Board Advisory & Fractional GTM

You've built something
the world needs.
Now you need
help selling it.

Fractional GTM leadership and board advisory for AI and technology founders navigating the gap between breakthrough product and commercial scale.

Decades
of Experience
Multiple
Technology Waves
Tier 1
Institutional Deals
Global
UK, US & EMEA
Our Mission

Bridging innovation
and the market

At BlazingRed, we specialise in helping founders leverage decades of experience to transform cutting edge innovations into market leaders.

Our expertise lies in bridging the "Complexity Gap": that dangerous space between advanced technology and market understanding, where brilliant ideas stall, sales cycles stretch, and burn rate outpaces belief.

We have spent decades on the front lines of the world's most significant technology shifts, from Mainframe AI and Expert Systems to the GUI wars, Digital Twins, and real time compliance surveillance. We don't start with generic playbooks. We start with experience.

"You've built something brilliant. We make it indispensable."
The BlazingRed Commitment
The Blazing Red Roadmap

Your roadmap for
scaling revenue

We support founders from pre seed through to exit. Every journey is unique, we join at any stage, in an advisory or fractional capacity.

Pre Seed

The Validation Lab

Founding the Narrative & Testing the Gap

  • Narrative refinement for cynical early adopters
  • Pricing hypotheses reflecting value, not cost
  • Founder led sales coaching & muscle memory
Seed

The Repeatability Engine

Building the Playbook from the Trenches

  • Real world sales architecture & process
  • First "impossible" deals at Tier 1 institutions
  • Identifying & hiring Pathfinder sales talent
  • CRM infrastructure for predictable revenue
Series A

The Scaling Architecture

Industrialising the Motion

  • Org design to avoid narrative dilution
  • International expansion, US & EMEA
  • Full time CRO headhunting & onboarding
  • Data driven forecasting precision
Series B+

The Specialist Edge

Defending and Expanding the Category

  • Category creation & narrative ownership
  • Channel & partnership ecosystem strategy
  • Exit readiness: IPO & acquisition preparation
The Complexity Gap

Complexity is the enemy.
Momentum is the mission.

Most startups don't lose momentum because of their technology. They lose it in the handoff, when the sales baton is passed and the original vision fades.

The Complexity Gap is that dangerous space where brilliant, bleeding edge innovation meets a market that is either too cynical to believe it, or too uneducated to use it.

Sales cycles stall. "Wait and see" becomes the default. Burn rate outpaces belief.

The gap widens because most sales teams lack the muscle memory required to sell innovation without a predefined playbook. They are trained to follow a map. We are trained to navigate the wilderness.

We have landed "seemingly impossible" first deals at global institutions, Barclays, HSBC, HMRC, and BT, and helped guide startups from early adopters to category creation and beyond.

Commercial Architecture

We don't just consult, we build. Real sales processes, real closing, real pipeline.

Founder Led Selling

We coach founders to carry the narrative with conviction before any baton is passed.

ICP Discovery in Motion

We develop your Ideal Customer Profile as we sell, not in a workshop before we start.

Legacy & Track Record

Technology we've pioneered is still sold today by IBM, FICO, and Broadcom.

The Red Paper Series

Red Papers

Our thinking on GTM strategy, government funding, and what it takes to build commercial momentum in AI and technology startups. Sharper than a white paper, more direct than a blog post, and written for founders who are short on time and long on ambition.

Founders Red Paper Series

Founders Red Paper Series

Funding Rounds and GTM Leadership:
A Founder's Guide

Pre-Seed to Series B

When to bring in a GTM Board Advisor or Fractional CRO at every funding stage, from bootstrapped beginnings to Series B scale.

Pre-SeedSeedSeries ASeries BFractional CRO
Read Now
Founders Red Paper Series

Early Stage Investment:
A Founder's Guide

From Bootstrapped to Your First £250,000

The SEIS programme, angel investment, and how to raise your first outside capital in plain English.

