Prepared by: MERIDIAN | Speed of Trust
Prepared for: Carl Helgesson, CEO Date: April 2026 Prepared by: MERIDIAN | Speed of Trust Classification: Confidential
Rankona Mazon has built a strong agency managing Amazon marketplace accounts across 11+ geographies. Two workflows sit at the foundation of every client engagement: backend catalog optimization and listing copy creation with localization.
In your words, backend field updates are *"a nightmare when we have clients with hundreds or thousands of SKUs."* Listing creation is a multi-stage process — keyword research, review scraping, SEO-first copywriting, client proofing, then full localization per marketplace — that consumes your team's most expensive hours on work that should be systematized.
The result: capacity coupled to headcount. More clients means more people. More markets means more people. Three open strategist positions. A 40,000-SKU prospect you cannot efficiently onboard. An estimated $300,000 - $450,000 per year in avoidable cost from manual labor, unreachable revenue, and undetected risk exposure.
MERIDIAN proposes building two foundational stations in the Rankona Mazon Terminal — an AI-augmented intelligence infrastructure your agency owns and operates. Station 1A eliminates the backend flat-file nightmare. Station 1B systematizes listing creation and localization from keyword research through native-market deployment. Both are operational within three weeks of kickoff.
Based on your current operations, the Terminal enables Rankona Mazon to:
To proceed: a 60-minute kickoff call to scope the first client deployment. We can schedule that this week.
Two engagement paths are presented: a commercial partnership at full rate, and a joint venture partnership where MERIDIAN deploys at operating cost and ties its compensation to your growth. Both deliver the same Terminal. The right path depends on how you want the economics to align.
Before evaluating what the Terminal costs, it's worth quantifying what the current state costs. These numbers are drawn from your April 3 demo call and the operational realities you described.
You have three open strategist positions. At $60,000 - $75,000 per strategist fully loaded, that's $180,000 - $225,000 per year in hiring cost to solve a capacity problem the Terminal addresses differently. Each hire takes 3 - 6 months to ramp, works on one client at a time, produces output at their individual pace, and takes their knowledge with them when they leave.
A single Germany market analysis takes your team approximately 8 hours. You operate across 11+ marketplaces. For a portfolio of 5 clients requiring market-level analysis, that's 440+ hours of analyst time per cycle — work that our demo compressed to 25 minutes per market using your real data.
You have a prospective client with 40,000 SKUs. Your current workflow cannot service a catalog at that scale without proportional headcount. At a conservative management fee of $8,000 - $15,000/month, that single client represents $96,000 - $180,000 per year in revenue the agency cannot access.
During our demo, the overnight alert triage identified a suppressed listing costing €2,100 per day — €63,000 per month if uncaught. How many suppressed listings, unauthorized sellers, and BSR crashes go undetected across your client portfolio right now?
| Cost Category | Annual Estimate |
|---|---|
| Three strategist hires | $180,000 - $225,000 |
| Manual market analysis (11 markets x 5 clients) | $26,400 - $33,000 |
| Backend + listing labor ("a nightmare" at scale) | Significant but unmeasured |
| Unreachable revenue (40,000-SKU prospect alone) | $96,000 - $180,000 |
| Undetected risk (€2,100/day per incident) | Variable — one incident = €63K/month |
| Conservative Total | $300,000 - $450,000 / year |
Every month without systematized operations is a month that cost compounds.
On April 3, we ran a 45-minute live demo using Rankona Mazon's real data — your email, your org chart, your client information. Not a simulated environment. Your business, in real time.
| Capability | Your Team Today | MERIDIAN |
|---|---|---|
| Germany market analysis (keywords, competitors, strategy) | ~8 hours | 25 minutes |
| Proposal generation from 222-page deck | ~44 hours | 45 minutes |
| Alert triage: suppressed listing (€2,100/day), unauthorized seller, BSR crash | Manual monitoring, if it happens at all | Overnight autonomous run, briefing by morning |
| AI assistant trained on proprietary course content | Custom development required | Deployed live during demo |
The Terminal stations proposed in this document build on that same infrastructure — the same intelligence mesh, the same agent architecture, the same persistent memory — configured for the two workflows at the foundation of your agency.
In month three, your team onboards the 40,000-SKU prospect. The ontology is already mapped for their product categories. Jennifer's team processes the full backend in an afternoon — not because they work faster, but because the system handles the flat-file mapping, attribute validation, and bulk upload while they review and approve. Johan's team generates localized listings across five European markets in parallel. The work that would have required three new hires and four months of ramp happens in a week.
Every component of this scenario was demonstrated during the April 3 demo using your actual data. The Terminal makes it repeatable, at scale, on every client account.
Jennifer and Johan's teams keep doing what they do best: strategic decisions about positioning, brand voice, keyword strategy, and market entry. Their expertise stays. What changes is the work *around* the expertise — flat-file management, manual keyword mapping, copy-paste localization, repetitive formatting. That work moves into the Terminal.
The strategist positions you're hiring for? The Terminal doesn't eliminate those roles — it changes what they spend their time on. Instead of processing backends, they manage more client relationships. Instead of manually localizing listings, they oversee quality across markets. Capacity grows without headcount growing proportionally.
