Talk it through

Clarity isthe new speed.

We help founders and leadership teams work out what to build, and what not to, then build it.

Talk it through How we build

Teams we’ve worked with

  • FaithSocial
  • OneHope
  • Forever Open
  • John Maxwell Company
  • Lifework Leadership
  • LX Partners
  • InCommon
  • Edublox
  • The Oaks
  • Sakraan
  • LUMO Project
  • Palm Beach Atlantic University
  • Feed
  • Bethesda Bridge
  • Stormie Omartian
  • Mainsail
  • Openfin Technologies

Services

Three ways to bring us in.

Each starts with the problem you can see. The answer usually reaches further than the question did.

01Systems architecture

How should it all fit together?

We map how the business works and design the system it needs: data, tools, people, and where AI belongs.

You leave with
A map of the business as it really runs, and a design to build from.
Six weeks · fixed priceHow it works

02Delivery

Who’s going to build it?

A senior team builds the first version fast, because the thinking is done. A product, an internal tool, or the platform underneath both.

You leave with
Working software in use, and a team or partner ready to carry it.
Fixed scope, in phasesHow it works

03Fractional CTO

Who’s making the technical calls?

A senior technical leader at the table for a set term, then a review. We make the calls with your team, and stand behind them with investors.

You leave with
Decisions made and written down, and a team that can carry them.
Two quarters, then reviewHow it works

Strategy evaluation

Not sure where to start? Let’s evaluate together.

A short, fixed engagement. We look at the plan, the product, or the AI idea, find the problem behind it, and tell you straight what we’d do, before the money is committed.

You leave with
A written recommendation, the trade-offs behind it, what not to build, and which of the three you need, if any. Sometimes it’s none.
Two weeks · $7,500 fixedHow it works

Credited in full if we carry on together within 60 days.

How we think

We start bylistening.

Not to the org chart or the pitch deck. To how your business really moves. Once that’s clear, deciding what to build or where AI fits is the easy part. The answer is often already in the room.

Where we look

  • What still lives only in someone’s head
  • The conditions your users really work in
  • What each new customer costs you
  • What you’d build that nobody needs
Duncan at a whiteboard in afternoon light, drawing a system diagram during a working session

Think slowly.Build fast.

The expensive mistakes happen at the start of a project: accounts nobody needed, a stack an investor won’t trust, and screens built before anyone settled the problem. We take our time there, so the building can move fast.

  1. Listen

    01

    Understand the business

    How it makes money, how decisions get made, and where the friction really is.

    Strategy evaluation
  2. Think slowly

    02

    Design the system

    What should exist, what shouldn’t, and how the pieces fit together.

    Systems architecture · Fractional CTO
  3. Build fast

    03

    Build what matters

    The simplest version that adds value, built fast.

    Delivery
  4. Then

    04

    Hand it over

    To a team, a partner, or a process that can carry it forward.

    Every engagement

Delivery

When it’s time to build, we build fast.

Because the thinking comes first, the building is fast: a first version in two or three months, not a year. And we plan who carries it forward from day one.

Work

Every brief hasa better question inside it.

Every engagement turns on seeing what’s really going on, early. Here’s what that looked like.

All case studies
A plumber lying on a kitchen floor, working under the sink, while a phone on his toolbox shows the AI assistant handling his calls

Voice AI startup · Plumbing and HVAC · 2021–2022

They asked why the team was so slow. The team had never seen the whole product.

Two founders pictured an AI voice that answered for plumbers stuck under a sink: book the job, run the card, reschedule. Their engineers were busy, but slow, building the screens they could follow. We drew the product with the founders until everyone saw it whole, cut it to a first version, and hired two engineers to build it. The product took its first live calls in January 2022, before ChatGPT.

first live AI calls, in January, eleven months before ChatGPT
2022
engineers, once the right two were hired
5 → 2
faster shipping, by our estimate
10×
Read the case study
An attorney at his desk with a highlighter and a stack of filings, an executive order open in the search on his laptop

Tax credit platform · Fintech · 2023–2024

They asked what to build next. The IRS kept raising the bar for proof.

The voice AI founders came back with a new company, helping businesses claim COVID-era tax credits. The engineers we’d hired for them had momentum, but no clear next step. Every claim had to point to the government orders that hurt the business, and the IRS kept asking for more. We designed a careful path through each claim, and an AI pipeline that sorted thousands of overlapping orders.

government orders, sorted with AI
13K+
Read the case study
A consultant at a wooden desk by a loft window, reading his Mainsail offer report on his laptop, a notebook and coffee beside him

Business launch platform · With Openfin · 2026

They asked for a system to help people launch a business. Customers needed a person checking the AI's work.

Mainsail’s founders wanted to help experienced people go out on their own. AI could do much of the work, but on its own it makes noise, and people doing all of it cost too much. With Openfin, we designed and built a platform where agents draft seven deliverables from one short intake, and an experienced person reads every page before the customer sees it.

from the first idea meeting to the first paying customer
90 days
to draft and review a full launch kit
72 hrs
of the effort done by agents
80%+
Read the case study
A woman on her sofa in the afternoon sun, scrolling the FaithSocial feed on her phone, a mug of coffee beside her

Social platform · Web, iOS, and Android · 2018–2022

They asked for features that brought people together. Every new member shortened their runway.

A faith-based social network, growing fast on web, iOS, and Android. Duncan joined as an advisor in 2018 and became CTO in 2020, balancing three pressures: keep members connecting, make the runway last, and be ready for investors. We cut the server bill from over $22,000 a month to under $10,000 while members grew from about 20,000 to 100,000, and they kept finding each other: some became lifelong friends, and some married.

a month for servers, down from over $22K
<$10K
members, to 100,000
5×
engineers led
30+
Read the case study

In their words

They delivered landing pages, microsites, and automated workflows that looked great and got results. They have also been a generous resource ever since, helping solve problems beyond the scope of our projects.
Tricia GleghornFormer VP of Implementation and Strategy, Maxwell Leadership Foundation

Talk it through

Bring the question you can’t quite phrase yet.

That’s usually the right place to start.
A conversation, not a pitch. If we’re not the right fit, we’ll say so, and point you to who is.

Talk it through hello@boldorion.com