Open Eye

What Open Eye does

Open Eye (legal entity: Open-i Advisors, Inc., also operating as Open Eye Partners) is a privately held management consulting firm headquartered at 2920 W Broad St, Richmond, VA, operating since its founding around 2012 by Hilary Osborne and Christian Dawson. The firm positions itself as an 'Operating Partner' — embedding into client teams to deliver strategy, operational support, and leadership coaching rather than functioning as a traditional advisory consultancy.

Open Eye serves small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations across verticals including technology/web hosting (GoDaddy, OVH, Plesk, CloudFest, i2Coalition), nonprofit/education (MHz Foundation, Active Heroes, NNEDV, Feet to the Fire Writers' Workshops, The Social Practice Lab), and specialty manufacturing (Dawson). Its four service pillars are Strategy & Consulting, Leadership Coaching, Operations, and Digital Development, supplemented by dedicated Organizational Assessment and Market Research offerings. The firm operates as a 'collective of Experts' — three named co-founders/partners supplemented by 'dozens' of subject-matter specialists matched to each engagement, including digital marketing, project management, and research (PhD-level) expertise.

Commercial mechanics are entirely custom-priced engagements billed against expert hours, with multi-year contracts (e.g., MHz Foundation since 2018, CloudFest multi-year research partnership). GTM is sales-led and consultative — engagements begin with a discovery meeting, scoping to outcomes/deliverables, and onboarding typically within three weeks. The firm is majority-owned by women through co-founders Hilary Osborne and Taylor Tricarico (Managing Partner since 2019). The company has no disclosed external venture funding, no proprietary technology products, and limited geographic concentration (serving clients across U.S. regions and Canada from its Richmond, VA base).

Name

Open Eye

Legal name

Open-i Advisors, Inc.

Website

https://openeye.partners

Company type

Private

Founded year

2012

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Open Eye is a privately held, majority-woman-owned management consulting firm headquartered in Richmond, VA, operating as an 'Operating Partner' to small and medium-sized businesses and nonprofits. It delivers custom-priced, multi-year strategy, operations, leadership coaching, and digital development engagements through a collective of named subject-matter experts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Richmond

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Revenue model

1. Consulting Services: Open Eye provides custom-priced consulting engagements based on expert hours needed to meet client goals. Services include Digital Development, Leadership Coaching, Operations, and Strategy & Consulting. Each engagement is tailored to client needs with costs tied to outcomes and deliverables.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Open Eye is a management consulting and operating partner firm that delivers custom, expert-led engagements across four service pillars: Strategy & Consulting, Operations, Leadership Coaching, and Digital Development. The firm embeds with purpose-driven small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations to provide transformational strategies, operational support, and hands-on execution help. Services are custom-priced based on expert hours and include organizational assessments, market research, website builds, digital marketing, and fractional leadership support.

Product overview

Open Eye is a management consulting and operating partner firm that provides professional services to small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations. The company operates as a collective of industry experts offering four core service pillars: Strategy & Consulting (including organizational assessments and strategic planning), Leadership Coaching, Operations (including project management and outsourced management), and Digital Development (including website builds and data science). Their services are custom-priced based on client needs, with engagements facilitated by executive partners and led by consultant partners matched with subject matter experts. Open Eye does not offer a software product but rather delivers hands-on consulting expertise across industries including technology, education, health, government, wholesale, retail, and social services.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Strategy & Consulting Strategic planning, market assessment, and consulting services that help small to medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations define their long-term mission, objectives, and actionable plans for success.
• Leadership Coaching Executive and leadership coaching services that develop management skills, foster growth, and build effective organizational leadership for executives and management teams.
• Operations Operational support and management services that enhance organizational capacity, streamline processes, deliver project management, and provide outsourced management for clients.
• Digital Development Digital development services including website builds, data science, social media strategies, digital marketing, and e-commerce platform support for client digital transformation.
• Market Research Services Survey design and programming, demographic and psychographic research, data analysis, written reports, and live presentations translating real-world experience and thought leadership into actionable market insights.
• Organizational Assessment Evaluation of organizational structure, processes, performance, and culture to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to inform strategic decision-making.

