Petronella Operator Council - A 20-Seat Async-First Cohort For Regulated-MSP Owners
For MSP owners running $3M-$15M, already profitable, who want peer caliber and strategic counsel without burning ten hours a week on group calls. Twelve weeks of async onboarding, peer-led weekly roundtables, monthly live Craig Q&A, and an automated P&L benchmarking engine that shows you where you actually sit in the pack.
12-Week Async Onboarding
No live Craig instruction during onboarding. Every lesson is pre-recorded so members move at their own pace. Members who complete onboarding in six weeks get the remaining six to apply the curriculum to their own practice.
Kickoff & ICP
Pre-recorded Craig intro plus worksheet. Narrow ICP to one regulated vertical.
Mature Owner Growth Fundamentals
Pre-recorded. How $3M-plus MSP owners compound without adding headcount.
39-Layer As A Sellable Framework
Remix of existing Training Academy curriculum. How to commercialize the framework to end clients.
CMMC L2 Gap Assessment Process
Remix of CMMC Bootcamp. Run your first gap assessment by end of week.
CMMC L2 Delivery & Pricing
Pre-recorded Craig plus template. Pricing anchors, scoping language, SOW mechanics.
HIPAA Playbooks
Remix of Craig's HIPAA book. Policy packets, breach response, HHS audit posture.
Private AI Service Design
Pre-recorded fleet walkthrough. How to price and scope private-AI engagements.
Private AI Deployment & SOW
Pre-recorded plus guest-expert recording. Deployment runbook, SOW language.
Forensics-Ready Incident Response
Remix of existing IR template. Evidence preservation, chain of custody basics.
Expert-Witness Positioning
Pre-recorded Craig signature. How forensics credentials open strategic client doors.
Marketing & Sales For Mature Owners
Pre-recorded plus guest recording. No cold calling, no chambers.
Peer Action-Plan Roundtable
Peer-led - Blake moderates initially, rotates to senior alumni after month 4.
Ongoing Membership Benefits
After Week 12, the full ladder of recurring benefits unlocks for the rest of the membership year.
Monthly Live Craig Q&A
One 60-minute webinar per month. Submit questions in advance; Craig answers live. Shared with Tier 1 and Tier 4 members - recorded and archived.
1:1 Private Sessions On-Demand
Book through book.petronella.ai/private at standard Private Session rates ($5K/$12K/$25K). Council members get scheduling priority when Craig opens slots.
Weekly Peer Roundtables
Peer-led sessions in Circle. Blake moderates initially; rotates to senior alumni after month four. Structured agenda, 5-member minimum to run.
Quarterly Outside-Expert Sessions
Guest expert records once, plays in the community. Zero Craig live time required.
Annual Async Summit Week
Six recorded sessions drop across one week. Peer discussion in Circle. Craig records a 10-minute async kickoff Loom.
Automated P&L Benchmarking
Submit numbers via structured form. Pipeline aggregates and publishes anonymized quarterly. See where you actually sit versus the peer group.
Deal-Flow Channel
Post deals you cannot serve; routing engine matches to members with matching capacity. Fully automated.
Community Q&A
Peer-answered first. Petronella staff escalates only true blockers. Owner-group energy without dependency loop.
Who This Is For
Application review is auto-scored first; only hot applicants hit Craig's 15-minute fit call. We are deliberate about who joins - the peer benchmarking and deal-flow economics break if the cohort mix is wrong.
Revenue Signal
MSP $3M-$15M in annual revenue. Already profitable. Not looking to be saved - looking to compound faster.
Regulated-Client Mix
At least one regulated-SMB client already in the book, or an active pursuit. Defense, healthcare, legal, or financial.
Owner-Operator
The owner is still the one running the business. Absentee-operator investors are not a fit for this cohort.
Peer-First Posture
You believe other operators at your size solve your problems faster than consultants do. Council is built for that.
How The Council Runs Month To Month
The Council is built around one constraint: an owner running a profitable MSP does not have ten hours a week for meetings. The operating rhythm below shows where every hour goes, so you can judge the commitment before you apply.
The first twelve weeks are the 12-week async onboarding curriculum. Every lesson is pre-recorded, so you move at your own pace and nothing depends on showing up live at a set hour. Members who finish the curriculum in six weeks keep the remaining six weeks to apply it to their own practice: running a gap assessment the way Week 4 teaches, or pricing a CMMC Level 2 engagement the way Week 5 teaches. After Week 12, the recurring benefits run for the rest of the membership year on a rhythm you can plan around:
Weekly: Peer Roundtables In The Community
Peer-led sessions run in the Circle community workspace with a structured agenda. Blake moderates at the start and the role rotates to senior alumni after month four, so the agenda stays owned by operators rather than by staff. A roundtable needs a five-member minimum to run, which keeps the discussion from becoming a one-owner monologue.
