Ad Astra·powered by Band of Hands
Ad Astra × Band of Hands · Silo Pipeline · v0.8

Proven at Ad Astra. Scaled at Band of Hands.

Ad Astra is the breeding ground — every new silo is benchmarked, tested across industries, vetted for advisors, providers and conflicts, then prepped for go-to-market here, carried by the Band of Hands engine while it learns. Once its GTM is ready, the silo deploys on Band of Hands and opens to the full sales team. HR has already made the trip.

Operating Thesis
The breeding ground is mycelium. Each vetted silo becomes a node. Each node feeds the next through warm referrals and natural cross-sell. The connective tissue between silos compounds in value the longer the network is alive. Capital cannot accelerate this. Discipline can.
Step 1 — adastrasolutions.io

The Breeding Ground

Where every silo is proven before it scales.
Proven · basically ready
→ BoH

HR & Workforce

First graduate
▸ People-Ops Stack Review
$90B US TAM
  • PEO · payroll · HRIS
  • Benefits · classification
  • Already live at Band of Hands
Proven

IT & Infrastructure

Practice 01
▸ Current State Read
$160B US TAM
  • ERP · e-commerce · integrations
  • 3PL & WMS · SaaS consolidation
  • Connectivity · cloud · security
Proven

Supply Chain

Brand & goods sourcing
▸ Sourcing & Spend Review
$27B US TAM
  • Packaging · promo · apparel
  • Displays · fixtures
  • Sourcing & procurement
Proven

AI & Automation

Efficiency layer
▸ Workflow & Leverage Review
$75B US TAM
  • Admin reduction · workflow automation
  • System integration · visibility
  • Practical leverage, not hype
In the gauntlet · testing & incubation
Testing

Energy

Lower the bill, prove ESG.
$350B US TAM
C&I energy procurement · efficiency · ESG
Testing

Insurance

De-risk; licensed partner.
$570B US TAM
commercial P&C · benefits · workers comp
Testing

Payments

Cut the cost of money.
$190B US TAM
card-processing fees · effective-rate audit
Testing

Logistics

Shared-savings model.
$900B US TAM
freight & parcel audit
Testing

CRE

Landlord pays, disclosed.
$20B US TAM
tenant rep · lease review
All TAM figures are US-only · combined ≈ $2.4T US category spend across the nine silos
The breeding-ground gauntlet — run in order, then deploy on Band of Hands
Benchmark Test Industries Vet advisors Identify conflicts GPUs Vet providers Natural add-ons Engine education Prepare silo GTM
How the network grows ○ PRE-GTM AND GTM MOTION — UNDERWAY
Pre-GTM motion
Laying the network
  • Vet & onboard providers in priority silos — best-in-class per sub-category, two to three deep.
  • Build credibility assets — manifesto, framework, friendly-pilot case studies. Trust documents that travel without me in the room.
  • Identify industry influencers per silo — 8–12 targets per category. A board I haven't asked yet.
  • Map cross-sell connective tissue — IT + Cyber. PEO + Benefits. Energy + Facilities. Document pairings before deals.
  • Lock the operating cadence — weekly office hours, daily prospecting blocks, commission ledger discipline from Day 1.
GTM motion
Activating the network
  • Pilot cohort per silo — 3–5 friendly accounts to pressure-test the offer. Failure here is cheap; learnings compound.
  • Provider-led referrals — onboarded providers introduce me to their existing book. Their sales team is the channel before I have one.
  • Influencer-led intros — warm-list referrals once the model is working. Selective, not blasted.
  • Cross-sell motion on every pilot — every account tests at least one cross-category surface. Two-category attach is the connective-tissue signal.
  • Playbook from reps, not theory — document what works after it works. The playbook is an output, not a precondition.
Band of Hands Engine Supports every silo throughout the breeding ground — diagnostics, vendor-bench matching, AI delivery — so the engine learns and fully optimizes each one before it opens to the full sales team. Learning · optimizing throughout
▼Silo GTM prepared → deployed on Band of Hands · opened to the full sales team
Step 2 — bandofhands.com

The Final Destination

Full engine. Full sales team. Full scale.
Live now

HR & Workforce

Band of Hands — live today
▸ The proven template
  • PEO · payroll · HRIS · benefits
  • The first silo through the pipeline
  • The path every other silo follows
Queued to integrate →
IT & InfrastructureProven
Supply ChainProven
AI & AutomationProven
Energy · Insurance · PaymentsTesting
Logistics · CRETesting
Buyer pays nothing — vendor-funded Diagnostic is the wedge, not the close Agnostic bench — no vendor > 25% The engine is the moat
Go To Market ○ THREE TIERS → THE DIAGNOSTIC IS THE HUB
40–60%

Tier 1 — Warm network

PE / M&A introducers
fractional CFOs · CIOs · CHROs
founder & operator relationships
25–40%

Tier 2 — Partner / channel

PE operating-partner benches
associations & trade bodies
CPAs · attorneys · bankers
10–25%

Tier 3 — Content / outbound

vendor-economics category content
trigger-matched named accounts
high-intent SEO · earned media
All three tiers feed one asset — the free Current State Read: vendor inventory, spend & contract map, 3–5 observations with dollar impact. Do-nothing / fix-yourself / let-us-source are all valid outcomes.
Operating gates ○ TARGETS, NOT FORECASTS — IF A GATE DOESN'T CLEAR, THE NEXT PHASE DOESN'T ACTIVATE
8–12 vetted providers signed across IT, HR, Finance, Ops
15–25 first-cohort accounts in active motion
30–50 warm intros sourced from provider networks
5+ influencer connections converted to inbound activity
2+ deals showing cross-sell across two or more silos
0 late commission payments — ledger discipline as moat
The thesis — Services: The New Software (Sequoia). If AI lets services scale like software on the supply side, vendor-funded advisory is the buyer-side counterpart: a horizontal distribution chassis running one diagnostic-prescription motion across every spend category where vendor ecosystems already pay for sourced demand. The chassis is the moat. Practices are interchangeable. Vendors fund the demand. Buyers pay nothing and get a faster, sharper read than they could buy.
ICP →  $10M–$150M revenue  ·  mid-market  ·  PE-backed portfolios in the 6–18 mo post-acquisition window
Deliberately not on this page
Per-deal economics · provider names in active negotiation · comp structures for downstream advisors · full vertical sequencing logic across all nine silos. Each lives in the workbook where it belongs. The mycelium analogy is honest — most of the structure is below ground.