The Terminal does not replace your team's Amazon expertise. It cannot make strategic judgment calls about product positioning, brand voice, or market-entry timing. It does not handle regulated categories autonomously — supplements, food, medical devices, and children's products require human review and manual upload. What it eliminates is the manual complexity that prevents your team's expertise from scaling.
Each station is a discrete operating system — built, documented, repeatable — that handles a specific workflow. Stations connect: opening one creates the data pathways for the next. This proposal opens the first two.
| Line | Station | System | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Line 1 — Catalog Foundation | 1A | Backend Attribute Engine | Building Now |
| 1B | Listing Copy Engine | Building Now | |
| 1C | Localization Engine | Under Construction | |
| Line 2 — Market Intelligence | 2A | Keyword & Search Intelligence | Under Construction |
| 2B | Competitive Position Tracking | Future | |
| 2C | Buyer Signal Engine | Future | |
| Line 3 — Growth Operations | 3A | Product Launch Protocol | Future |
| 3B | Advertising Architecture | Future | |
| 3C | Account Health & Compliance | Future | |
| Line 4 — Client Output | 4A | Performance Reporting | Future |
| 4B | Client-Facing Dashboard | Future |
Opening Station 1A creates the data foundation: clean backend attributes enable keyword intelligence, advertising targeting, and localization to start from correct data instead of propagating errors. Opening Station 1B creates the content framework: once primary copy is systematized, localization becomes standalone, review scraping scales independently, and product launch copy inherits the workflow.
*"We do not have any good process for efficient backend field updates. This is a nightmare when we have clients with hundreds or thousands of SKUs."* — Carl Helgesson, April 3
Station 1A takes any client catalog, maps it to Amazon's category-specific field requirements, validates every attribute, and outputs a clean flat-file ready for bulk upload. The system works with Category Reports and flat files from Amazon, mapping product information to the correct Amazon-tagged fields per your existing workflow.
How It Works:
Source-of-Truth Hierarchy:
| Priority | Source | Treatment |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (Highest) | Manufacturer Specification | Authoritative for technical attributes |
| 2 | Client Product Sheet | Cross-checked against manufacturer spec |
| 3 | Existing Seller Central Data | Validated; corrected if conflicting |
| 4 | Client Website / Marketing | Descriptive attributes only |
| 5 (Lowest) | AI-Inferred | Flagged; requires written approval |
Regulated categories excluded from AI-assisted population. Manual review and upload required.
Delivery:
*"SEO comes first and we 'wrap' the sales copy around the SEO. Main SEO in title, secondary in bullets, tertiary in backend."* — Carl Helgesson, April 3
Station 1B systematizes this exact workflow — your words, your process — at a speed and consistency that manual execution cannot match.
Workflow:
Delivery:
Two engagement paths. Same Terminal. Same quality. Same deliverables. Same ownership. Different commercial relationship, different risk profile, different alignment.
The MERIDIAN platform is already built. You are paying for implementation: ontology mapping, workflow customization, and deployment into your operations. Not template installations — each station is engineered around how your team actually works.
Full-rate engagement. MERIDIAN builds, Rankona Mazon pays. Clean, simple, predictable.
Setup Fees:
| Component | Individual | Combined |
|---|---|---|
| Station 1A — Backend Attribute Engine | $12,500 | — |
| Station 1B — Listing Copy Engine | $15,000 | — |
| Station 1A + 1B Combined | — | $24,500 |
| Ontology Mapping (per category) | $1,250 | $1,250 |
Monthly Terminal Access:
| Tier | ASIN Volume | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Up to 50 | $5,500 |
| Growth | Up to 150 | $9,500 |
| Scale | Up to 400 | $14,000 |
| Enterprise | 400+ | Custom |
Market Activation:
| Package | Geographies | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| European Core | DE, FR, IT, ES, NL | $3,500 |
| European Extended | Core + PL, SE, CZ | $5,200 |
| Global | Extended + JP, KO | $8,000 |
Example Scenario: 2 categories, 150 ASINs, EU Core
| Component | One-Time | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Station 1A + 1B Combined | $24,500 | — |
| Ontology Mapping (2 categories) | $2,500 | — |
| Terminal Access — Growth | — | $9,500 |
| Market Activation — European Core | — | $3,500 |
| Total | $27,000 | $13,000 / month |
First-year all-in: $183,000. That's still under half the annual cost of standing still ($300,000 - $450,000) and pays for itself in under 6 months when you account for the capacity it unlocks. The Growth tier at $9,500 replaces the throughput of multiple strategists — operational in 3 weeks, zero ramp time, zero knowledge loss from turnover. Against the 40,000-SKU prospect alone ($96,000 - $180,000/year in unreachable revenue), the Terminal approaches payback on a single client win.
Setup: 50% deposit on signing, 50% on completion. Monthly invoiced on the 1st, due net-15.
MERIDIAN deploys at a partnership rate and ties its compensation to your growth.
Option A is a fair commercial price for expert-level systems engineering. But it asks you to bear the full cash cost while MERIDIAN bears none of the risk.
