How to justify the cost of hiring or training an Integrator

Executive overview

Hiring or training an Integrator carries a visible price tag, making it easy to focus on cost alone. The fix is to quantify the business and life value of every problem a great Integrator would solve, then compare that total to the cost.

The dollar impact of solved issues almost always dwarfs the price of the Integrator.

The four-step integrator economics exercise

1. Pull three lists: your weekly issues list, your long-term issues list from the VTO, and your wish list of everything you want a great Integrator to solve.
2. Imagine a future where a strong Integrator has crossed off every item on those lists.
3. Assign a dollar value to each item — both business impact and personal life impact.
4. Add up all the dollar amounts. The total typically shocks founders; it is usually far larger than expected.

Applying the result

• Compare the total dollar impact figure to the cost of hiring a new Integrator or investing in training your current one.
• The economics reframe the decision from "can I afford this?" to "can I afford not to?"