Monthly: The Live Craig Q&A Webinar
One 60-minute webinar per month. You submit questions in advance and Craig answers them live. The same event serves Tier 1 Stack members and Tier 4 Strategic Partnership clients, and every session is recorded and archived, so a month you miss costs you nothing except the chance to ask live.
Quarterly: Outside-Expert Sessions And Benchmarking
A guest expert records a session once and it plays in the community for discussion, again on your schedule. On the benchmarking side, you submit your numbers through a structured form and the pipeline publishes anonymized results quarterly, so you see where your margins, headcount ratios and service mix actually sit versus the peer group.
Annually: The Async Summit Week
Six recorded sessions drop across one summit week, with peer discussion underneath each one in the community. Craig opens the week with a 10-minute recorded kickoff. Nothing requires you to be anywhere at a specific time.
Always On: Deal Flow And Community Q&A
The deal-flow channel lets you post a deal you cannot serve and routes it automatically to the member whose capacity and credentials match it. Community questions get peer answers first; Petronella staff escalates only genuine blockers. The pricing page puts the standing time commitment at roughly two hours per month of async curriculum, plus the optional roundtables and the monthly Q&A.
When You Need It: Private Time With Craig
Council members book 1:1 private sessions at the standard Private Session rates of $5,000 for two hours, $12,000 for a half day and $25,000 for a full day, and they get scheduling priority when Craig opens slots. Membership does not include free private hours; it moves you up the queue. See the Private Session page for the formats and booking mechanics.
The Firm Behind The Council
A peer council is only as good as the firm convening it and the operator answering the hard questions. Here is who you are actually dealing with.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. is a cybersecurity, digital forensics and compliance firm headquartered in Raleigh, NC. It was founded on April 5, 2002, has held an A+ BBB accreditation since 2003, and is listed with The Cyber AB as a Registered Provider Organization, RPO #1449. The whole team holds CMMC Registered Practitioner credentials, which is why the program describes a CMMC Registered Practitioner Team rather than one credentialed individual, and the firm runs a 24/7 SOC for co-managed detection and response work.
Craig Petronella, the founder, has more than 30 years of experience and is MIT-Certified in AI and Blockchain. His working credentials include CMMC Registered Practitioner (CMMC-RP), Cisco CCNA, CWNE, and North Carolina Digital Forensic Examiner License 604180-DFE, and he is a #1 Amazon best-selling author. His full background is on the Craig Petronella team page. That mix matters for this cohort specifically: the onboarding curriculum and the monthly Q&A draw on the same compliance and forensics work the firm delivers for regulated clients, from CMMC Level 2 gap work to incident response, rather than on generic MSP coaching content. If you want to see how the firm describes its compliance delivery to end clients, start with the CMMC compliance services page and the digital forensics page.
One structural point worth knowing before you apply: documents signed by a credentialed practitioner, such as a CMMC Registered Practitioner, attestation letters, submissions to regulators or assessors, and Business Associate Agreements always carry the Petronella Technology Group, Inc. name. That policy applies across the partner program, including work you originate as a partner.
How The Application And Charter Seat Work
The Council is application-only, and the screening is deliberate: the benchmarking data and the deal-flow channel only produce value while the cohort mix stays right, so a wrong-fit seat costs every other member something.
Submit The Application
Use the partner application form and indicate the Operator Council tier. Applications are auto-scored first, so answer the revenue, profitability and regulated-client questions precisely.
Fit Review
Fit review runs within two business days. Only hot applicants move to Craig's 15-minute fit call; everyone else gets a decision without a call.
Charter Terms
Charter Cohort 1 runs 12 seats at $45,000/yr, locked for 24 months. Per the pricing page, a $5,000 application and onboarding fee applies and is credited if you are accepted within 30 days. Once the 12 charter seats fill, subsequent members pay the standard $60,000/yr or $5,000/mo.
Checkout And Start
Annual membership is paid upfront through Stripe, and checkout requires a confirmation checkbox acknowledging the non-refundable and no-guarantee terms. Onboarding access starts after payment, and you can begin the pre-recorded curriculum the same week.
Read the terms before you pay: the annual membership fee is non-refundable, there is no mid-year withdrawal refund, and members may simply elect not to renew at the end of the term. No guarantees of revenue lift, deal flow, peer outcomes or curriculum results are made or implied.
Council Or Another Tier? How To Decide
The four paid tiers stand alone, with no cross-credits, so the question is which one matches the problem in front of you right now.
