You bring
Deep domain knowledge, conviction about a real problem, credibility with the people who have it, and the will to found a company around it.
You know the problem.
We build the product.
The best vertical software comes from people who've lived the problem, who usually can't build it alone. That's the gap we fill: product team, capital, and scars, in exchange for building it together.
The trade
We bring
A product and engineering team, capital, the 48x production playbook, evals, guardrails, weeks-to-live, and everything we've learned shipping production AI systems.
The pattern
The partnerships that work start the same way: a domain expert who has lived a problem for years, paired with a production AI team that can build the answer in weeks. You hold the domain, the customers, and the conviction; we hold the engineering, the evals, the guardrails, and the scars from taking AI systems to production. Neither half ships the company alone, and that is exactly the point.
How it works
It starts with a conversation about the problem, not a pitch deck. If the domain is real, the wedge is sharp, and the economics work, we validate quickly, a scoped build against real production traffic, weeks not quarters. When it proves out, it becomes a company: your name on it, our code carried to production, aligned equity. If it doesn't prove out, you've spent weeks learning that, not years.
The engagement, stage by stage
No term sheet before there's a working thing. Four stages, weeks not quarters.
01 · Problem, not pitch
We start with a working session on the problem itself, the workflow, the data, the people who feel it, not a deck. If the wedge is sharp and the economics reward better software, we move.
02 · Scoped validation
A time-boxed build against real production traffic. We prove the hardest assumption first, with evals wired in from day one, so you learn what's real in weeks instead of arguing about it for months.
03 · Build to production
Guardrails, agentic patterns, MCP integrations, and the unglamorous reliability work that keeps a system up under real load. Live in weeks, not a prototype that only demos well.
04 · Stand up the company
Your name in front, aligned equity, our code carried to production. You found the company; we stay the technical partner behind it as it grows.
Who we partner with
A fit
You've lived the problem for years and can't stop seeing it. You have, or can reach, the people who feel it. You want to found a company, not license a feature. And the work rewards software that gets sharper every time it's used.
Not a fit
You want a vendor to hand you a finished product. The problem is generic enough that a horizontal tool already covers it. There's no durable data or workflow advantage to compound. Or you're hoping to outsource the conviction, that's the one half we can't supply.
Why build it with 48x
The hard part of vertical AI isn't the model, it's everything around it: the evals that tell you it's right, the guardrails that keep it safe, the integrations into systems people already run, and the judgment to know what to build next. That's the half most domain experts can't hire fast enough. It's the half we do every day.
You keep the domain, the customers, and the company. We bring a production AI team that has taken systems to production and lived with them afterward. See how we build →
Frequently asked
Do you take equity, cash, or both?
Equity-weighted. We invest our team's time and the production playbook in exchange for meaningful, aligned ownership. The exact split depends on the stage and how much is already de-risked.
Who owns the company and the IP?
You do. It carries your name and your vision. We're the technical partner behind it, with aligned equity, not the owner of your company.
How long until there's something real?
A scoped validation runs in weeks. A first production capability typically follows in under eight weeks, evaluation harness and guardrails included.
What happens if it doesn't work?
Then you've spent weeks learning that, not years. We'd rather kill a weak wedge fast than raise a round around it.
Lived a problem worth solving?
Tell us about it. Domain expertise is the scarce ingredient, the rest is our job.
Book a call- A reply within one business day, from the person who'd actually do the work.
- A candid read on whether we're the right team. No sales pitch.
- If we're not the fit, you still leave with a sharper plan.