Option B inverts that. MERIDIAN deploys its infrastructure at a reduced partnership rate and ties the balance of its compensation to two things: the quarterly profit growth it helps generate, and the enterprise value it helps create at exit. If MERIDIAN's systems don't grow the business, MERIDIAN earns a fraction of Option A. If they do, both sides participate.
This is not a discount. It is a bet. MERIDIAN is betting its own time and infrastructure that the Terminal, the process formalization, and the systematic removal of headcount-dependency will make Rankona Mazon materially more profitable and materially more valuable.
Partnership Economics:
| Component | One-Time | Monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Station 1A + 1B Combined | $6,000 | — |
| Ontology Mapping (2 categories) | $1,500 | — |
| Terminal Access + Market Activation | — | $4,500 |
| Total | $7,500 | $4,500 / month |
First-year cash cost: $61,500. One-third the cash outlay of Option A — less than a single strategist fully loaded. If the Terminal doesn't grow the business, $61,500 is all MERIDIAN earns. Carl saves $121,500 in Year 1 cash versus Option A and redirects that capital into growth.
Setup: 50% deposit on signing, 50% on completion. Monthly invoiced on the 1st, due net-15.
Quarterly Profit Participation:
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Rate | 20% of net increase in quarterly profit above baseline |
| Baseline | Rolling 12-month profitability through Q1 2026 |
| Measurement | Quarterly, from completed financial reports |
| Duration | 10 years from agreement date |
| If profits don't increase | No participation owed. MERIDIAN earns only the monthly operating fees. |
Success Participation on Exit:
| Term | Detail |
|---|---|
| Rate | 50% of enterprise value above threshold |
| Threshold | $25,000,000 |
| Qualifying event | Acquisition, merger, or majority recapitalization |
| Duration | 10 years or duration of active engagement, whichever is longer |
| If no qualifying event | No success participation. MERIDIAN retains only monthly fees and quarterly profit participation. |
What This Looks Like at Exit:
| Scenario | EBITDA | Multiple | EV | Carl Keeps | MERIDIAN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No Terminal | $1.5M | 4x | $6M | $6M | $0 |
| Systematized | $2.5M | 8x | $20M | $20M | $0 |
| Scaled | $4M | 10x | $40M | $32.5M | $7.5M |
| Platform | $6M | 12x | $72M | $48.5M | $23.5M |
| Major Exit | $10M | 12x | $120M | $72.5M | $47.5M |
Below $25M, MERIDIAN earns nothing beyond monthly fees and quarterly profit participation. At the "Scaled" scenario, Carl keeps $32.5M from a company that would have been worth $6M without systematic transformation. MERIDIAN's $7.5M is earned from $34M in value created.
Partnership terms documented in a separate agreement covering definitions, qualifying events, baseline measurement, and sunset provisions.
On final payment, all deliverables transfer to Rankona Mazon with full ownership rights. Both options.
| # | Asset | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Category Ontology Maps | Field taxonomy mapping per category |
| 2 | Flat-File Templates | Pre-configured with validation rules |
| 3 | Backend Processing Pipeline | SOPs, automation configurations |
| 4 | Keyword Research Templates | Search term harvesting frameworks |
| 5 | Listing Copy Architecture | SEO-first framework, placement hierarchy |
| 6 | Localization Framework | Per-market guides, consumer psychology |
| 7 | Prompt Architecture | All AI prompts, validation logic, templates |
| 8 | Raw Working Files | Source files, outputs, research data |
MERIDIAN retains platform IP, methodologies, and tooling. You own the output systems. If you discontinue Terminal Access, all assets stay with you. You paid to build these, not rent them.
| Responsibility | Deadline |
|---|---|
| Primary point of contact designated | Before signing |
| Seller Central access (read/write) | Within 3 business days |
| Keyword tool access | Within 3 business days |
| Product sheets, brand guidelines, source data | Within 5 business days |
| Deliverable review within stated windows | Per milestone |
| Regulated categories confirmed | Before ontology mapping |
Delays from late responses extend timelines. Cumulative delays exceeding 15 business days trigger re-scoping rights.
| Step | Action | Timing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Select Option A or Option B. Sign engagement terms. | This week |
| 2 | 60-minute kickoff: access handoff, category scoping, first client selection | Within 3 business days |
| 3 | Station builds begin. 1A and 1B run in parallel. | Week 1 post-kickoff |
First stations operational within 3 weeks of kickoff. 30-day commercial performance validation on every deployment.
Audit the backend completion rate on your top 10 revenue-generating ASINs across your largest client account. Pull the Category Report, compare populated fields against the category's required and recommended attributes. Even partial backend cleanup on high-volume listings produces measurable organic lift within 14 days. This costs nothing and takes an hour. If the results surprise you, it'll tell you everything about what's happening across the rest of your portfolio.
| RANKONA MAZON | MERIDIAN |
| Carl Helgesson, CEO | Authorized Representative |
| Date: _____________ | Date: _____________ |
*This document is confidential and intended solely for the named recipient. It does not constitute a binding agreement. Engagement terms are subject to execution of a formal services agreement or partnership agreement as applicable to the selected option.*