# CBB Project Brief: SRE / Infrastructure Consulting for Shooting Sports Startups
**Status:** Concept
**Destination:** CBB_Corporate venture (company consulting service, non-ScopeDOPE™; graduates to `CBB_Corporate/03_-_Confidential/Product_Strategy/` or a Services folder)
**Tier:** Adjacent — Different Market, Same Skills
**Classification:** Internal — Confidential
**Version and date:** see Revision Control Block at the end of this document

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## Summary

Cold Bore Ballistics™ offers fractional CTO and SRE/infrastructure consulting services to startups and small companies in the shooting sports, outdoor, and adjacent industries that have technology ambitions but lack senior engineering leadership. Jason's background — 18+ years in enterprise telecom/UC, SRE/cloud engineering, Kubernetes, microservices, Python/Go, security compliance (PCI-DSS, NIST, GDPR) — is genuinely senior. Most small companies in the firearms/outdoor space have hardware expertise, community relationships, and domain knowledge, but no one who can design and build production-grade cloud infrastructure. This is a $200–350/hour engagement that generates material cash flow with minimal infrastructure investment.

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## Problem Statement

The firearms and outdoor products startup ecosystem has a technology talent gap. A company that builds excellent shooting sports hardware or a new range management product often has:
- A founder with deep domain expertise (shooting, outdoor, military/LE background)
- A hardware engineer
- A mobile app developer (often junior or contract)
- No one who has built and run production cloud infrastructure at scale

The consequences:
- Apps that go down during busy periods (SHOT Show traffic, match day spikes)
- Security vulnerabilities that create liability (PII exposure, payment data mishandling)
- Infrastructure that doesn't scale (works fine at 1,000 users; falls over at 10,000)
- No observability — they don't know their app is broken until users complain
- Compliance gaps — PCI-DSS requirements for any app that handles payments, GDPR if any EU users

These are problems Jason has solved professionally for 18+ years. A fractional engagement of 10–20 hours per month addresses these systematically.

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## Service Offering

### Service Lines

**Fractional CTO / Technical Advisor**
- Ongoing advisory retainer: review architectural decisions, provide technical strategy input, attend key engineering discussions
- Monthly engagement: 8–20 hours/month
- Rate: $250–350/hour (minimum retainer $2,000/month)
- Value: access to senior engineering judgment without a full-time hire ($150,000–250,000/year salary)

**Cloud Architecture Design & Implementation**
- Design Kubernetes-based deployment architecture for a client's application
- Implement: cluster setup, CI/CD pipeline, monitoring/alerting, disaster recovery
- Rate: $225–275/hour, typical engagement 40–100 hours
- Deliverable: documented, operational infrastructure with runbook

**Security Compliance Assessment**
- Assess application and infrastructure against PCI-DSS, NIST 800-53, SOC 2 Type II, or GDPR requirements
- Deliverable: gap assessment report with prioritized remediation plan
- Rate: $250/hour, typical engagement 20–40 hours (assessment only); add implementation at standard rate

**Incident Response & Reliability Engineering**
- Diagnose production incidents: database performance, memory leaks, network issues, runaway processes
- Implement SLO/SLI/error budget framework
- Rate: $275/hour; emergencies command a premium

**Infrastructure Modernization**
- Migrate from legacy deployment (VMs, shared hosting, Heroku) to Kubernetes
- Implement observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Alertmanager)
- Rate: project-based, $15,000–50,000 depending on scope

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## Target Client

**Shooting sports technology startups:** Companies building match management software, range management platforms, training tools, or connected shooting accessories who need infrastructure expertise.

**Established outdoor brands adding software:** A hunting equipment manufacturer launching a connected product or mobile app who needs cloud infrastructure built properly from the start.

**Defense/LE technology companies:** Smaller SBIR/STTR contractors or defense tech companies building prototype systems who need SRE expertise but can't justify a full-time hire.

