Duration: June - September 2025
Team: Emma Green, Chrys Wu, Justyna Nowak
Skillset: Business Development Advisory, Capacity Building
Overview
2i2c builds and operates interactive computing environments for open science and education in the cloud. The team had deep technical expertise and had built a solid base of recurring revenue, and were working through developing their business model in order to grow sustaining revenue while continuing to provide trusted products and services.
This change brought the team into unknown territory. 2i2c recognized a need for leadership coaching and strategic advisory support that would lead the organization through this significant business transition. They turned to IOI.
What we did
Moving to a membership model and building a more sustainable revenue base raised hard questions about what kind of organization 2i2c actually wanted to be, and what scaling would realistically mean for them.
We guided 2i2c to examine a core assumption of their go-to-market strategy: that direct cold outreach to large institutional customers was their most promising path to growth. What emerged from customer discovery and structured surveys was something more interesting. Customers weren't only looking for computing infrastructure. They wanted genuine engagement with the 2i2c team, connections to peer communities, and a sense of being part of something larger.
That insight became the basis for rethinking the strategy together. We worked alongside the team to create operational clarity around roles, business rhythms, and the feedback loops that bring product and business development teams into closer alignment with what customers actually need.
We also provided tailored guidance for business planning, introducing frameworks and approaches that helped 2i2c's leaders shift their focus from short-term goals toward a longer view of how the organization could grow.
Outcomes and impact
By the end of the engagement, 2i2c had moved from what the team described as “a room full of confetti,” to something that felt like order and focus. The coaching and advisory work gave their leadership clearer individual roles, a shared understanding of what the organization was trying to achieve, and the tools to keep making progress after the engagement ended.
That shared clarity mattered as much as any specific deliverable. When a team agrees on what scaling actually means for their organization, and for 2i2c it meant building reliable processes for a defined set of customers rather than chasing rapid expansion, decisions become easier to make and easier to explain. The 2i2c team left the engagement more aligned, more focused, and more confident about the road ahead.
As Jim Colliander, 2i2c's Business Development Manager, reflected: "My focus used to be on getting things done. Now it's on building evidence-based systems and knowledge that the whole team can work from."
Building the organization behind the infrastructure
Many open infrastructure orgs are technically strong and reach a point where the organizational side needs to catch up. Knowing how to build excellent tools is different from knowing how to grow sustainably, communicate your value clearly, or get your internal teams pulling in the same direction.
If your organization is navigating a similar transition, from grant support toward diversified revenue, or from founder-led growth toward something more repeatable, we would love to support you.
