A team of one-person teams.

Where the model comes from

In 2000, two former McKinsey consultants, Liann Eden and Dena McCallum, left to try something different. Instead of building another consulting firm with hundreds of consultants on payroll, they built a network: a small in-house team running relationships and projects, plus a pool of experienced independents brought in case by case.

Twenty-five years on, Eden McCallum has 2,000+ independent consultants, 2,500+ projects delivered, and clients across the Fortune 500 and private equity. The deal with consultants is simple: no exclusivity, no minimum work, no traps. Senior people, mutual trust. It works.

The idea

With AI, the new blueprint for building software is the “one-person team”: one experienced person who can do what used to take five, because AI does a lot of the heavy lifting.

YDIN is a team of one-person teams. A small core of senior software engineers, extended with 20+ specialists across software, AI, design, product, and data. Plus AI agents. We bring in the right people for the right job. We’re an agent-using company, not an agent-building company.

Eden McCallum proved this model in management consulting. YDIN applies it to software in the AI era.

Three ways to work

Client work splits into Core (their competitive edge, the capability they need to own) and Context (everything else, which someone else can operate). Three modes follow:

• Advisor. The client does the work, YDIN advises. As little as one hour a week as a sounding board for a founder or CxO; bigger assignments case by case. Fits Core or Context.
• Consultant. YDIN does the work with a clear handover plan. Projects, fractional roles, or interim roles. Best fit for Core work the client needs to own afterwards.
• Operator. YDIN takes Context work off the client’s plate entirely and runs it ongoing. The client doesn’t need to own it.

The same person can work in different modes for different clients, or move between modes over time.

What you get

One plus one is greater than two. As part of the network:

• Credibility. Easier to sell as part of a known brand than as an individual.
• Better rates. YDIN positioning beats freelancer positioning.
• Easier to sell. The pipeline doesn’t depend only on you.
• Backup. Sick leave, vacation, peak workload. Someone covers.
• Peer support. A private Slack channel for the network. Bounce ideas, ask hard questions, don’t work in total isolation.
• Specialists on call. When you hit something outside your zone, pull someone in instead of fumbling it.
• Templates and tools. Contracts, proposals, the admin side of independent work. Built once, shared with the network.
• Career counseling. Optional and private. With the core team or with peers, whenever it’s useful.

What clients get

The YDIN secret sauce:

• Seniors. Real experience, scar tissue, judgment.
• AI. Used everywhere it makes sense.
• The Expert Network. Any specialty, on demand.

Public or private

Two ways to be a member, and you can switch anytime:

• Public. Your face on the YDIN website. You want to be visibly part of this.
• Private. Part of the network and in the loop on opportunities, but not publicly listed.

The agreement

A simple Expert Network Agreement: a one-pager. No predatory non-competes, nothing that ties your hands. The principle: a gentlemen’s agreement beats a lawyers’ agreement. We’re all senior enough to know that relationships last decades. You can be an asshole only once. Don’t let jerks in.

This is the same model management consulting and sales networks have used forever. Loose, non-binding, built so everyone can sell more than just themselves.

How the commercials work

Start simple: a loose network of independent consultants. Everyone is their own business. When a client opportunity comes through YDIN, we figure out the deal case by case. This will evolve, and there’s room to discuss what deeper collaboration could look like later.

Timeline

• Now. Inviting the first 15–20 senior people. One-on-one conversations, feedback, refinement.
• 1 July. The new YDIN website goes live, the Expert Network goes public, and we announce it.
• After launch. I start promoting the network to my own audience, including a 4,650-connection LinkedIn following and more, and sell the Expert Network in every client meeting.

The ask

At a minimum, be open to Advisor opportunities. Consultant or Operator work is case by case. Nothing binding.