Hourly Packages & Custom Consulting

HOURLY PACKAGES

1) Scope of the project

The HOURLY PACKAGES can be used on any agreed project: financial plans, document updates, creation of investor-ready documents, revisions of third-party documents, general consulting, grant applications, investor calls, due diligence support and custom projects. We would need to agree in a call or per email on the general scope of the project before starting.

2) Number of hours used

We’ll be able to provide you with an ESTIMATED NUMBER OF HOURS and timeline to complete the project, based on the average number of hours taken for similar tasks. However, these are just estimates and the more customised a project is, the more hours it may take, and in that case we will ask to purchase more hours if needed (usually with no more than 25% variance). We will make sure to take the least amount of hours possible to produce the deliverable by eliminating unnecessary tasks, especially when you communicate a set budget number of hours. These are just estimates of the hours needed for the most requested documents:

• Financial Plan Advanced (not included in other documents) 20-25 hours
• Fast-Track Financial Plan (online submission only, no revisions, not included in other documents) 9 hours
• Pitch Deck (15 pages) 16 hours
• Fast-track Pitch Deck (online submission only, no revisions) 5 hours
• Business Plan 30-35 hours
• Executive Summary 5 hours
• Market Feasibility 6 hours
• Long Pitch Deck 24 hours
• Investment Teaser 7 hours
• Valuation (not included in other documents) 8 hours
• Fast-track valuation (online submission only, no revisions, not included in other documents) 3 hours
• Calculation Engagement Report (valuation report) 13 hours
• Financial Analysis Document 13 hours
• Document Updates 4-25 hours (on average 15 hours)
• Calls 1-2 hours

3) Deadlines and urgency

We will reserve 15 HOURS PER WEEK (Monday to Friday, working days only), for every project, starting from the day after payment. If you have a deadline that requires more than 3 hours per day dedicated to your project, you can choose the FAST-TRACK SERVICE where we charge an extra 0.5 HOUR for every working day in advance that the project is delivered. For example, if we estimate your project to take 21 hours and you need it within 5 days, this equals to working 2 days in advance, so we will charge 21 instead of 20 hours. On the reverse, if we are unable to dedicated the set 15 hours to your projects in a given week, we will add 0.5 hour for every full working day of delay: this will be counted at the end of each working week (depending on your project start day), not accounting to pauses in the service when waiting for information. If you require fast delivery, ensure that you have enough hours topped up.

We do not automatically accept deadlines within 24 hours. If you request an URGENT SERVICE and we accept, the hours used to meet that deadline will be doubled, so if we take 5 hours to complete the urgent task, you will be charged 10 hours. The urgent service is also available on weekends. This is because we may have to move scheduled appointments or delay another client assignment, for which we may have to even refund the time to another client. Our prices reflect the work of an analyst, whereas in urgent matters the prices will reflect typical investment advisory prices. You will need to already have the hours topped up to request a urgent service, as the work will only start the day after payment. In cases when the invoice is unpaid even if was delivered with at least 24 hours notice, and we are pushed to carry out work to meet a deadline, any work carried out before the invoice is paid or payment confirmation is sent, will be considered an urgent service.

Please communicate the rough deadline that you intend to meet or the foreseen project duration. Holidays during this period of time longer than 2 working days will be communicated at the start of the engagement. If a project is extended for longer than expected, we will communicate our absence two weeks in advance: we are not liable for a project that remains temporarily unfinished when the client has not communicated the intended duration of the project, or when a client loses priority due to late payments or late submission of information (over 1 week delay). If such delay happens, we commit in any case to complete the project as soon as possible.

4) How many hours to buy and when to pay?

You can BUY AS MANY HOURS AS YOU SEE FIT: you can pay daily or weekly or pay all the estimated hours in a lump sum, but any work done needs to be paid in advance. However, the more hours you buy at a time, the higher the discount you will receive. We recommend buying the number of hours that you have been advised to buy, as we always start or continue the project the day after the hours have been paid, which will leave you with significant delays and breaks in-between workdays, if you choose multiple small packages. In some cases, we may go under (use more hours than you have available on your account), when we’re close to delivering a project and do not want to cause you a delay. In this case, to request additional services, the previous unpaid hours will need to be covered and will be added to the new budget.

Additionally, we prioritise clients on a first come first serve basis. If you request an invoice, we will also reserve your project start date until the payment due date written on the invoice: in case there is a delay, we may prioritise another client.

You can purchase the hourly packages online or request an invoice, as you prefer. Online buyers may be eligible to additional discounts by selecting bank payments, and can also leave a review at the end of the project, which allows them to receive a discount coupon to use online. When we don’t have availability, the online shop may be temporarily closed.