**Any startup in Jason's professional network:** Former colleagues at Cisco, Expedia, or eLoyalty who are building something new. The warmest leads in any consulting practice come from people who have worked with the consultant directly.

**Priority profile:** Series A or pre-Series A startup with a technical product, 5–20 employees, engineering team of 2–5, annual revenue $500K–5M. They have money for quality help but not for a full-time senior engineering hire.

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## Revenue Model

**Retainer-based recurring revenue:**
- 2 fractional CTO retainers at $3,000/month = $6,000 MRR = $72,000 ARR
- 1 additional project engagement per month at $5,000–15,000 average

**Revenue potential at minimal engagement:**
- 2 retainer clients + 4 project engagements/year = $72,000 + $40,000 = $112,000/year
- This is achievable at 15–20 hours/week consulting alongside ScopeDOPE development

**Ceiling:** At full capacity (before ScopeDOPE demands dominate), $200,000–350,000/year in consulting revenue is achievable for senior SRE consulting.

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## Strategic Fit with CBB / ScopeDOPE

**Cash flow:** Same rationale as Brief #17 — consulting revenue funds ScopeDOPE development without outside investment. Preserves equity.

**Infrastructure for CBB itself:** The Kubernetes cluster, PostgreSQL backend, API architecture, and observability stack that Jason builds for CBB clients is the same stack he's running for Cold Bore Ballistics. Each client engagement improves the patterns and tools used at CBB.

**Network effects:** A company that relies on Jason's infrastructure consulting is aware of Cold Bore Ballistics. If they're in the shooting sports space, they're a potential partner. If they have a product in the field that could benefit from ScopeDOPE integration, that conversation is easy to have.

**Credibility with investors/acquirers:** "Cold Bore Ballistics' founder has built production infrastructure for X, Y, and Z companies in the outdoor space" is a stronger credential than "founder has a home lab." Consulting engagements build a reference list.

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## Competitive Landscape

Senior SRE consultants with the combination of cloud infrastructure expertise, security compliance background, and domain knowledge in the shooting sports / outdoor industry are genuinely rare. Most SRE consultants know cloud; they don't know the domain. Most firearms industry technical people know the domain; they don't know SRE. Jason sits at this intersection.

**Rate comparison:**
- Junior cloud consultant: $75–125/hour
- Mid-level SRE contractor: $125–175/hour
- Senior SRE with compliance expertise: $200–300/hour
- Fractional CTO: $250–350/hour
- Big 4 consulting: $350–600/hour (with overhead and account management layer)

Jason's rates sit in the sweet spot: senior expertise at a price that beats Big 4 without a large firm's overhead.

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## Operational Model

**Engagement rules:**
- Maximum 2 simultaneous retainer clients
- Maximum 25 hours/week consulting while ScopeDOPE is in active development
- No emergency on-call retainers unless at a significant premium (1.5× standard rate)
- All consulting through CBB LLC

**Infrastructure separation:** Consulting clients' infrastructure is managed in separate cloud accounts and separate GitHub organizations from CBB's own infrastructure. No overlap.

**Knowledge management:** Each engagement produces documentation (architecture diagrams, runbooks, decision records) that the client owns. CBB retains no copies of client infrastructure code or configuration.

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## Go-to-Market

**Professional network:** 18+ years in enterprise telecom and cloud engineering generates a substantial professional network. LinkedIn outreach to former colleagues who have moved to startups or early-stage companies is the highest-conversion channel.

**Content marketing:** Technical blog posts on `coldboreballisticsllc.com` about Kubernetes patterns, security compliance, observability — topics that rank on developer search queries and attract the right audience. "How we built ScopeDOPE's production infrastructure on Kubernetes" is a credibility piece and a marketing piece simultaneously.

**NSSF / industry events:** As CBB's SHOT Show profile grows, conversations with other companies at industry events convert into consulting relationships. "What does your infrastructure look like? Have you done your PCI-DSS assessment?" opens doors.

