State of the Business

The story of T1 2026 has four threads: the book launch that marked August’s biggest public moment in years, revenue that hit new all-time highs even as the sales landscape shifted, a genuine commitment to AI adoption inside and outside the firm, and a cash crunch that tested our resilience and improved our systems.

We launched our book.

Teams That Meet the Moment published May 5: a cornerstone of the 2030 strategy to increase the fame of the firm. The months-long build culminated in May: a marketing/book distribution strategy, a full newsletter relaunch in February (expanding from less than 1,000 subscribers to 3,187+ subscribers), Fast Company coverage in March, various podcast interviews, the team assessment tool going live at assessment.aug.co, and a coordinated push through April to the East Village launch party and books in hand of our network. Every function contributed: marketing, sales collateral, PR (external), team video content, team outreach, endorsement strategy, network engagement strategy, and Amazon logistics. The book codifies the firm's core methodology and is already shaping how we position August externally.

Revenue hit new highs, even as the sales landscape shifted.

T1 delivered $1.91M, 12% above T1 2025 and 2% above trimester average. The 12-month rolling revenue hit $5,779,158, a new all-time high. Total closed-won value was essentially flat year-over-year ($2.19M vs. $2.19M), but the shape changed dramatically: 40 deals closed vs. 18 in T1 2025, with average deal size dropping from $128K to $55K. No 6-month anchor contracts appeared in the pipeline. The net new story is stronger than it looks: 13 NN deals worth $540K (vs. just 3 deals / $319K in T1 2025), a 4x increase in deal count and 70% increase in value. January and February were soft, but April became a standout revenue month, qualification meetings reached 56 of 90, and conference season (Chief of Staff Summit, Gartner town halls, Transform, 3 Gartner executive dinners) generated movement in the pipeline. The tension between a strong topline and structural shifts in deal size and duration is the story to watch heading into T2.

We got serious about AI, internally and externally.

This was the trimester where AI went from talking point to practice. Internally, August moved to the Claude team account (sunsetting ChatGPT usage), discontinued Otter, embraced Granola, launched frAIdays (a structured team AI learning series), and began building toward a shared “second brain” workflow. Team members continued to use Claude in internal and client work: building live dashboards, PDF worksheets, offering drafts, pipeline projections from HubSpot, dynamic pitch decks. Adoption was real but uneven; a March MonCon meeting noted “more capabilities but a longer learning curve.” Externally, the AI offering evolved from a draft POV in January to a CHRO-specific playbook, 50 printed implementation playbooks for the Transform conference, and ~6 active pre-pipeline AI conversations by April. The pipeline target for AI offerings rose from 10% to 40% of net new. A public-facing AI learning lab series is set to launch in T2.

A cash crunch tested the firm, and improved our systems.

In February and March a combo of a large amount of AR collection delays ($800K in delayed receivables at the peak), and the $700K annual bonus created operational tension. Partners chose to defer salaries to help manage our cashflow. Cash runway dropped below one month. We responded quickly: a $200K line of credit was secured as a backstop, daily cash standups were instituted, and we built a more detailed dashboard for day-by-day AR tracking. By late March the crisis resolved: Autodesk paid $100K early, collections caught up, partner pay was restored. Cash runway recovered to 5.95 months by late April (policy: 6.0 months). More importantly, the crisis produced lasting improvements: conservative 60–90 day pipeline weighting, regular cash monitoring, and a new focus on year-end cash balance goal. The risk was real; the discipline it prompted is durable.

What we’re learning from the market that shapes our strategy heading into T2.

Deal size compression continues

Average deal size dropped to ~$55K from $128K a year ago. Buyers are purchasing in sprints, not programs. The implication: August needs roughly 2x the deal volume to hit the same revenue targets, which puts pressure on the sales team’s capacity and makes every large anchor deal disproportionately important.

Former clients remain the best pipeline source

Genentech (lapsed, now $374K), Marriott (from $10K to $195K), and Siemens (via network) all demonstrate that relationships compound. The 2025 10-year anniversary outreach and in-person dinner strategy are generating measurable returns.

AI is not a standalone buy

The April retreat conclusion (stop leading with AI) reflects what the market is telling us. Buyers want their transformation challenges solved, potentially with AI as a tool. The Maginative partnership has not yet converted small initial engagements into larger transformation work.

Government and subcontract channels emerging

DOT/Gartner ($153K) opened a new channel. MWBE certification is creating access to government-adjacent work that didn’t exist in the pipeline before.

Competitive signal: European incumbency matters

Danone’s $1M loss to Hubble suggests that for global clients, local relationships and existing vendor status carry significant weight. Worth noting for future global account strategy.