Choose Stack If You Need Curriculum First
Petronella MSP Stack is the self-serve membership at $1,997/mo or $19,970/yr: the full Training Academy catalog on the member's account, the community, and the monthly Q&A. If your gap is training and frameworks rather than peer counsel, start with Stack. Stack has no seat cap and no application.
Choose Fleet If A Client Deal Needs Prototyping
Petronella Fleet is a project-scoped private AI prototyping engagement, $35,000 to $125,000+ depending on the sub-tier, with five to six engagements per year. If a specific regulated client needs a working private-AI prototype and compliance mapping, that is a delivery engagement, not a membership decision.
Choose Council For Peer Caliber And Benchmarking
If you are at $3M-$15M, profitable, and want a 20-seat cohort of comparable owners plus anonymized P&L benchmarking, the Council is the tier built for that stage. It includes the full Training Academy catalog for your team plus all Stack-tier materials, so you do not give up the curriculum by choosing the cohort.
Strategic Comes Later, If At All
The Strategic Partnership is the Tier 4 advisory engagement for owners at $8M+ with 30% or more regulated revenue. Council seats are included in it. Owners below $8M are better served here first; the Strategic Partnership is the Tier 4 engagement for owners at $8M+.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Operator Council membership cost?
How much time does membership take each month?
What happens in the 12-week onboarding?
Is the membership fee refundable?
Can I book private 1:1 time with Craig as a member?
Who runs the weekly peer roundtables?
What is included in the membership besides the cohort?
How is the benchmarking data handled?
Do I qualify for the Council?
What if my MSP is smaller than $3M?
Is any outcome guaranteed?
What The Benchmarking And Deal Flow Actually Do
Two of the Council's recurring benefits are automated systems rather than meetings, and they are the reason the cohort mix is screened as hard as it is. Here is how each one works and what it asks of you.
The P&L Benchmarking Pipeline
Once per quarter you submit your operating numbers through a structured form: the pipeline aggregates the submissions and publishes anonymized results, so each member sees where their own margins, growth rates and service mix sit against comparable regulated-MSP owners. The dataset is only as useful as the submissions behind it, which is why membership is capped at 20 seats and why the revenue band is enforced at application. A cohort of wildly different sizes would produce averages nobody can act on.
The Deal-Flow Channel
When you are offered a piece of work you cannot serve, whether it is out of scope, out of capacity or outside your credentials, you post it to the deal-flow channel. The routing engine matches it to the member with the matching capacity, and the matching member takes the work instead of the referral dying or the client going to a stranger. It runs automatically with no staff in the loop, which means it works on the weekend a client calls at 5pm just as well as it works on Tuesday morning.
The Included Training Catalog
Council membership includes the full Petronella Training Academy catalog for your team, plus all Tier 1 Stack materials: 35 courses and 779 lessons including the CMMC 2.0 Implementation Bootcamp and the 39-Layer Cybersecurity Framework course. That is the same catalog the pricing page values at $14,767 in list prices, included for your team rather than one member account. Weeks 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of the onboarding curriculum remix that same course material, so your technicians and your Council curriculum stay aligned.
Questions To Ask Before You Apply For Any Peer Council
A $45,000 to $60,000 annual commitment deserves the same diligence you would apply to any capital decision. These are the questions we would ask in your position, with the answers this program gives to each.
Who else is in the cohort?
The screening criteria on this page are the answer: owner-operators at $3M-$15M, profitable, with regulated clients in defense, healthcare, legal or financial services. The 20-seat annual cap keeps the group small enough that members actually know each other's businesses.
What is the real time cost?
Roughly two hours per month of async curriculum plus optional roundtables and the monthly Q&A, per the pricing page. Live attendance is never required; everything live is recorded and archived. If a program's value depended on your presence at a fixed hour, it would conflict with running an MSP, which is the constraint this format was designed around.
What happens if it is not working for me?
The fee is non-refundable and there is no mid-year withdrawal refund, so the honest answer is that you finish the term. That is exactly why the application exists: both sides should be confident about the fit before checkout, not after. Members who complete a year and choose not to renew simply do not renew.
How does this compare to hiring a coach?
1:1 advisory at the depth Craig offers is available through Private Sessions at $5,000, $12,000 and $25,000 per format, and through the Tier 4 Strategic Partnership at $8M+ revenue. The Council's premise is different: operators at your size solve your problems faster than consultants do, and the peer benchmarking plus the deal-flow channel only exist in a cohort. If you want primarily 1:1 time, those are the entries built for it.
Ready To Apply For A Charter Seat?
Charter Cohort 1 runs 12 seats at $45,000/yr, locked for 24 months. Apply below - our team reviews within two business days. If you are hot, we send Craig's fit-call scheduling link. Need to test-drive the ecosystem first? Start with Petronella MSP Stack or take the MSP AI + Compliance Profit Playbook.