BootstrappedSEISAngel InvestmentPre-Seed
Read Now

UK Government AI Funding Series

UK Government AI Funding Series

The Sovereign AI Fund

£500 Million — Launched April 2026

Equity investment, one million GPU hours, and government procurement. The UK's most significant AI investment and what it means for your company.

£500MEquityComputeDSIT
Read Now
UK Government AI Funding Series

Frontier AI Discovery

Up to £10 Million — Deadline 10 June 2026

Innovate UK's two-stage programme: £25K to £50K feasibility grants leading to £5M to £10M collaborative R&D funding.

Innovate UK£25K to £50KPhase 2: £10MDeadline June 2026
Read Now
UK Government AI Funding Series

AI Opportunities Action Plan and the Assurance Innovation Fund

£11 Million Fund — Open Spring 2026

The government's 50-point AI strategy and the £11 million Assurance Innovation Fund, BridgeAI, Manchester Prize, and more.

£11M FundAI AssuranceBridgeAIGOV.UK
Read Now
UK Government AI Funding Series

The DSIT Budget Increase 2026/27

£965 Million Additional Budget

What a £242M resource and £723M capital budget increase at DSIT means in practice for AI founders seeking procurement contracts and public sector revenue.

£965M IncreaseProcurementPublic SectorDSIT
Read Now
UK Government AI Funding Series

The EIC Accelerator

Up to €2.5 Million Grant — UK Eligible

Europe's most prestigious deep tech grant, open to UK founders under Horizon Europe association. Non-dilutive, globally credible, and underused by British startups.

€2.5M GrantNon-DilutiveUK EligibleDeep Tech
Read Now
UK Government AI Funding Series

Innovate UK Innovation Loans

£100K to £5 Million — No Deadline — Rolling Applications

A government-backed loan for AI and technology SMEs in late stage R&D. No equity dilution, no personal guarantees, and no submission deadline. What it is, whether you qualify, and exactly how to apply.

£100K to £5MNo DeadlineDigital and TechSMEs Only
Read Now
The Team

The people
behind BlazingRed

Decades of frontline experience across the world's most significant technology shifts.

Steve Kelly
Steve Kelly
Director

I am a commercial navigator with decades of go to market experience spanning every seat at the table: founder, director, shareholder, advisor, and individual sales contributor. My background ranges from first boots on the ground at early stage startups to some of the most recognised software vendors in the world, including Salesforce and Cisco.

My career has been defined by the Complexity Gap: that dangerous space where brilliant innovation meets a market that is either too cynical to believe it or too uneducated to use it. I have not only navigated that gap, I have built the narratives that transform sophisticated technology into market dominant categories.

I have landed landmark deals at Tier 1 institutions including Barclays, HMRC, and British Steel, and built commercial strategies that led to acquisitions by industry titans whose technology is still sold today by IBM, FICO, and Broadcom.

Today I serve as Board Advisor to a number of early stage AI SaaS startups, bringing that foundational experience directly to founders navigating the transition from founder led selling to scalable, exit ready growth.

Profile Coming Soon
New Team Member
Partnership & Go to Market Advisor

I bring decades of experience helping technology companies design and execute high impact B2B partnership and go to market strategies. I have worked across startups, scale ups, and global enterprises, tailoring partnership models to each business's needs and consistently delivering measurable value and recurring revenue.

I help companies use relationships to drive sustainable revenue growth while improving sales efficiency, productivity, and repeatability. My experience spans strategy definition and execution, structuring commercial and legal partner engagement models, and aligning sales and marketing teams internally and with partners to ensure successful collaboration and results.

Full profile coming soon.

