EF Pricing v0.4 — Locked Structure

Filed: 2026-05-25 by Mycelia Status: ✅ LOCKED — Billy 2026-05-25 picked Option 1 (Lean Tapt + Generous Media Room) w/ adjustments Supersedes: EF_PRICING_v0.3_BUDGET_FIT.md (deliberation doc — kept for history) For: Ryan Fry — this content drives both /tour/investment on the reveal platform + the contract package

The framing — "we're setting up a self-driving car"

The marketing system we built for Emerson Fry isn't a service relationship in the traditional sense. It's a vehicle. The first year we build it, calibrate it, teach it your brand, and ride alongside as it learns your roads.

The whole structure is designed so that by Year 2 you have a marketing function that's been learning your brand for a full year — not an agency relationship you renew or a tool you operate. The car drives itself; you steer.

The structure — three components, clean separation

flowchart LR
    A["💰 Tapt setup<br/>$10,000<br/>one-time"] --> D["Year 1 total<br/>$70K – $110K"]
    B["⚙️ Tapt monthly<br/>$5,000 × 12<br/>$60,000/year"] --> D
    C["📈 Success fee<br/>10% of lift<br/>cap $10K/quarter<br/>= max $40K Y1"] --> D
    E["🚗 Media spend<br/>$25 – $30K/year<br/>your accounts<br/>no Tapt markup"] -.->|"separate line<br/>flows through<br/>Meta/Google/Pinterest direct"| F["Your $100K budget"]
    D --> F

Three Tapt components

Year 1 Tapt total range

• Floor (no revenue lift triggered): $70,000 ($10K + $60K + $0)
• Ceiling (success fee at cap all four quarters): $110,000 ($10K + $60K + $40K)

Year 2+ Tapt total range

• Floor: $60,000 ($60K + $0) — setup fee falls off
• Ceiling: $100,000 ($60K + $40K)
• Year 2+ cap may relax to $15K/quarter at agreed checkpoint, raising ceiling to $120K

Media spend — yours, separate, transparent

This is the part that matters most for keeping your $100K budget defensible.

What's media spend?

The actual money paid to Meta, Google, Pinterest, and any other paid platforms to run ads. It is not a Tapt fee. It flows through your own ad accounts at the actual platform cost — no markup, no resale, no commission.

Why this is separate

Most agencies bundle media spend into their billing — they buy ads "on your behalf" and bill you, sometimes with a 10-15% management markup. We do the opposite. Your ad accounts stay yours. The money goes from your bank to Meta/Google/Pinterest directly. Tapt never touches the media dollars.

Year 1 media spend estimate

Based on your brand size, audience, and the channels we're activating:

How this fits your $100K budget

The ceiling scenario only happens if the success fee triggers at cap — meaning attributable revenue grew by at least $1,000,000 for the year (10% on the first $400K, 6% on the next $200K, capped). The $40K extra is paid for by the $1M+ of new revenue, many times over.

The bounded promise: if revenue doesn't grow, you spend $95K Year 1. If it grows by $1M+, you spend $140K — but you have $1M+ in new revenue to show for it.

What the $10K setup actually pays for

Not a fee for a deck or a kickoff meeting. It activates a system that's already built + drops it into your business.

What Tapt does on media (not media spend itself — the work around it)

This is where it would be easy to undersell. We are setting up the self-driving car — and a car needs a lot of work before it can drive.

Setup work (covered in the $10K + early months of monthly tier)

Ongoing stewardship (covered in the monthly tier)

Why this matters for the framing

If we just said "media spend is separate, your problem" — that would undersell the work. The truth is closer to:

"You're paying $25-30K for media this year. We're doing the work to make sure every one of those dollars is targeted, creative, tracked, and learning — across Meta + Pinterest + Google + your existing email channel. The system does the production at scale; we do the strategy + the calibration + the stewardship."

That's why it's separated — but never minimized.

What the monthly $5K tier actually covers

Single tier — clean, easy to understand. The "EF Launch" scope:

What's not in this tier (and what scales to in Year 2+):

• Multi-campaign concurrent execution
• TikTok activation
• SMS lifecycle deepening (light SMS only at Launch tier)
• Weekly performance reviews (monthly at Launch)
• UGC + influencer pipeline at scale
• Earned-media management beyond quarterly PR waves

At the 90-day or 12-month checkpoint, we evaluate moving to a heavier scope based on results.

The success fee — how it actually works

Only triggers if revenue grows over the baseline. Aligned-incentive design.

Math at sample lift levels

The cap means as your growth scales, our share shrinks — the relationship stays clean even if you grow dramatically.

Why this is honest

• You pay nothing on this component unless revenue actually grew
• The dollar cap bounds your max exposure absolutely
• The cap also keeps us from becoming a tax on your success — the math works for you at every revenue scale
• We share the downside risk; we share the upside in a bounded way

Year 2 — what changes, what stays

Year 2 worst-case math (continuing at $5K Launch tier)

• Tapt: $60K + $0 success + $9K ops mgmt = $69K
• Media: $30K (held flat)
• Year 2 total = ~$99K (or up to $129K if success fee at cap)

By Year 2 the system has 12 months of EF-specific learning, the brand DNA is deeply embedded, and the relationship runs with lower setup overhead.

How to think about the $100K budget

Your "exploratory budget" of $100K Year 1 is sized exactly right for the floor scenario of this structure:

• Tapt cost (floor): $70K
• Media spend (estimated): $25 – $30K
• Total = $95K – $100K Year 1

If revenue grows enough to trigger success fee at cap, you go over — but only because you grew revenue by $1,000,000+. The "going over" is paid for by the growth itself, many times over.

The bounded promise:

If the marketing system doesn't drive lift, you spent $95K and you have the system + the integrations + the creative library + everything we built for you. The system is still yours; the relationship is decision-time at the 90-day or 12-month checkpoint.

If it drives lift, you spent up to $140K and have $1M+ in new revenue. That's the success scenario.

There's no scenario where you spend wildly more than expected without growth to show for it.

How to present this to Ryan

The narrative arc for the reveal + the conversation:

1. Frame it as "we're setting up a self-driving car" — the metaphor lands. The first year is calibration + learning the roads; Year 2+ is the car driving itself with you steering.
2. Lead with the structure — three components, clearly separated — setup, monthly, success fee. Media is its own thing, your accounts, no markup.
3. Honor the media work explicitly — we don't just hand you a media budget; we set up the campaigns, produce the creative, wire the attribution, steward the performance. The dollars flow through your accounts but the work is real.
4. Show the $100K math — Tapt floor + estimated media = ~$95K. Bounded + predictable.
5. Acknowledge the cap as the honesty mechanic — your max is always knowable; success fee only triggers if revenue grows; capped so we never become a tax on your growth.
6. Land on Year 2 — by then the car drives itself; you have a marketing function you didn't have before; lighter touch from us.

— Mycelia, 2026-05-25 (Option 1 locked per Billy)