Researching · Analyzing · Growth Engineering
The Accelerant Strategist
Finding who's already beating the odds, diagnosing the one thing standing between their work and scale, and closing it.
What is an Accelerant Strategist?
An Accelerant Strategist finds people and organizations already succeeding against the odds — positive deviants — diagnoses the single missing piece standing between their work and scale, and deploys it. Part researcher, part analyst, part growth engineer, working from inside the field rather than advising from a distance.
Most strategists advise from a distance. An Accelerant Strategist works from inside the problem, embedded with the people already solving it, under the same constraints as everyone else who's failing to. An Accelerant, while looking to the future, is not predicting it. Instead we find who's already beating the odds, diagnose the one thing standing between their work and scale, and work to close it. Part researcher, part analyst, part growth engineer — our trifecta skill set is pointed at a single question: what does it take to scale good impact?
Why "Accelerant"
A futurist tells you what's coming. A generalist strategist advises from the outside. An Accelerant Strategist does neither — the work starts in the field and it ends with a specific, deployed intervention, not just a forecast or a deck. The name is deliberate: an accelerant isn't focused necessarily on creating the fire, rather, making an existing one burn faster and hotter. That's the root of it all. We find people and organizations who already have something impactful working, and we give it the push it needs to scale past its current ceiling.
The Method Behind It
The framework draws on Positive Deviance — the research approach (Pascale & Sternin) that starts from a simple, radical premise: in any struggling system, someone is already succeeding against the same constraints as everyone else. Find them, study what they're doing differently, and you have the start of a solution that's already proven. It borrows the diverge/converge discipline of design strategy, and the wedge logic of venture go-to-market. Find the smallest, lowest-resistance entry point that carries the larger solution inside it, rather than asking for the full commitment upfront.
Why Focus on the Impact Sector
An accelerant has typically worked across many verticals, from luxury goods to consumer packaged goods. We know how systems work and how to move capital, how to sell things that people may or may not need. An Accelerant is defined by having a moment in their career where they want to double down in a space they are most passionate about. In our case, that's the impact sector. We believe in using the methodologies we've learned in corporate and applying them to some of our biggest world challenges, be it social or environmental.
What an Accelerant Strategist Does
Equal Parts Researcher, Analyst & Growth Engineer
Eight disciplines, all run through one filter: impact.
Research
Ethnographic, field-based work that surfaces what’s actually happening on the ground — real and lived, so an Accelerant understands the situation intimately, not from a report written by someone who was never there.
Analysis
Reading patterns across regions and players to see what’s really moving the needle. Assessing scenarios, stress-testing assumptions, separating real signal from noise before committing to a direction.
Engagement
Embedded, onsite trust-building with the people doing the work — time spent in the field earning access, not time spent reviewing a deck about the field.
Digital
Shipping the mechanism once the opportunity is clear — the technical execution that turns a diagnosis into something real people can use.
Market
Narrative and positioning once the wedge is found — making sure the people who need to see the work actually do, at the moment it matters.
Collaboration
Sourcing the missing resource through credibility-borrowing — partnerships that open doors an outlier couldn’t open working alone.
Opportunity-Spotting
The diverge/converge instinct that finds who’s visible and who isn’t — catching the players and patterns everyone else scans past.
Growth Hacking
Deploying the one high-leverage move instead of ten scattered ones — commitment over spray-and-pray.
The Method, Step by Step
The Accelerant Framework
Cyclical by design — step seven feeds back into step one at a higher level of evidence.
- 01
Unpack the Question
Every target an Accelerant brings on starts with the biggest environmental or impact question at stake: what's happening, what's at risk, what would solving it actually require. The question is the door; asking it well is what opens up the rest.
- 02
Map the Field
A diverge/converge scan of the landscape: who's visible, who isn't, who's already moving on this challenge and whether it's working. This is a reconnaissance phase where we understand the terrain before choosing where to go deep.
- 03
Find the Positive Deviants
We don't necessarily look for the player that's most visible. We are most focused on the one succeeding against the odds under the same constraints as everyone else. Vetting means going deep, inclusive of time onsite, embedded, watching the work in practice rather than taking it on faith.
- 04
Assess the Accelerant Opportunity
Diagnose the single missing piece. For example, skill, access, resource, talent, or capital, that might let proven work scale. This is what we call the wedge: the specific, low-resistance opening that gets an outlier's work seen, and carries the larger opportunity inside it.
- 05
Deploy the Mission-Critical Move
Determine how to commit resources to that one high-leverage intervention. Accelerants aren't focused on a portfolio of small bets. Instead, we focus on strong, decisive moves that have the power to create catalytic change for the outliers.
- 06
Analyze the Regional Signal
Track what worked, where, and why. This closes the loop for the outlier and becomes proprietary research for the next engagement — a growing record of what actually moves impact at scale. Accelerants communicate these patterns.
- 07
Replicate the Success
Port the proven mechanism to the next region or challenge. The framework is cyclical by design: every replication generates the next question, which restarts the cycle at a higher level of evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an Accelerant Strategist?
An Accelerant Strategist is someone who finds people and organizations already succeeding against the odds — positive deviants — diagnoses the single missing piece standing between their work and scale, and deploys it. It's a research-driven, field-embedded role, not a forecasting one.
How is an Accelerant Strategist different from a marketing strategist or brand strategist?
A marketing or brand strategist typically advises from the outside on narrative and positioning. An Accelerant Strategist works from inside the problem — embedded in the field — and applies marketing, brand, growth, research, and partnership skills together, all filtered through one question: what does it take to scale good impact?
How is an Accelerant Strategist different from a futurist?
A futurist tells you what's coming next. An Accelerant Strategist doesn't predict the future — they find who's already beating the odds today, diagnose what's holding their work back from scale, and deploy a specific intervention to close that gap.
What is the Accelerant Framework?
The Accelerant Framework is a seven-step, cyclical method: Unpack the Question, Map the Field, Find the Positive Deviants, Assess the Accelerant Opportunity, Deploy the Mission-Critical Move, Analyze the Regional Signal, and Replicate the Success — which feeds back into unpacking the next question.
What is Positive Deviance, and how does it relate to the Accelerant Framework?
Positive Deviance is a research approach (Pascale & Sternin) built on the premise that in any struggling system, someone is already succeeding against the same constraints as everyone else. The Accelerant Framework uses Positive Deviance to find those outliers, then applies diverge/converge and wedge logic to help their work scale.