**Referrals:** The highest-converting consulting leads come from satisfied clients referring peers. Deliver excellent work on first engagements; referrals follow.

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## Success Metrics

| Metric | 6-month | 12-month |
|---|---|---|
| Active retainer clients | 1 | 2 |
| Project engagements completed | 2 | 6 |
| Consulting revenue | $25,000 | $90,000 |
| Hours/week committed (max) | 20 | 15 (ScopeDOPE priority) |

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## Risks & Mitigations

| Risk | Likelihood | Mitigation |
|---|---|---|
| Consulting demands crowd out ScopeDOPE development | High | Hard cap: 25 hours/week. Reduce retainer clients before accepting new ones if capacity is a constraint. |
| Client infrastructure incident creates liability for CBB | Medium | Professional liability (E&O) insurance. Clear SLA terms. No guarantees of uptime without monitoring retainer. |
| Client work involves exposure to confidential information that conflicts with CBB interests | Low | NDA + conflict check at engagement start. Decline engagements where conflict exists. |
| Clients want to hire Jason full-time | Medium | Explicitly non-available for full-time employment. Consulting only. |

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## Resource Requirements

- No new infrastructure: existing tools (homelab, development environment, productivity suite)
- Professional liability (E&O) insurance: $1,000–2,500/year (higher coverage than BLE consulting due to infrastructure scope)
- Consulting contract template: 1-time legal review by attorney ($300–700)
- Standard NDA template: included with contract
- Time: budget 15–25 hours/week maximum alongside ScopeDOPE

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## Recommended Timing

**Available immediately.** No product development required. Update LinkedIn and CBB website, reach out to professional network, accept appropriate engagements. Start with one client at a time. Scale based on ScopeDOPE development demands — when ScopeDOPE needs more attention, reduce consulting load.

**Natural lifecycle:** Consulting revenue is highest in the 12–18 months while ScopeDOPE approaches launch, when product revenue is pre-revenue. As ScopeDOPE generates revenue, consulting load reduces. By the time ScopeDOPE hits 5,000 installs, consulting should be a small supplement rather than a primary income source.

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## Open Questions

- Should Jason position as "Jason Schwefel, independent consultant" or "Cold Bore Ballistics, consulting services"? Recommendation: Cold Bore Ballistics LLC for the entity (liability protection, business credibility) with Jason Schwefel as the named consultant (clients hire people, not companies at this size).
- Should consulting services be prominently featured on `coldboreballisticsllc.com` or kept low-profile? Recommendation: separate section or page, not the headline. CBB is primarily a software product company; consulting is secondary. Clients who need this will find it.
- What sectors should be explicitly declined? Recommendation: decline direct competitors to ScopeDOPE. Consider declining clients whose technology could be used to undermine Second Amendment rights (out of alignment with CBB's community). Aerospace/defense acceptable but requires careful conflict check.

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## Document Control

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| **Document owner** | `jschwefel@coldboreballisticsllc.com` |
| **Classification** | Confidential (03_-_Confidential/) |
| **Location** | `OneDrive/ScopeDOPE/03_-_Confidential/Product_Strategy/CBB_BRIEF_18_SRE_CONSULTING.md` |
| **Cross-references** | `CBB_PROJECT_BRIEFS_TOC.md` |
| **Created** | 2026-06-02 |
| **Last updated** | 2026-06-09 |
| **Next full review due** | 2027-06-02 |

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## Revision Control Block

| Rev | Date | Changed By | Reviewed By | Approved By | Summary |
|-----|------|------------|-------------|-------------|-------|
| 0.9 | 2026-06-02 | jschwefel | — | — | Initial release |
| DRAFT | 2026-06-09 | Claude (Opus 4.8) | — | — | Removed header version number (→ Status/Destination + revision-block pointer); added Destination tag (CBB_Corporate venture — services); replaced forbidden `coldboreballistics.com` (×2, blog/website) → `coldboreballisticsllc.com`; applied ™ to first use of ScopeDOPE/Cold Bore Ballistics. |
