Fixed-scope. Concrete output.
Startup AI Strategy Sprint
The Strategy Sprint is a short, fixed-scope engagement that gets a founder from "we should use AI" to a prioritized roadmap their team can execute — in one to two weeks. We examine your workflows, costs, and hiring plan, rank the opportunities by leverage, and hand you a concrete plan with owners and milestones. No open-ended retainer, no deck that sits in a folder.
- 1–2 wk
- from kickoff to roadmap
- Fixed
- scope and price — no retainer required
- 30/60/90
- day plan with named owners
- 1Audit
Map workflows, costs, and headcount-replacement opportunities.
- 2Architecture
Design the agents, automations, data, and guardrails.
- 3Build
Implement the systems and connect your existing tools.
- 4Train
Tune on your data, SOPs, and voice; QA the outputs.
- 5Deploy
Roll out to the team with access controls and monitoring.
- 6Optimize
Measure, expand coverage, and compound the leverage.
The problem
"Use AI" is not a strategy.
Founders know AI should be part of the picture, but the advice is almost always general — use this tool, try that model. Without a map tied to your actual workflows and burn, experiments fizzle and hires still happen on schedule. The sprint exists to close that gap fast.
- You've tried a few tools but have no coherent plan
- A hiring decision is six to twelve weeks away and you want options first
- Your team is spending hours on work that feels automatable but nobody has mapped it
- Advisors point to AI in the abstract; nobody has looked at your specific setup
Why AI changes the economics
Diagnosis before build. Prioritized by actual leverage.
Building before you know where the leverage is wastes money and trust. The sprint gives you a ranked list grounded in your numbers — time spent, cost, and hiring risk — so the build phase targets impact, not novelty.
Ranked by ROI
Every opportunity is scored against time saved, burn reduced, and hires delayed — not what's fashionable.
Tied to your stack
Recommendations fit the tools you already pay for, so the path from plan to shipped is realistic.
Sequenced to execute
A 30/60/90-day plan with clear owners so the roadmap doesn't just sit in Notion.
What we implement
What the sprint covers
A focused sprint through your operating reality — people, process, tools, and money — with a deliverable at the end, not an ongoing engagement.
Workflow mapping
Document where time actually goes across every function and where work stalls.
Headcount-offset analysis
Identify roles and tasks AI can absorb or delay before the next hire.
Tool-stack review
Audit what you pay for, what overlaps, and what to connect.
Automation opportunity ranking
A prioritized backlog of agents and workflows ordered by leverage.
Burn and leverage model
Estimate the overhead AI could offset over the next two quarters.
30/60/90-day execution plan
A sequenced rollout with owners, milestones, and success metrics your team can actually run.
Use cases
Where founders apply this
- A founder six to twelve weeks from a planned ops or marketing hire
- A seed-stage team that's tried a few AI tools with no coherent framework
- A company that's growing faster than its manual processes can keep up
- A founder preparing for a fundraise who wants AI implementation in the story
- A startup that needs an outside perspective on where the real leverage is
Example workflows
Workflows we wire up
Sprint kickoff to workflow map
- 1Founder intake session: tools, costs, hiring plan
- 2Process interviews across key functions
- 3Document workflow map and time-spend estimates
- 4Identify and rank automation opportunities
Roadmap build
- 1Score each opportunity against burn, time, and hire-delay impact
- 2Sequence into 30/60/90-day build plan with owners
- 3Align on quick wins vs. structural investments
Handoff
- 1Walkthrough session of the full roadmap
- 2Q&A and scope adjustments
- 3Founder receives final deliverable package
Deliverables
What you walk away with
FAQ
Questions founders ask
No. The roadmap is yours to execute however you like. Most founders continue because the plan is specific and we built it together — but there's no obligation.
Access to your core tools (read-only is fine), a couple of working sessions with the founder and any ops lead, and your current hiring timeline and burn picture.
The Strategy Sprint is narrower — it focuses on roadmap prioritization. The Startup AI Audit is a fuller diagnostic that also includes a detailed tool-stack audit and leverage model. Many founders start with the Sprint and move to an Audit before full buildout.
Yes. Early-stage sprints focus on founder-leverage workflows and avoiding premature overhead. The priorities look different from a seed-stage buildout, but the sprint is just as useful.
Most sprints kick off within a week of scope alignment. The deliverable is in your hands one to two weeks after kickoff.
Get a prioritized AI roadmap in a week or two.
The Strategy Sprint maps your workflows, ranks the opportunities by leverage, and hands you a 30/60/90-day plan founders can actually execute.