Quantifiable outcome

• Survey responses for CloudFest grew by 80 percent from 1,000 to 1,800 over two years
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers11 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• Feet to the Fire Writers' WorkshopsminorStrategic or Co-development Partner · 16 July 2020Woman-owned small business providing expressive writing programs for senior communities. Consultant Stacey Servo worked with founder Angela Burton to build awareness, identify funding opportunities, and develop marketing strategies. Open Eye continues to serve in an advisory capacity.
• MHz FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2018Multi-year engagement to oversee daily operations while implementing change management and strategy. Helped pivot from broadcast operations to web-based curated content delivery. Deliverables included staffing plans, content curation strategies, privacy policies, revenue strategies, and coordination of a multi-tiered team.
• Active HeroesminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerSince early 2024, Open Eye engaged with Active Heroes as a fractional part of the leadership team, providing strategic, operational, and fundraising support to help the organization achieve its mission.
• CloudFestcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMulti-year partnership to conduct annual market research studies for CloudFest's annual conference. Open Eye designed survey instruments, analyzed data, and delivered written reports and live presentations. The partnership has grown survey responses by 80% and conference attendance from 6,000 to 8,700.
• DawsonminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPremier metal fabrication company since 1946. Open Eye helped craft a sales and marketing strategy to launch them into new markets.
• PleskminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerHelped chart path to growth by identifying trends in their own customer base. Worked on improving relationships with current Americas customers while building the foundation for future growth.
• The Social Practice LabminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerExecutive Director brought on Open Eye experts to refine its mission and align it to an organizational roadmap.
• Brooke Edge, PhDcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerConsumer and Brand Research Partner with extensive market research experience. Brooke collaborated with Open Eye on the CloudFest project, designing surveys, analyzing data, and presenting findings. Her expertise was characterized as a 'gamechanger' for the credibility and neutrality of CloudFest reports.
• Wild AcceleratorminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerOpen Eye consultant Stacey Servo is a founding member of Wild Accelerator, which partners with startups and entrepreneurs for growth programs.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Resources Connection (RGP): A global consulting firm that delivers on-demand professional and operational consulting expertise to clients across functions — comparable to Open Eye's expert-collective model and its custom hour-based, embedded engagement style.
• Bridgespan Group: A nonprofit and social-sector strategy consulting firm that serves mission-driven organizations with strategy, leadership, and operating support — directly comparable to Open Eye's nonprofit and SMB client mix and its 'operating partner' positioning.
• FSG: A global strategy consulting firm focused on social impact, philanthropy, and purpose-driven organizations — closely aligned with Open Eye's nonprofit strategy work, equity-focused values, and outcome-based engagements.

Broad incumbents

• Korn Ferry: A global organizational consulting firm with leadership development, executive search, and strategic consulting practices — comparable to Open Eye's Leadership Coaching and executive-level advisory work, but operating at significantly larger scale.
• McKinsey & Company: The preeminent global management consulting firm serving corporate, government, and nonprofit clients on strategy and operations — overlaps with Open Eye's Strategy & Consulting pillar, but addresses much larger enterprise budgets and engagements.
• Heidrick & Struggles: An executive search and leadership advisory firm that helps organizations with leadership assessment, coaching, and culture transformation — directly comparable to Open Eye's Leadership Coaching and executive advisory offerings.
• Bain & Company: A top-tier global management consulting firm advising on strategy, operations, and transformation — comparable to Open Eye's Strategy & Consulting and Operations offerings, but focused on enterprise-scale clients.
• The Boston Consulting Group: A global management consulting firm with strategy, operations, and transformation practices — comparable to Open Eye's strategy and operating partner model, though BCG's scale, brand, and proprietary research assets far exceed Open Eye's.
• Accenture: A global management consulting, technology, and operations services firm — overlaps broadly with Open Eye's Strategy, Operations, and Digital Development services, but at vastly greater scale and with proprietary technology and global delivery footprint.
• Huron Consulting Group: A larger professional services firm delivering strategy, operations, and digital transformation consulting — overlaps with Open Eye's Strategy, Operations, and Digital Development pillars, but at materially greater scale and broader portfolio.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/openeye.partners
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/open-i-advisors
• Instagraminstagram.com/openeye.insights

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Open Eye