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Alternative · Big-Four Consulting

An alternative to Deloitte
for the calls between engagements

Deloitte is built for scale, audit credibility and multi-year transformation. SynthBoard is the alternative to Deloitte for the decisions between those engagements — and the ones too small to justify one.

In short

No. Deloitte brings audit-grade credibility, regulatory standing, implementation muscle and a global delivery footprint SynthBoard cannot match. SynthBoard covers the strategy-debate part of the work — as preparation, or for decisions that do not need a Big-Four name on the deliverable.

Last reviewed

An example

One ask, start to finish.
What comes back is a memo.

How a board takes a call like this: her read, who sits, what they ask first, then the call — with how sure they are, who disagreed and the first step.

Big-Four Consulting

Example · Board of 3

Where should we cut SG&A this year — and where would cuts compound debt?

Chief of staff

This one needs a board: The Operator, The CFO and The Strategist. The Operator turns strategy into the boring, sequenced work that actually ships. Each researches alone first, then they react to one another — and on a decision, two of them take opposed sides.

  • The OperatorCOO
  • The CFOFinancial Controller
  • The StrategistCompetitive Expert

Asked first

Who would own this on Monday if you said yes today?

MeSomeone on the teamNobody yet

The board’s call

Sequence shared-services consolidation Finance-first, defer HRIS, and insource the customer-data platform with a fractional CTO bridge.

Finance consolidation pays back in 14 months; HRIS would take 26. CDP outsource lock-in cost is undercounted by 30% in the current model.

Confidence72 · Moderate

The Strategist disagreed

“Change-fatigue risk if Finance + HRIS land in the same year”

First step Test what The Strategist flagged before you commit.this week

Board of 3 · up to 135 credits on the card · an example, not a recorded run

Other asks people bring here

Several asks in one message become several rooms, each with its expert and its own price on the card. Keep or drop any, then convene them together.

  • Should we insource or outsource the new customer-data platform? — The CFO, up to 85 credits
  • How would a Big-Four operator team sequence our shared-services consolidation? — The Strategist, up to 85 credits
  • What is the steel-man case against this digital-transformation roadmap? — The Engineer, up to 85 credits

What you get

What she handles.
On this kind of call.

Operator-grade strategy on tap

Cost-out, growth-in, transformation, M&A. The experts argue the operator frames a Deloitte team would walk you through — on your numbers.

A cross-functional board

The Operator, The CFO, The Strategist, The Engineer and The Skeptic, seated on different AI models so the room is not one model’s habits.

A memo your COO can act on

The call, the conditions it holds under, the risks, who disagreed, and a first move with a date — no translation needed.

Why SynthBoard

Why SynthBoard for this.
Not one voice. A board.

No 12-week scoping phase

Tell your Chief of Staff the question. She asks what she needs to know, then shows the card. The discovery phase is the conversation itself.

One number on a card, not a seven-figure SOW

A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Deloitte engagements typically clear seven figures.

No follow-on to sell

There is no partner trying to land the next engagement. The experts are built to disagree, and the memo keeps the dissent.

Reads the systems you already run

Your Chief of Staff reads the tools you connect — 62 integrations, from Notion and Slack to your CRM — and says what she read. A write is a preview you confirm.

Who sits

The experts for this call.
Each one holds a position.

Your Chief of Staff proposes who sits for the call, and every board is built with someone whose job is to argue against the obvious answer. Name an expert and they take a seat; tell her who you want on your board and they sit by default. How many seats a board has depends on your plan.

Pick an expert

Hover, tap or tab throughSwipe, then tap one
  • GPT
  • Claude
  • Gemini
  • Grok

Seats are spread across model families: GPT, Claude, Gemini, Grok and more.

In their words

The cost of a Big-Four engagement is not just the fee — it is the months you wait for the deck. A board turns that wait into an evening.
The Operator COOThe Operator on engagement-based delivery friction

Questions

Fair questions.
Straight answers.

What people ask before they bring this call to a board.

Does SynthBoard replace Deloitte?

No. Deloitte brings audit-grade credibility, regulatory standing, implementation muscle and a global delivery footprint SynthBoard cannot match. SynthBoard covers the strategy-debate part of the work — as preparation, or for decisions that do not need a Big-Four name on the deliverable.

When should I use SynthBoard instead of Deloitte?

When the decision is real but the spend is not six figures, when you need an answer this week, or when you want opposed views rather than one unified recommendation. Keep Deloitte for regulated, audited or large-scale transformation work.

When is Deloitte still the right call?

For regulated-industry transformations, engagements that need an audit-grade methodology and paper trail, global multi-region rollouts, and decisions where the firm’s name is part of the deliverable. SynthBoard is a thinking instrument, not a delivery footprint.

How does the price compare?

SynthBoard is priced per board, on the card. Free to start — 150 credits every month + 250 to start. Talking to your Chief of Staff costs nothing. A board shows its price on the card before it runs — up to 135 credits for a 3-seat board on Free — and a board never bills above its card. Paid plans are $20, $50 or $99 a month (1 credit = $0.01 USD). A Deloitte engagement typically starts in the high six figures and can run far higher for multi-year transformations.

What does SynthBoard NOT do that Deloitte does?

No on-site delivery team, no audit-grade methodology certification, no global rollout capacity, no regulatory liaison, no managed services. SynthBoard is a board of AI experts; Deloitte is a delivery firm of thousands.

Can SynthBoard help me prepare for a Deloitte RFP?

Yes. A board before the RFP sharpens the brief, surfaces the questions the partners will probe, and gives you a baseline to judge proposals against. A board’s memo shares as a page anyone can read without an account.

SynthBoard (synthboard.ai) is one place for your business, your life, and every hard call. Your Chief of Staff keeps what you tell her on file, and 24 named experts on different AI models take the calls — one expert for a consult, a board with opposed seats for the hard ones — and hand back a memo with the call, the dissent and the first move. How it works.

A different mechanic for the same hard call.
Start free, with one message.

It waits in her box after you sign up. Nothing is sent until you press send. Tell your Chief of Staff the call. She proposes who sits from 24 named experts, and nothing runs until you tap. Free to start. No card.