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Open · Five places · Reviewed in the order they arrive

Five firms. Founding rates. Direct partner involvement.

We are taking five firms into the founding cohort at below-standard fees. In exchange, we ask for candid feedback and permission to document what changes. When the fifth engagement is signed, the cohort closes.

Why we are confident

We ran the method on our own P&L first

Pyxl has real clients, deadlines and a real P&L. We rebuilt how work was produced and then changed how it was priced. From August 2025 through Q2 2026, gross margin expanded 1,300 basis points and EBITDA margin 1,800 basis points (13 and 18 percentage points). The difference between the two matters. Delivery costs sit in COGS, so the 13-point gross-margin gain carries down to EBITDA on its own; the roughly five additional points came from operating leverage below gross profit, as operating expenses fell or grew more slowly than revenue. That is internal evidence from one company. The founding cohort exists to learn how the same operating principles perform across different professional services firms, service lines, cost structures and governance environments.

The cost of working it out — 18 months of it — has already been absorbed. A cohort firm starts from a method that has been corrected in production and a platform that already runs, which is why the engagement is priced against configuration rather than invention.

“As Pyxl’s long-time Controller, I see the impact of AI through Pyxl Intelligence in the financial results, not just in anecdotal productivity gains. Over the past nine months, Pyxl has expanded gross margin by 13 percentage points and EBITDA margin by 18 percentage points. The gross-margin improvement reflects stronger delivery economics, and that gain flowed through to EBITDA. EBITDA expanded further as the company also generated additional operating leverage below gross profit. From a finance perspective, this is a meaningful improvement in the operating model, not simply a technology-efficiency story.”

Alban Howorth Controller, Pyxl and Founder, Howorth Accounting Pyxl Intelligence is the operating-intelligence system Maybank built inside Pyxl.

Gross margin

+1,300 bps

Less effort per engagement, at fees we held rather than discounted.

EBITDA margin

+1,800 bps

Total EBITDA-margin expansion, including the 13-point gross-margin gain and approximately five additional points of operating leverage below gross profit.

Brief to first concept

−42%

Less production time to the first useful version of the work.

Headcount did come down, and where it came down matters. Almost all of it was overhead — coordination, status reporting, administrative handoffs, the work that existed to move work between people. Production capacity was not cut. We still needed everyone who makes the thing the client pays for.

The distinction matters commercially. Cutting production buys one year of margin and costs the capacity to deliver. Removing the overhead around production leaves the margin in place, because the work still gets done, with fewer people standing between the brief and the output.

The agents we built along the way run inside Pyxl as Pyxl Intelligence. The same operating pattern is what we configure for client firms as Maybank Service Intelligence. It was built to survive real deadlines before it was ever offered to anyone else.

The +18-point EBITDA margin result is the number we would want to understand if we were evaluating this from your position: what changed, what drove it, and whether any part of the mechanism exists in your firm.

Where the overhead actually was

  • Moving work between people

    Briefing, re-briefing, and the status meetings that existed because nobody could see the current state.

  • Rebuilding what already existed

    Work produced from scratch because finding the prior version took longer than starting over.

  • Review that caught variance, not errors

    Senior time spent reconciling eleven ways of doing one thing, rather than checking quality.

  • Assembling the same report every month

    Reporting and recurring deliverables rebuilt by hand each cycle from the same sources.

If you recognize three of those four, there may be a similar source of efficiency in your firm. The assessment tells you whether it is material enough to pursue.

Apply these rates to your own margins →

The honest caveat

We are not presenting the cohort as statistical validation. We are using it to create cross-firm evidence while keeping both partners personally involved.

Selection

What we are looking for

We are not selecting on size. We are selecting on whether the engagement will produce something we both learn from.

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Who this is not for

Firms that want a tool recommendation only, firms where nobody can change delivery or pricing, or firms that need AI usage to remain invisible to clients.

Your side

What we need from you

Engagements that go badly usually go badly for one of these reasons, so we are explicit about them before either of us commits.

A named owner

One person with budget authority and a mandate. Not a committee, and not someone doing this alongside a full client load.

Access to your best practitioners

Roughly two hours each from the people who deliver the work best. The method comes from them, not from us.

Your real contracts

Not the template — the executed agreements with your largest clients. The permitted-use position depends on what was actually signed.

Honesty about shadow usage

People are already using these tools. We need to know where, without anyone being disciplined for saying so.

What the cohort trade actually is

You give us access to the real work, contracts and candid feedback. You leave with a written assessment, permitted-use position, reviewed assets you own, an installed review gate, and a deliberate commercial decision.

What we need from you
What you leave with
A named owner with budget authority
A written readout of where your model is ready
Roughly two hours each from your best practitioners
A permitted-use position grounded in your real contracts
Your executed client agreements, not the template
Reviewed prompts and tools your firm keeps using
An honest account of where shadow usage already is
A review gate inside the QA step you already run
A decision on where the efficiency should land
Founding-cohort fees, below our standard fixed fees

Maybank method · five founding places

The application

Eight questions, about ten minutes

Longer than a contact form deliberately. A partner reads every application.

What happens next

  1. We reply either way within a week.
  2. If it looks like a fit, a partner takes 45 minutes with you at no charge.
  3. If we both still want to proceed, the assessment starts within a month.
  4. If we decline, we tell you why and point you toward what would help.

Application received

Thank you — this is genuinely read by a partner, not scored by software. You will hear from us either way within a week.

While you wait, the readiness assessment takes three minutes and gives us a starting point, which means we spend the call on answers rather than questions.

Take the assessment

Want a copy for your own records? Open your answers as an email.

Eight questions

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Your firm

Sector

Pick the closest one

The work

How is most of that work billed today?

Ownership and timing

When would you want to start?

One condition, so it is not a surprise later. Founding-cohort fees are offered in exchange for candid feedback and a documented case study, anonymized if you prefer.

This one is required — it is the whole basis of the fee

This is required to submit your application

You

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Read by a partner, not scored by software. Reply either way within a week.

Common questions

Questions about the cohort

What makes the cohort fees below market?

We are taking five firms at fees below our standard fixed fees, in exchange for candid feedback while the work is running and a documented case study at the end. That exchange is the whole basis of the discount.

What do you need from us in return?

Feedback while the work is in progress, including when the problem is us, and permission to document what changed. What gets published is agreed with you before it goes anywhere.

What happens if you decline our application?

We tell you why, and point you at what would help. A partner reads every application; nothing is scored by software.

Does applying commit us to anything?

No. Applying starts a conversation. Nothing is committed until scope and a fixed fee are in writing and you have signed them.

Not ready to apply?

Take the readiness assessment instead. Three minutes, no call required.

Or watch the 18-minute executive briefing — the full economic argument, no call required.

Take the assessment