Petronella Strategic Partnership - Jay-Abraham-Model Advisory For Regulated-MSP Owners At $8M+ Revenue
Craig Petronella and a Petronella senior engage as strategic partner for 12 months. Counsel, capability, and skin-in-the-game aligned to outcomes. For MSP owners in active scale or M&A posture who want a strategic partner with forensics, CMMC-RP, and private-AI firepower on call.
Three-Option Engagement Menu
Option B is the default. Option A is available for partners who prefer zero-performance-dependency. Option C (equity or profit-interest) is only available for pre-exit owners and requires NC business-attorney review on both sides - rare by design.
Flat retainer. No performance component. For partners who want zero attribution conversations or profit-sharing complexity.
Jay-Abraham-model alignment. Petronella Technology Group carries skin-in-the-game on the outcomes we influence. Attribution is measured quarterly - what is earned is earned; what is not is not.
Rare by design. Structured only when the MSP is in an active or imminent exit window and the owner wants maximum alignment. NC business-attorney engagement required on both sides before signing.
What's Included
Delivery is team-led, not Craig-dependent. Craig's time is reserved for genuine strategic-decision moments and private coaching when you request it.
Monthly Live Webinar
Same event that serves Tier 1 and Tier 3 - one Craig event, three-tier audience. No separate Tier 4 standing call that wastes your time and his.
Quarterly Private Coaching
2-hour private coaching allocation per quarter - 8 hours/year - bookable through book.petronella.ai/private. Use it when you need it; not pushed on your calendar. Additional hours at standard Private Session rates.
Unlimited Async Messaging
Craig reviews strategic-decision messages in morning digest; routine status messages auto-reply. AI drafts 98% of replies; Craig taps SEND or MODIFY.
Full Petronella Capability Stack
CMMC-RP bench (4 engineers). DFE forensics (#604180). Private AI prototyping lab. n8n automation team. Delivered by team - not Craig-dependent.
M&A / Exit Readiness Documentation
Built async by Petronella team. Craig reviews final draft via email-button APPROVE flow. You get exit-ready documentation without burning weeks of owner hours.
Named Strategic Compliance Partner
Petronella Technology Group named on your marketing as strategic compliance partner. Credibility transfer is direct and documentable.
Tier 3 Seat Included
Operator Council membership bundled. Access to the 20-seat cohort, benchmarking, deal-flow network - no separate fee.
First-Right-Of-Refusal On Craig's VIP Slots
Two fixed coaching slots per week. Tier 4 clients have first-right-of-refusal on each slot; leftover slots open to Private Session buyers.
Qualification
Application-only. Tier 3 graduates preferred but not required. Your answers drive the discovery call; the discovery call drives whether we sign an engagement letter.
Revenue Floor
$8M+ annual MSP revenue minimum. Smaller books are better served by Tier 1 or Tier 3.
Regulated-Client Mix
30%+ revenue from regulated-SMB clients. The entire advisory thesis centers on the compliance-plus-AI moat - this must already be in your book.
Owner-Operator
Owner is active in the business. Absentee-PE-backed MSPs are better served by Option A as a straight advisory engagement.
Willingness To Discuss Rev-Share
Option B is the default. We are open to Option A; Option C requires very specific conditions. Not being open to a rev-share conversation usually signals a fit mismatch.
How The Engagement Runs Month To Month
The Strategic Partnership is deliberately low-ceremony: one shared live event per month, async messaging in between, quarterly private coaching, and a team that carries the delivery load. Here is what the cadence looks like in practice.
Daily: Async Messaging With A Human Gate
You send messages as decisions come up. Routine status messages get an auto-reply so nothing waits on a calendar. Strategic-decision messages land in Craig's morning digest, where AI drafts roughly 98% of replies and Craig taps SEND or MODIFY before anything reaches you. The design goal is that no reply is artificial and no reply waits a week.
Monthly: The Live Webinar
One 60-minute Craig webinar per month, the same event that serves Tier 1 Stack members and Tier 3 Council members. You submit questions in advance and attend live or watch the recording.
Quarterly: Private Coaching Hours
Your engagement includes a two-hour private coaching allocation per quarter, eight hours over the year, bookable through the Private Session page. Use the hours when a decision deserves them; they are not pushed onto your calendar. Hours beyond the allocation are available at the standard Private Session rates of $5,000, $12,000 and $25,000 per format.
