Founding Partner Programme
Founding Partner
Ten seats. Co-build the advisory playbook. Earn 70% of every engagement you bring. Full white-label rights and direct access to Marg, a 108-agent AI workforce. Sourcing begins July 2026.
Founding Partners are sourced by referral only. Ten seats total. Closed after ten signed.
Benefits
What Founding Partners receive
White-label rights
Sell Marg under your firm's brand. Your clients need never see the Appetals name if you prefer. The platform, the diagnostics, and the Blueprint all carry your identity.
Revenue split: 70/30 year one
You earn 70% of every client engagement you bring in the first 12 months. At renewal, the split moves to 60/40 in your favour. No platform fee. No certification fee.
Co-authored case studies
Every successful engagement becomes a jointly bylined case study. Published under your firm name and Appetals. The proof library compounds with every client you close.
Quarterly strategy sessions
Ninety minutes with Ishwar every quarter. You bring your three biggest wins and three biggest losses. Ishwar brings what he is seeing across the full partner network and the six ICPs.
First access to new playbooks
New ICP briefs, new diagnostic tools, new case study templates, and new outreach frameworks reach Founding Partners first, before they are released to Certified Partners or the public.
Founding Partner badge and Slack channel
A Founding Partner badge in the Appetals brand kit, a private Slack channel (#founding-partners) with the full cohort of ten, and direct access to Ishwar for escalations.
Obligations
What we expect from a Founding Partner
The 70/30 split reflects a genuine co-investment. In return, we expect active delivery, not passive association.
- Minimum engagement volume. Run four or more client engagements per year on the Marg operating system. Each engagement must use the full Marg diagnostic pipeline, from Blueprint through to weekly diagnosis sessions. No agent-skipping.
- Open-book quarterly review. Share your top three client wins and top three losses every quarter with Ishwar. This is not a reporting obligation. It is how the playbook improves for every partner.
- Brand standards compliance. All client-facing content under the Appetals or Marg name must meet the brand voice standards. The Appetals design-brand-guardian agent reviews all public outputs. Peer review happens in the #brand-and-voice Slack channel.
- Non-competition on named clients. You may advise any client you choose. You may not serve a business that is an active, named Appetals direct retainer client during the term of the partnership.
Qualification criteria
The five criteria every Founding Partner clears
10 or more years operating or advisory experience
Demonstrated in named engagements. Not just stated on a profile.
Three or more referenceable SME clients in at least one of our six ICPs
Manufacturing, Financial Services, Study Abroad, Media and Entertainment, or Edtech. References are checked before any offer is made.
Brand voice fit: 75 out of 100 on a writing sample
You submit one page of client-facing writing. It is assessed against the Appetals brand voice standard by the Marg design-brand-guardian agent. A score below 75 is not a permanent disqualification. It is a coaching signal.
Basic tooling literacy
Familiar with AI tools, modern CRM platforms, Google Workspace, and workflow concepts. Full Marg training is provided; prior awareness reduces the onboarding ramp.
Founder reference call with Ishwar
Non-negotiable. Every other criterion can be strong; if this call does not produce a mutual yes, the process stops here. This is how we protect the quality of every engagement in the network.
The process
Five steps from referral to your first independent engagement
Referral
Email [email protected] with your referrer's name in the subject line. This is the only way in. Cold applications without a referrer are not reviewed.
Review
Ishwar reviews your background against the five qualification criteria. If the fit looks strong, you receive an invitation to the founder reference call within five business days.
Founder reference call
A 60-minute call with Ishwar. No pitch from either side. He wants to understand your operating background, your current client relationships, and why you want to co-build this practice.
Decision
Within five business days of the call, Ishwar confirms yes or no. If yes, you receive the Master Partnership Agreement and the onboarding calendar.
Onboarding bootcamp
A four-week structured programme: brand and operating model in week one; Marg pipeline integration in week two; live engagement shadow in week three; first independent engagement in week four.
Commercials
The numbers, plainly stated
| Item | Founding Partner |
|---|---|
| Year one revenue split | 70% partner / 30% Appetals |
| Renewal revenue split | 60% partner / 40% Appetals |
| Platform fee | None |
| Certification fee | None |
| Contract term | 24 months, auto-renewing on 12-month cycles |
| Termination notice | 90 days, no cause required |
| Settlement period | 30 days from client payment receipt |
| Attribution window | Deal source in our CRM is authoritative. 30-day lock. |
| Non-solicitation post-termination | 12 months on named direct retainer clients |
| Marg access | All 108 agents, splinter system, white-label output mode |
Worked example: a manufacturing client on a INR 100,000/month retainer with a 2% revenue share component produces an effective average of approximately INR 150,000/month. At the 70/30 year-one split, the Founding Partner receives INR 105,000. At renewal (60/40), INR 90,000.