Getting consultancy and advisory work while you scale a climate startup

Consultancy income is the least glamorous way to extend a climate startup's runway, and one of the most reliable. Take £30K of advisory income in a pre-revenue year. It covers most of a founder's modest salary, which means you can draw less from the raise, or raise less. It also changes your posture in a term-sheet conversation: a founder with six months of self-funded runway can walk away from bad equity terms in a way that a founder with six weeks cannot.

The catch is that it only works if it stays subordinate to the company. This guide covers where the work comes from, what to charge, how to find it, how to tell when it is hurting you, and the admin that most founders ignore until it costs them. A note on sourcing: the data supplied for this piece contains no specific named programmes, day rates or deadlines, so the figures below are working ranges and rules of thumb rather than quoted funder rates. Check them against your own market.

Where the work actually comes from

Four buyers account for most of the paid advisory work open to climate founders.

Corporate sustainability teams

Large companies have net-zero commitments and thin in-house technical depth. They buy expert input on decarbonisation pathways, supplier engagement, technology scouting and emerging regulation. If you are building in a specific technology (heat pumps, soil carbon, battery recycling), you know more about that corner than their generalist team does. Procurement is usually through a statement of work, often under a master services agreement, so the first engagement is the slowest and later ones are quick.

Climate funds doing diligence

Climate-focused venture funds and impact investors regularly need a technical view on a deal outside their partners' expertise. A founder who has built in the space can assess a team's technical claims in a few hours. This work tends to be short (one to five days), well paid per day, and it puts you in front of investors who may later fund you or refer you. Be explicit about conflicts: do not diligence a direct competitor.

Government consulting frameworks

Public bodies commission technical advice through framework agreements and supplier rosters. Getting onto a roster is bureaucratic, but once listed, call-off work arrives without a fresh tender each time. Many frameworks are dominated by large firms, which in turn subcontract to specialists. As a sole advisor, subcontracting is often the more realistic entry.

Accelerator mentor pools

Accelerators and innovation programmes pay experienced operators to mentor cohorts, sit on panels and run workshops. The rates are lower than corporate work and sometimes nominal, but the access is the point: you meet founders, funders and corporate partners in one room.

What to charge

Without published rate cards to quote, use these as sanity-check bands for UK-based work and adjust for your sector and seniority:

• Early career or first-time founder (under five years in the sector): £400 to £600 a day.
• Established specialist (five to ten years, a shipped product or published work): £600 to £900 a day.
• Senior operator with a recognised track record: £900 to £1,500 a day, sometimes more for investor diligence.

Expert versus advisor pricing

The distinction matters. An expert call is a short, bounded transfer of knowledge: a one-hour interview, a diligence call, a panel. It is priced per hour or per session, often at a premium equivalent to a high day rate. An advisor engagement is ongoing judgement: you shape the client's decisions over weeks. It is priced per day or by retainer, at a lower effective hourly rate but with more predictable income.

Do not discount expert calls because they feel easy. The client is paying for years of context compressed into an hour.

When retainers make sense

Propose a retainer when a client will need you repeatedly but unpredictably, for example a fund that wants a technical sounding board across its pipeline. A common shape is two to four days a month at an agreed rate, with unused days lapsing. Retainers give you forecastable cash, which is exactly what a runway model needs, and they cap the client's claim on your time. Avoid open-ended retainers with no day limit.

Price on the value of the decision, not only on your time, when the work informs a large procurement or investment. Fixed-fee scoped projects often beat day rates for both sides.

How to find it

Three channels that work

1. Your existing network. Former colleagues, investors, customers and academic contacts are the fastest route. Tell them plainly that you take a limited number of advisory days each month, and what topics. Vague announcements generate nothing.
2. Climate-specific networks. Sector communities, industry associations, and the alumni groups of climate accelerators circulate requests for specialists before they reach open markets. Be active in one or two rather than present in ten.
3. Content-led inbound. A detailed technical post, a teardown of a policy change or a data-backed talk brings clients to you already convinced. It is slow, but it compounds, and it doubles as marketing for the company.

Three that mostly don't

1. General freelance marketplaces. Climate expertise is commoditised there and price pressure is heavy.
2. Cold outreach to large corporates. Without a warm route, messages land in inboxes of people with no budget or mandate.
3. Responding to every open tender alone. Bid costs are high and win rates low for a sole advisor. Pursue tenders only where you can join a larger team as a named specialist.

The focus trade-off

Consultancy becomes a distraction when it stops serving the company. Watch for these signals:

• Advisory work regularly spills past the days you allotted.
• You are turning down customer calls, hiring interviews or fundraising meetings because of client deadlines.
• Clients ask for work that has drifted away from your core technology, and you say yes because the money is good.
• Your team begins routing decisions around your availability.
• Consulting income exceeds what you would pay yourself, and you start to feel comfortable.

The last one is the subtle risk: income that removes urgency. Set a hard cap, for example no more than one day a week, and review it quarterly. If you are above the cap for two consecutive quarters, either the company needs a different plan or the consultancy should become the business, and that should be a conscious decision.

Also guard intellectual property. Make sure advisory contracts do not assign rights in your company's technology or restrict you from working with the client's competitors in ways that block your own sales.

Tax, insurance and contracts

Most founders postpone this until a problem forces it.

• Structure. Decide whether you invoice personally or through the company. Invoicing through the startup keeps income in the business but can complicate your salary and investor reporting; invoicing personally is simple but may create tax and conflict-of-interest questions. Check your shareholder agreement and ask your investors, because many require disclosure of outside work.
• Tax. Advisory income is taxable and, above the VAT threshold, may require registration. Set aside a portion of every payment immediately. Take proper accountancy advice on how it interacts with director's salary and dividends.
• IR35. If you work through a limited company for a UK client, the off-payroll working rules may apply. Large clients will usually issue a status determination. Understand it before you sign, as it can change your net income materially.
• Insurance. Professional indemnity cover is commonly required by corporate and public clients, often with a minimum cover level written into the contract. Get a quote before you pitch, not after you win.
• Contracts. Never work on an email thread. Agree scope, day count, payment terms (30 days at most), expenses, confidentiality, IP ownership and liability limits in writing. Cap liability at fees paid wherever you can.

Use this in Raise Lens

• On /funders, filter by the climate_consultancy category to see which consultancies are hiring expert advisors in your sector, so you approach firms that already buy what you know.
• On /intel, look for supplier-registration signals, which surface when funders open consultant rosters and give you a direct route onto a paid advisory list.
• Save the right consultancies to your Watchlist as funders, because they often publish open subcontract calls that fit a one-person advisory shape.

Next step

Advisory income works best when it sits alongside a grant and funding plan rather than replacing one. Browse the consultancies and funders active in your sector, and build your shortlist at /funders.