Quarterly: Attribution Review
Under Option B, attribution is measured quarterly across a 24-month window: net-new regulated-scope revenue the engagement can document as attributable. What is earned is earned; what is not is not. Under Option A there is no attribution conversation at all, because the flat retainer carries the whole fee.
On Demand: The Capability Stack
The CMMC Registered Practitioner Team, the DFE forensics capability under North Carolina License 604180-DFE, the private AI prototyping lab and the n8n automation team are all delivered by the Petronella Technology Group, Inc. team. Delivery is team-led by design, and Craig's time stays reserved for genuine strategic decisions and the coaching hours you request.
On Your Timeline: Exit Readiness Documentation
M&A and exit readiness documentation is built asynchronously by the Petronella team, and Craig reviews the final draft through an email-button APPROVE flow. You get exit-ready documentation without spending weeks of owner hours in document workshops, which matters most in the year or two before a transaction.
The Team And Credentials Behind The Engagement
You are hiring a firm with a documented credential set, not a personal brand with a referral network around it.
Petronella Technology Group, Inc. was founded on April 5, 2002, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC, 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, the firm runs a 24/7 SOC, and the program's named-partner benefit puts Petronella Technology Group, Inc. on your marketing as your strategic compliance partner. Attestation letters, documents signed by a credentialed practitioner, submissions to regulators or assessors, and Business Associate Agreements always carry the firm's own name.
Craig Petronella, the founder, has more than 30 years of experience and is MIT-Certified in AI and Blockchain. His 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 team page. In this engagement, those credentials surface in three places: the forensics and incident response work available as part of the stack, the CMMC Level 2 delivery your regulated book demands, which you can read about on the CMMC compliance page, and the credibility transfer of a named strategic compliance partner when a buyer, an assessor or a large client asks who stands behind your compliance practice. For the advisory layer, the vCISO services page describes the compliance advisory capability the engagement draws on.
Choosing Between Option A, Option B And Option C
All three options buy the same delivery: the full capability stack, the monthly webinar, quarterly coaching hours, unlimited async messaging, the included Operator Council seat, and the M&A documentation work. The difference is only in how Petronella Technology Group, Inc. gets paid.
You want the advisory and the bench without any performance component. Option A runs from $35,000/mo flat on a 12-month term with a 90-day mutual out after month 6. Option A suits owners who do not want revenue attribution measured against them.
You want the partner's economics tied to the outcomes the engagement influences. Option B runs from $25,000/mo plus 12% of net-new attributable regulated-scope revenue, with a 24-month attribution window measured quarterly. It is the default for a reason: it is the structure where both sides track the same number.
You are in an active or imminent exit window and want maximum alignment through a profit-interest or success bonus of 0.5-2% on top of a from-$30,000/mo retainer. Option C is rare by design: it is available only to pre-exit owners and requires NC business-attorney engagement on both sides before signing.
Whatever the structure, the commercial terms are non-refundable: the monthly retainer is non-refundable, rev-share attribution is measured quarterly with earned fees earned and unearned fees not, and the engagement letter requires a written acknowledgement of the non-refundable and no-guarantee terms at signing. No guarantees of revenue lift, deal acquisition, exit valuation or any business outcome are made or implied.
What Happens After You Apply
The path from application to signed engagement letter is short, and every step has a stated decision point.
1. Application Review
Submit through the partner application indicating Tier 4. Applications are reviewed within two business days, and your answers on revenue, regulated-client mix and ownership structure drive the next step.
2. Discovery Call
Qualified applicants get a 60-minute discovery call. The call is where the three-option menu gets matched to your actual situation: which structure fits, which capability layers you need first, and what the first 90 days would look like.
3. Engagement Letter
If both sides want to proceed, Petronella Technology Group, Inc. issues an engagement letter carrying the non-refundable and no-guarantee acknowledgement. Under Option C, both sides' North Carolina business attorneys review before anything is signed.
4. Start
The retainer is invoiced once the engagement letter is signed. Onboarding begins with the capability assessment and the first quarterly coaching scheduling, and your included Operator Council seat activates with the engagement.
Questions before you apply? Call (919) 348-4912, use the contact form, or read how the free Petronella Partner agreement works, since it remains the $0 entry point into the program regardless of tier.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which engagement option is the default?
How is rev-share attribution measured?
Can we do a flat retainer with no rev-share?
What does Option C require?
Is the retainer refundable?
What coaching time with Craig is included?
Is the Operator Council seat really included?
What are the qualification thresholds?
