Why We Exist
Most owners don't own a business. They own a job that runs their life.
When they got into it, it was exciting. They did everything themselves. They were good at it. The business grew because of them. And now the business can't function without them. There's nothing to sell, no one to hand it to. It just needs more.
We exist to change that.
Running a business should create optionality, not eliminate it. Real freedom looks like a company that grows whether you're there or not. A company that can operate without you. One that gives you a choice: stay and enjoy it, or leave on your terms.
The goal isn't to make you unnecessary. It's to make you optional. Optional is where freedom lives.
Who We Work With
We work with two types of founder-led businesses. They're different in motivation but identical in what they need.
Owners seeking freedom
Everything runs through them: clients, sales, operations, decisions. They want to build a model that works without them being in the middle of everything. They're not necessarily thinking about selling. They're thinking about breathing.
Legacy Builders
The business is successful. They want to maintain it, grow it, or eventually transition it. Maybe to family, maybe to a buyer, maybe to a team. They're exit-minded but not exit-ready. The business needs structural work before any of those options become real.
Both need the same thing: a business that functions as an asset rather than a performance.
It Started With a
Skateboard Shop
Our founder's mom ran a skateboard shop for five years. Serving the community. Supporting her family. Building something meaningful.
But when the time came to walk away, she had nothing to show for it. No buyer. No equity. No transition. Just a closed door and years of work that vanished.
The business had value while it was running. It generated income. It served customers. But nobody had ever built it to exist without her. So when she left, there was nothing left.
Then we saw it again.
When Diffactory started as a marketing consultancy in 2015, we kept seeing the same pattern. Founders building real companies that made real money. But growth was making it worse, not better. Sales depended on one person. Operations lived in one brain. Clients followed relationships, not systems. The owner's ceiling became the company's ceiling.
Instead of freedom, they got more prison.
Marketing wasn't the problem. The business model itself was. It was built on one person's time, talent, and relationships. No matter how good the marketing was, you can't scale a company that's structurally dependent on a single human being.
So we stopped being a marketing agency and started fixing the real problem.
How We Do It
We've been in the trenches for three decades. Built companies. Exited them. Lost them. All of the painful and valuable lessons along the way.
That background matters, but what matters more is methodology. We don't just show up with opinions and good intentions. We bring a structured framework built on the 8 Drivers of Value from the Value Builder System. These are the specific, measurable factors that determine whether a business can operate and transact without the founder: financial performance, growth potential, owner independence, customer diversification, recurring revenue, competitive advantage, customer satisfaction, and team capability.
We're not a marketing firm. Not your accountant. Not consultants dropping by with advice and walking away. We don't hand over a binder that sits on a shelf.
We roll up our sleeves. We build. We measure. We learn. We adjust in real time.
Who's Behind This
Kevin Oldham runs Diffactory.
He's been obsessed with one question his entire career: how do you build a business that doesn't require you to function? Not a lifestyle business. Not a side project. A real company with real systems and a real value that's transferable, and that someone would actually want to buy.
In 2023, Kevin walked into a kitchen floor at 4am in the morning after staying up all night. Eight years of work, and he had built a prison so sophisticated that as an entrepreneur, he did not know he was even trapped in it. So he took it apart.
He figured out how to fix the business. Got himself out of the middle. Exited the part that didn't make sense and kept the part that did.
Now he helps other founders do the same thing.
Kevin's Background
All of that sounds like a resume. Here's what it actually means: the frameworks he teaches come from doing the work, failing at it, and figuring out what holds up under pressure. Not from reading about it.
- →Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA)
- →Certified Value Builder
- →Three-time agency founder
- →20+ years as a growth strategist
- →Angel investor backing 30+ startups through BetaBlox
- →First-degree black belt in taekwondo
- →20+ years in recovery
- →Husband, father, board member, volunteer
The People Who Make It Happen
Jessica McArthur
Head of Operations
Landon Oldham
Social & Relationship Coordinator
Jose Bolanos
Mindset Expert
Mark De Grasse
AI Expert
Jessy Daguman
Social Producer
Dan Kalis
Head of Partnerships
Not Sure Where to Start?
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