Case Studies & Current Projects

Current project examples
& case studies

Real outcomes from real engagements. Names anonymised for confidentiality.

cxoready.com
AI Governance Platform
GTM Board Advisor

Board advisory for a bootstrapped AI governance startup. Helping shape go to market strategy, commercial narrative, and sales architecture from the ground up.

cxoready.com ↗
akheon.com
Collective Intelligence Infrastructure
GTM Advisor

Helping define a brand new category of AI and land first customers. Category creation, narrative design, and early commercial motion for a collective intelligence platform.

akheon.com ↗
dokifi.ai
AI Bid Management Tool
GTM Advisor

Helping build the outbound engine for an AI powered bid management tool, including pipeline strategy, ICP definition, and early sales motion design.

dokifi.ai ↗
Consulting Firm
Services to Software Pivot
Fractional Engagement

Operational fractional work supporting a strategic pivot from professional services to software products, including GTM repositioning and commercial model redesign.

Email Compliance Startup, UK
From zero revenue to mandatory compliance standard at the world's top tier banks
Electronic Communications Surveillance

The pivot that unlocked enterprise adoption: reframing a surveillance tool as an institutional insurance policy and reputational shield. By repositioning the technology as a mandatory compliance standard rather than a discretionary policing tool, the product was embedded into Tier 1 banks with enterprise wide urgency. A sticky, recurring revenue model followed, ultimately leading to a successful acquisition by a major software vendor.

Why this matters to founders Knowing how to turn a compliance obligation into a business critical infrastructure play creates the high level urgency required for enterprise wide rollout and positions the company as an indispensable part of the buyer's stack.
0 to Tier 1
Revenue Journey
Acquired
Exit Outcome
Sticky
Revenue Model
AI Startup, UK
Defining personalisation: from Expert Systems to the Rule Based Personalisation Engine
Java Based Business Rules Management

The pivot that created a category: by renaming the technology to match the market's hunger for e-commerce personalisation, the product won the UK's first internet bank as a customer, delivering instant credit underwriting at scale. The repositioning drove rapid market adoption, culminating in a successful IPO and a trade sale within two years.

Why this matters to founders Renaming the box to match what the market is already hungry for is one of the most powerful GTM moves available to an early stage startup. The technology does not change. The narrative does, and with it, the entire commercial trajectory.
IPO
Exit Path
2 Years
To Trade Sale
First
UK Internet Bank
Software Startup, UK
Winning the GUI Wars: from Widget Emulation to Platform Insurance
Portable GUI Toolkit

While competitors fought over pixels, the sale was moved from the developer to the C Suite by reframing the conversation entirely. Platform Independence was not a technical feature — it was the only rational response to market uncertainty. By positioning the product as Platform Insurance, the customer's fear of backing the wrong technology became the most powerful closing argument in the room.

Why this matters to founders Your biggest competitor is not another startup. It is your customer's fear of picking the wrong technology. We know how to position your product as the safe bet, eliminating that fear and moving the buying decision to where it belongs: the boardroom.
C Suite
Sale Elevated To
Zero
Platform Risk
Category
Created
Careers

Join the team

We are a small, growing advisory and fractional services firm. When we hire, we hire carefully. If you are ambitious, curious, and want to learn from people who have genuinely done this before, read on.

Now Hiring
Fractional Business Development Representative
Part Time Self Employed Up to 16 hrs/week Remote

Fractional outbound support across our client portfolio. Build prospect lists, write and send AI powered sequences, and book discovery calls for senior advisors. Real exposure to GTM strategy across multiple AI and technology startups.

Lusha Apollo Instantly ChatGPT Claude Gemini
View Full Job Description
Now Hiring
Fractional Social Media and Content Marketing Assistant
Part Time Self Employed Up to 16 hrs/week Remote

Be the fractional social media voice for two luxury consumer brands. Create and manage content across Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook. Write captions, build content pillars, and help grow two distinct brand presences from the ground up.

Canva Later / Buffer Email Marketing Instagram Insights ChatGPT / Claude
View Full Job Description

We do not always advertise. If you are interested in working with BlazingRed in any capacity, including advisory, fractional, or operational roles, send a short note to stevekelly@blazingred.co.uk telling us what you do and why BlazingRed interests you.

Ready for ignition?

Whether you're pre seed and building your narrative, or Series A and scaling the engine, we'd like to hear about your company. Send us a message, call directly, or book a meeting.

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