What you're seeing across the portfolio
Boards want margin without more headcount, and funds are asking every company for an AI plan. Each company is at a different step.
Portfolio companies often have the tools without any change in how the work gets done, and the plans they send back are hard to compare or verify.
One method across the portfolio
Every company goes through the same path and the same milestones, so the companies are comparable:
| Where the company is today | What we do | When the step is done |
|---|---|---|
| AI-absent: tools, maybe, but the work hasn't changed | AI-absent → AI-enabled: a shared brain its people use every day, plus the first agent-run workflow | The first critical workflow is started and run by agents, with people at the gates that matter |
| AI-enabled: a shared brain and one agent-run workflow; the rest waits to be asked | AI-enabled → AI-native: the brain drives the work, and agents escalate to people based on the company's policies | The workflows that run the business, started and run by agents |
The working session places each company. Small companies start with a session sized to them; larger ones follow the same two steps. See what each founder gets, or browse by industry: manufacturing, agencies or all industries.
Value that grows faster than the AI bill
Any vendor can raise a company's usage. We design for faster execution and lower operating cost in the tools the company already uses, so the value grows faster than its AI bill.
When no one owns AI at the company
Some portfolio companies have the mandate but no one to own it. A fractional Chief AI Officer can hold that seat: the plan the CEO or board approves, what the company spends on AI and what it returns, who is accountable for each decision, and the first critical workflow run by agents. The seat's outcomes are agreed with you quarter by quarter. See fractional leadership.
Where we're doing this now
We name clients only with their written permission; everything else is described as it was delivered.
- Client · An influencer marketing and talent management agency · Live. Agents now handle the agency's editorial, creative and contract reviews, including MSAs and SOWs. Next: sales agents that build its pipeline. The agency's owner is a Splice founder.
- Design partner · A direct-to-consumer health company · In progress. We're making the company AI-native and its products agent-ready at the same time.
- Client · A specialty chemicals manufacturer · In progress. We're capturing product expertise that lived with one or two people in a brain that matches the right product to each use case and refuses claims the company can't make.
More in our work.
What investors ask us
What does it cost?
Talk to us. We scope the work with you during the working session, which is credited in full if you go on to work with us.
Who's accountable when the AI gets it wrong?
A person on your side. There's an accountable person behind every decision that matters, and agents can handle some approvals that person has permissioned. Before anything runs, we agree who is accountable and what each agent may approve.
Does the fund or the company engage you?
Either can. We agree who engages us, and on what terms, with you before anything is booked.
More answers in the FAQ.