Hello there.
Welcome to TalentSum. What’s the one decision you’d like off your mind this week? If you had a clear read and one doable next step, would things move?
CEOs are operating in a strange mix of speed and constraint. Markets are loud. Teams are lean—and getting leaner. AI is everywhere, yet still confusing in practice. Budgets tighten while expectations climb. In this reality, leaders don’t need more decks or a traveling circus of consultants. They need fast, credible clarity and a small step that actually fits the day.
That’s what we built TalentSum to deliver. We provide peer-backed decision intelligence for owner-led, mid-market CEOs. In plain English: we listen, compare your situation to anonymized patterns from leaders like you, and return a tight, two-page brief plus a practical move you can run immediately.
This moment rewards speed with judgment. There’s no appetite for month-long discovery or sprawling rollouts. Options multiply; answers don’t. AI offers power and noise in equal measure, and it’s hard to separate hype from help. Culture and brand have become operational—you can’t hide what it feels like to work with you. And privacy matters. Some questions require a quiet room and straight talk that never becomes somebody else’s marketing.
What most CEOs want is simple: a clear read on what matters now; options grounded in peer evidence, not opinion; honest tradeoffs; and, when action is warranted, a small, surgical follow-up with tight scope and fixed cost. They also want privacy by default. Patterns can be shared. Names cannot.
The issues we see are familiar. Ownership and decision rights blur, and execution stalls. We help reset who decides what, where loops are breaking, and which meetings or programs need to be retired. Operating cadence drifts, so everything becomes “priority” and nothing ships; we restore a simple rhythm and a handful of measures leaders actually use. Culture and brand drift apart; we reconnect the inside story and the outside promise so the message is real, reusable, and visible in daily behavior. Attraction and early retention suffer when fit and expectations are fuzzy; we tighten the story, the signals, and the first 90 days. And AI often sits at the edge of the business without shaping it; we right-size the stack, pick sane use cases, protect the core, and measure the lift—no theater, just useful wins.
How it works is straightforward. CEO Signal™ is the front door: a short survey, one focused conversation, and a two-page decision brief within 48 hours. Page one captures your context and the one issue that matters now. Page two presents Peer Patterns with two or three viable options and likely tradeoffs. Behind the scenes is a continuously growing, anonymized library of CEO cases. Every brief sharpens the next—without exposing who said what.
If you want help after the brief, we run a short, focused diagnostic to confirm the root issue and shape discovery. From there, and only on a mutual yes, we execute small, fixed-fee moves. Short labs to align and decide. Focused builds to ship a specific outcome. Tight sprints or a lite retainer when a bit more leadership or continuity is truly needed. If the need is larger or off-lane, we introduce the right partner and step out. No finder’s fees.
TalentSum fits this moment because we optimize for speed and signal. A crisp brief beats a long deck; you get clarity and choices quickly. Guidance is peer-backed, not vendor-biased. Our work is light by design—short steps, clear owners, tight handoffs. Privacy is the default; consent comes first; outputs are scrubbed and stored as patterns, not names. Above all, the action is usable. Everything we touch is designed for you or your team to run.
Who we are matters too. We’re calm, curious people who like hard questions and simple answers. We listen first, name what matters, and cut noise without theater. Our culture rests on a few behaviors that you’ll feel in every interaction:
Be kind to others. Do what’s right. Build inclusive rooms. Kindness is the basis for real candor.
Lean into growing. Strong opinions, loosely held. Show the work. Update when the evidence changes.
Prioritize wellness. Tired brains make bad decisions. Protect energy, boundaries, and pace.
Work smart(er). Briefs beat decks. Checklists beat heroics. Progress beats perfect.
Chris leads TalentSum and the CEO Signal™ program—interviewer by instinct, builder by habit, teacher at heart. Expect straight talk, clean writing, and moves your team can actually run.
If any of this resonates, start small. Get the brief, get your bearings, and see if a tiny step would help. Begin with CEO Signal™ for a two-page read in 48 hours. If you’re curious how small steps look in the wild, browse Labs + Builds. And if you just want to talk through a decision, reach out. No pressure. We’re here to help you see clearly and move.