What Ampersand does

Ampersand is a privately held innovation consulting and advisory firm headquartered in New York that helps large enterprises develop innovation strategies, design thinking capabilities, and organizational transformation programs while also serving smaller companies seeking to scale. The firm delivers advisory engagements, structured workshop programs, keynote presentations, and learning & development curricula organized into four tracks (Innovation Foundations, Growth Strategy, Innovation Design, and Innovation Capabilities), underpinned by a portfolio of proprietary methodologies including the Nine Strategies Framework, the AVBP (Angst + Vision + Belief + Plan) change formula, the 8-Step Innovation Strategy Method, the Design Thinking 4D program, and the Iron Triangle Breakage Method.

The firm's go-to-market is sales-led and event-driven, targeting Fortune 500 senior executives and large organizations through direct consulting engagements, open-enrollment workshops, and custom in-house programs, with multi-year contracts and per-engagement pricing. The co-founders are Roger Mader (author of Purposeful Enterprise and The Da Vinci Co) and Todd McCullough (a venture capital partner and chairman of Kernel Equity who claims to have advised over 100 Fortune 500 companies). The team page lists roughly 80+ named specialists across design thinking, ethnographic research, strategy, culinary strategy, multicultural strategy, and digital transformation, with prior tenure at Deloitte/Doblin, Razorfish, IIT Institute of Design, Cisco, Citrix, Salesforce, bp, Barclays, and similar institutions.

Revenue is generated primarily through professional services fees from consulting and workshop delivery, supplemented by licensing royalties from published books and from Ampersand Print, a wholly owned publishing subsidiary launched in 2022 that publishes external authors. The firm does not disclose revenue, has no external institutional funding, and operates as an independent, founder-led entity with global delivery scope anchored in the United States.

Name

Ampersand

Legal name

Ampersand

Website

https://ampersand.vc

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Ampersand is a New York-based, founder-led innovation consulting firm that delivers advisory engagements, workshops, and learning programs built on proprietary frameworks (Nine Strategies, AVBP, Design Thinking 4D) to Fortune 500 enterprises and growth-stage companies across healthcare, financial services, hospitality, and CPG.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Innovation Consulting Services: Advisory engagements with senior leaders, executive teams, and organizations to develop innovation strategies, growth agendas, and organizational design for transformation.
2. Workshop Programs: Learning and development programs delivered as open enrollment workshops, custom in-house sessions, or modular components within larger curricula. Also offered as keynote presentations or interactive plenary lectures (30, 60, or 90-minute formats).
3. Book Royalties (Purposeful Enterprise): Revenue from published works including 'Purposeful Enterprise' by Roger Mader and 'The Da Vinci Co' by Roger Mader and Dave Hersh.
4. Ampersand Print Publishing: Publishing platform founded in 2022 for exceptional thinkers and writers to publish their work professionally.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Ampersand is a business advisory and innovation consulting firm that helps large organizations develop balanced growth agendas and innovation strategies while equipping leaders and teams through structured workshops and learning programs. Its portfolio combines customized consulting engagements, four workshop tracks (Innovation Foundations, Growth Strategy, Innovation Design, Innovation Capabilities), and keynote presentations grounded in proprietary frameworks such as the Nine Strategies, AVBP, Design Thinking 4D, and an 8-step innovation method. Clients include Fortune 500 enterprises across healthcare, financial services, retail, hospitality, manufacturing, and consumer goods.

Product overview

Ampersand is a consulting and training firm (not a technology product company) that offers a portfolio of advisory services and workshop programs. The core offering consists of consulting engagements combined with structured workshop programs organized into four tracks: Innovation Foundations, Growth Strategy, Innovation Design, and Innovation Capabilities. The company also provides custom workshop design and keynote presentations. A proprietary AVBP (Angst + Vision + Belief + Plan) framework underpins their change management approach. All offerings are service-based rather than software or platform products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Innovation Consulting Services Custom advisory and consulting engagements with senior leaders, executive teams, boards, and organizations to develop balanced growth agendas, guide innovation strategy, build organizational transformation capabilities, and equip clients to discover and design new sources of growth.
• Innovation Foundations Workshops Foundational workshop track covering innovation myths, startup mentality for large organizations, and the Four Tiers of Timeless Innovation framework, delivered as open-enrollment programs or custom in-house sessions.
• Growth Strategy Workshops Workshop track covering smart growth principles, ecosystem mapping, building renaissance companies, defining strategic frameworks, and identifying growth opportunities through structured exercises.
• Innovation Design Workshops Design-focused workshop track including 4D Design Thinking (Define, Discover, Design, Deploy), empathy-driven research, customer journey mapping, and rapid prototyping sprints for producing real innovations.
• Innovation Capabilities Workshops Workshop track focused on diagnosing innovation capabilities, organizational design for innovation, and driving continuous innovation within organizations through diagnostic and capability-building exercises.
• Keynote and Plenary Lectures 30, 60, or 90-minute keynote presentations and interactive plenary lectures on innovation strategy, growth, design thinking, and other Ampersand frameworks, delivered at client events and external venues.
• Ampersand Print Publishing Platform Wholly owned publishing platform founded in 2022 that enables exceptional thinkers and writers to publish their work professionally, anchored by the "Purposeful Enterprise" book.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 100 Fortune 500 companies advised on innovation and growth
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers15 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• BCG: Boston Consulting Group runs a dedicated Center for Growth, Innovation and Accelerators practice that competes for the same enterprise innovation strategy engagements Ampersand wins.
• Bain & Company: Top-tier global strategy consultancy with established innovation and customer strategy practices. A relevant incumbent competitor for senior-executive advisory work at Fortune 500 clients.
• McKinsey & Company: Global management consulting incumbent offering strategy, organization, and innovation services at massive scale. Competes for the same Fortune 500 innovation and transformation mandates Ampersand pursues.

Direct peers

• Innosight: Founded by Clayton Christensen, Innosight is a strategy consultancy specializing in disruptive innovation and growth strategy — a near-direct comparable to Ampersand's growth strategy and innovation capabilities work.
• IDEO: Pioneer of design thinking consulting and innovation strategy, serving Fortune 500 clients across healthcare, financial services, and consumer goods. Closely comparable to Ampersand in methodology (Design Thinking, ethnographic research) and client base.
• Doblin (Deloitte): Deloitte's innovation strategy practice and a frequent employer of Ampersand's senior team (Jenny Radbodzeenko, Angelo Frigo). Competes directly for large-enterprise innovation strategy and design engagements.
• frog (Capgemini Invent): Design and innovation consultancy operating globally with a strong product-and-service design practice. Directly competes with Ampersand in design thinking, organizational transformation, and innovation capability building.
• LiveWork: Service design and innovation consultancy with strong practice in customer journey mapping and design-led transformation — a direct comparable to Ampersand's Design Thinking 4D and ethnographic research offerings.
• Designit (Wipro): Global design and innovation consultancy offering strategy, design, and technology transformation. Overlaps Ampersand's design thinking and innovation capabilities service lines for enterprise clients.
• Strategyn: Innovation strategy consultancy founded by Tony Ulwick, specializing in jobs-to-be-done growth strategy and outcome-driven innovation — a focused comparable to Ampersand's growth strategy workshop track.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/@ampersandvc
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ampersand-partners
• Instagraminstagram.com/ampersand.vc
• Xx.com/AMPERSANDvc
• Facebookfacebook.com/ampersand.vc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles12 records

Subsidiaries1 record

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 Ampersand