different from hiring a CTO?”
The audit is a snapshot — fixed fee, two to eight weeks depending on tier, you walk away with a plan. A fractional CTO is ongoing. If you want both, the audit becomes the first project of a retainer.
“What if we already know what’s broken?”
You probably know the symptoms. The audit finds the root cause — and the adjacent issues you weren’t looking at. Knowing the cause is often the whole thing.
“What if you find we’re actually fine?”
That’s a finding too — and a useful one. You walk away with a written second opinion on the systems you weren’t sure about, plus a baseline you can revisit when something changes.
“Is the report confidential?”
Yes. NDA signed before discovery. Your name and identifying details stay out of any future case study unless you agree in writing.
“Can we pause partway through?”
Either side, any time. You pay only for the stage already completed. No notice period, no exit fee.
Six ways we agree to behave before we start. If any of these don’t sit right, the audit isn’t for you — and the discovery call is the place to find out.
No hedging, no consultant-speak. If the answer is “the way you do payroll is the single biggest risk,” that’s what the report will say.
The audit only works if we can talk to the people who actually do the work. If access is slow, the audit slows — and we may need to extend at no extra cost.
Every recommendation comes with an implementation path — by us, by someone you already trust, or by an off-the-shelf vendor. No abstract “modernise the stack.”
If you decide to ignore a finding, that’s your prerogative. We’ll mark it “declined” in the report and move on. We don’t relitigate.
Inside the room, we’ll push back as hard as we need to. Once we leave with a decision, we don’t undermine it on Slack or in front of your team.
No notice period. No exit fee. You pay only for the phase already completed. We’d rather walk away cleanly than pretend the fit is right.
No prep required. We walk through your business, surface the technology questions that matter, and decide together whether an audit is the right next step. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.