If you have expressed the will to buy more hours to finish the project, by invoice, we will send a new invoice automatically when the hours available on your account become less than 5. In other cases, it will be up to you to restart the work by purchasing an additional package once the available hours are finished.

5) Counting of hours

The COUNTING OF HOURS will include any communication that takes place during the project, as well as communication that takes place for the sale of a new package when the hours run out: these will be counted in the new package purchased and subtracted from the hours in your wallet. Only when a new complete project is started, we will provide an initial free sales call to determine the scope of the project and other tasks carried our before the initial project payment are all free. However, if the client requests a contract or NDA, the time used for the negotiation of the contract will be charged within the hourly package, as this is an extra service (we already have Terms & Conditions that apply to projects).

If we need to correct something in the document that is a gross mistake on our part, we will not charge this time to you, and this will happen automatically when the mistake is noticed. However, things that are not understood by you in the document or regular changes and improvements in the documents are not considered mistakes, but rather it’s the regular nature of our work as it requires regular upgrades.

You will be PROVIDED WITH A CLIENT PROJECT WEB PAGE where hours consumption and remaining budgets are displayed. The time to update this page is not charged. Here is the template https://www.valithea.com/project-hours-client/ : in order to view your template, simply replace ‘client’ with your company name followed by ‘-‘ and the day (DDMMYY) when your projected started, which is the day after the project invoice was paid (or simply ask us for the link). Example: https://www.valithea.com/project-hours-client-ddmmyy/

6) Calls availability

We are not available by phone but only via web call (Googlemeet or Jitsi), which can be scheduled on this Calendly page. Calls cannot be scheduled sooner than 10 hours before, and therefore same-day calls are not typically available, as for obvious reasons, we will not be able to move commitments at such short notice. The calendar is kept up to date most of the time, so if you cannot see your preferred time available, it usually because it is just not available, and therefore asking does not change the availability. However, you can ask for a urgent call as part of the urgent services.

7) How to minimise the hours used

I will do the work as indicated and agreed in the most efficient time possible, warning about tasks that may take longer before starting. You are ultimately responsible for managing the hours efficiently. This means that we will generally provide you with what you ask, but this is some advice on how to MINIMISE HOURS AND COSTS if you are on a budget (however, you are free to do the following if you are not on a budget):

• Minimise communication requests to what is necessary
• Using the Calendly link only to schedule calls instead of email will save you communication time
• Do plan your project early so that you don’t have to pay extra to meet deadlines
• Do not send an unnecessarily high number of documents and numerous research papers unless the document to produce requires that we read the entire documentation
• Do not buy the hours in many small packages if you were quoted a much higher number of hours, as, if the job requires 30 or 50 hours, and you buy it in 5-10 hours packages, you will buy a higher amount per hours, as well as paying for extra time in-between the renewal of every package, and sometimes even fast-track charges because of the resulting project delay.

8) Refunds

The HOURS DO NOT EXPIRE and can be used anytime. Additionally, you are allowed to request a refund for the unused hours after 3 months of inactivity. However, the unused hours will be calculated according to the current price of the package with the lesser discount (since by not using all the hours, you wouldn’t be eligible to the larger package discount any longer). So, for instance, if you have purchased 100 hours for €59 p/h (in total €5,900, we will take into consideration the last purchase only, not the total hours purchased during our working relationship) and you only used 50 hours, after the period of inactivity you can request the unused 50 hours payment back, but at the price of the 30 hours package. If the current hourly price (at the time of refund) of the 30 hour package is €75 p/h, for example, then you have consumed €3,750 (€75 x 50), and you can request €2,150 in refund (€5,900-€3,750), minus a processing fee for the time used, any extra transfer charges and additional consulting or communication requested. You can simply initiate the refund by email contact, but only after 3 months of inactivity.

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9) Premium Retainer

The PREMIUM RETAINER is reserved for those who require a hands-on service typical of a financial advisory boutique, when recurring short-term deadlines are present and for important or high-risk transactions. This package provides the following service:

• Same-day start
• Short-term deadlines possible with up to 8 hours a day dedicated to the project
• Free Valithea contract or your own NDA*
• Availability by phone and also at weekends
• Ability to schedule calls at any time of the day (the calendar allows scheduling for up to 10 hours before, but in the premium service you can ask by message or email for a different time availability if time permits)
• Priority over other projects

This is a retainer-type service, where 3 hours per week are automatically discounted for the extra availability when no service has been requested during the week (when services during the week exceed 3 hours, no extra retainer hours are discounted). At the same time, for periods of inactivity of at least 1 month, communication is initiated to keep up to date with the project monthly, to provide market information relevant to the client or to forward leads/investors to the client (depending on the situation).

Get in contact for this service.

*we only sing external NDAs but not external working contracts.