How many Strategic clients do you take at once?
Will you sign documents our buyers and assessors will accept?
Are any outcomes guaranteed?
Where The Capability Stack Shows Up In Real Work
"Full capability stack" is only meaningful if you can picture the work it performs. These are the delivery layers the engagement draws on, each one a service Petronella Technology Group, Inc. runs for clients today.
Compliance Delivery
The CMMC Registered Practitioner Team supports CMMC Level 2, HIPAA Security Rule, NIST SP 800-171 and related readiness work: gap analysis, remediation planning, policy development and evidence support. As a Registered Provider Organization, RPO #1449, the firm is registered with The Cyber AB to provide CMMC-related consulting services to organizations seeking certification. The compliance layers of the program are described in more depth on the CMMC compliance page.
Forensics And Incident Response
The digital forensics capability operates under Craig's North Carolina Digital Forensic Examiner credential, License 604180-DFE. For a strategic client, that means a breach or a dispute triggers evidence-grade work rather than a rebuild-and-hope response, and the incident response capability rides on the firm's 24/7 SOC. The forensics practice is described on the digital forensics page.
Private AI And Automation
The private AI prototyping lab and the n8n automation team build the infrastructure your AI and automation roadmap calls for. This is the same capability behind Tier 2 Fleet engagements, which run $35,000 to $125,000+ per prototype. Inside the Strategic Partnership it is part of the stack rather than a separately scoped project.
Advisory And Named Partnership
The vCISO advisory layer, described on the vCISO services page, covers policy development, vendor risk management and board-level reporting. The named strategic compliance partner benefit puts the firm's name on your marketing in that role, and the included Named CMMC-RP co-signing attaches a credentialed practitioner's signature to the compliance work that warrants it.
Who This Engagement Is Not For
The three-client cap means a wrong-fit engagement costs more than a declined application. These are the situations where the honest answer is a different tier.
Below $8M Revenue
The advisory economics do not pencil for a smaller book, which is why the revenue floor is $8M+. An owner at $3M-$15M gets the peer counsel and benchmarking they need from the Operator Council at a fraction of the retainer, and the Council is where a future strategic relationship forms anyway.
Under 30% Regulated Revenue
The entire advisory thesis centers on the compliance-plus-AI moat in regulated markets. If regulated SMB clients are a small slice of your book today, the compliance and private-AI capability would have less to attach to. Build the regulated mix first; the tier ladder exists for exactly that sequencing.
Wanting A Passively Delivered Program
Everything on this page is delivered on demand against decisions you bring: messaging you send, coaching hours you book, documentation you request. An owner who wants a managed program that runs without their involvement is better served by Stack for curriculum and Council for the cohort rhythm, both of which run largely on their own cadence.
Expecting Guaranteed Outcomes
No guarantees of revenue lift, deal acquisition or exit valuation are made or implied, and the engagement letter says so in an acknowledgement you sign. If your decision framework requires a guaranteed number, this structure does not match it, and pretending otherwise would be the worst way to start a 12-month partnership.
Strategic Compared To The Rest Of The Ladder
Because the tiers stand alone with no cross-credits, it helps to see what changes at each step up and what stays the same.
Stack at $1,997/mo or $19,970/yr is self-serve: the Training Academy catalog, the community and the monthly Q&A, with no application. It teaches the frameworks. Strategic delivers the outcomes: a team executing alongside you, coaching hours, and a named partnership. Stack exists as its own tier and as the included baseline under Strategic.
Council gives a $3M-$15M owner peer counsel, benchmarking and deal flow. Strategic gives an $8M+ owner a delivery organization and Craig's direct strategic time, with the Council seat bundled inside it. The step from Council to Strategic trades cohort insight for committed delivery capacity and a rev-share structure with skin in the game.
Private Sessions buy Craig's hours one format at a time at $5,000, $12,000 and $25,000, with no ongoing relationship. Strategic is the 12-month structure around those hours: unlimited async between them, the capability stack behind them, and attribution economics under Option B that tie the fee to outcomes. If you mainly want occasional hours, book a session; if you want the operating partnership, apply for the engagement.
Ready To Apply?
Applications are reviewed within two business days. Qualified applicants receive a 60-minute discovery call; the outcome of that call is the three-option menu conversation. Retainer is invoiced once the engagement letter is signed. Questions? Call (919) 348-4912 or contact us. Want to preview the thesis first? Download the MSP AI + Compliance Profit Playbook.