Frequently asked questions

What do you actually do?

I work with executives to build how they operate with AI: your own practice first, then your team’s. A controller who knows freight invoices and month-end close gets real leverage from AI on the journal entries. A person who doesn’t know the operation can’t tell whether what AI built is right. Hands-on, on your stack, with the first pieces running inside the first month.

Anyone can build an app in an hour now. Why do I need you?

Anyone can build an interface in an hour. Whether it attaches to your data the right way, whether it understands the schema, whether the result is right. You can’t see that, and you wouldn’t know to ask it to explain. The weakest link is the person who can’t evaluate the output. I bring the operating judgment that catches what the fast build misses.

What does it cost?

The retainer is $6,000 for a month, $5,500 a month for a quarter ($16,500), or $5,000 a month for nine months ($45,000). The length you commit to sets the rate; most engagements start with the month. The workshop is $9,000, fixed. For early-stage work, I take equity. After any term, renewal is monthly; thirty days’ notice either way.

Why not hours?

Metering every message turns a relationship into a support desk. You’re buying my attention on your operation at a rhythm we agree on. If you consistently need more than the rhythm, we change the remit; I don’t over- or under-serve.

What happens in the first month?

Week one I’m inside your work: your week, the people one level down, your tools and data, and whatever’s already running that nobody sanctioned. By the end of the week the remit is written. Weeks two to four, the standing work moves onto the fleet and we run it: the first pieces running on your stack, the first judgment sessions, a written view of what comes next. If it’s not working by the end of the month, you stop. Details: the retainer.

Is this a course? Will you train my team?

No. Training teaches tools; tools change monthly. I build the practice with you: workflows, governance, habits. Your team learns it by running it. If you want a workshop, this is the wrong call.

What if my team resists?

Usually they don’t. They’re already using it and would rather it be sanctioned. The resistance is more often the executive’s: the fear of not understanding it, or of the team being ahead. I start with you, so that by the time it gets to the team you’re the one who knows how it works.

Who on my team should be involved?

The people already using it. Most companies have one or two quiet power users: the person whose spreadsheet everyone else depends on, the one already pasting work into a chat window to save an hour. They become the core of a small cross-functional group, one from operations, one from IT or compliance, one from the business side. The group runs it after the engagement; the tinkerers make it stick.

We’re regulated or audited. What touches our data?

Only what your policy has cleared. Day one I take fifteen minutes with whoever owns IT or compliance so I know the rules before I touch anything, and I work inside them. My regulated work has run under FDA and pharma compliance; if your constraint is an ISO registrar or a customer audit, that same conversation is where we map it. The detail is on the data-handling page.

Do you build software?

I build the practice: workflows, tooling on your existing stack, small automations, the operating model. When the work surfaces a real application that needs building, LightForge Works (a firm I’m part of) can build it, rather than stretching a retainer into a software project.

How many clients do you take?

Five seats at a time, onboarded one at a time, so only one is ever in the dense first months. When the seats are full, I give you a start date rather than a worse first month.

Can we start smaller?

Yes. Take one month at $6,000 and decide at the end of it. The workshop ($9,000, five days) starts small too.

What’s your background?

I’ve run companies across pharma, devices, and software; raised capital; reported to boards; taken a company through a regulatory pathway; shut one down. I write software and run my ventures on a system of agents I designed for them. Before all that, a PhD in composition. The short version is on the about page.

Can I talk to a reference?

Where clients allow it, yes. Much of the work is under NDA in pharma and devices, which is why the examples are anonymized. When we talk I will walk you through what those cases looked like from the inside, and I will connect you with a reference where the client has cleared it.

How do I start?

Reply to b@mcco.us. I’ll send what the first month looks like for a shop like yours. No call to book unless you want one.