10–200 people
Small enough to move quickly. Large enough that the workflow has real shape and the savings show up.
Digital research · AI integration
Take the nonsense out of AI.
We work with SMB and lower-mid-market operators who know AI matters but cannot bankroll an enterprise program to figure it out. We dig into your workflows, find the handful worth automating, and build the systems inside the tools your team already uses.
Start with a Signal Audit. Ten days, one price, a clear picture of what is worth doing and where to start.
Fixed price Real systems, not slides One team on the hook
How we work
Research first
We do the homework before we touch a tool. The plan is built on what is actually happening in your business, not a generic playbook.
Inside your stack
We build into the tools your team already uses every day — CRM, inbox, phones, calendars, docs. The work shows up where people are already looking.
Working systems
You get something that runs, not a deck about something that might. We measure it, tune it, and stand behind it.
The Problem
The market is mostly noise.
Every vendor pitches the same future. Most operators we talk to are not short on ideas — they are short on a clear next step that fits the business they already run.
Tools nobody runs.
Clay, Apollo, HubSpot, Instantly — three trials, two pilots, a Zapier graveyard. The pipeline is still empty because nobody has the time to actually run any of it.
Vendors that all sound the same.
Slick deck, magic moment, twelve logos on the same slide. Three months in you are paying for a chatbot that cannot read your CRM and a Slack channel nobody opens.
Nobody owns the outcome.
A consultant hands you a deck. A vendor sells you a seat. A platform points at its partner network. Nothing ships, nothing gets measured, nobody is on the hook.
Three offers, one method
Diagnose. Build. Operate.
Research, then implementation, then ongoing operation. Most clients start with the audit and decide what comes next from there. Every step is priced up front.
AI Signal Audit01
Diagnose
We map the work you actually do, look at the AI landscape against it, and come back with a clear picture of where to start, what to skip, and what is worth a deeper look.
Price
$4,500
Timeline
10 business days
- Workflow map and tool inventory
- Opportunity register with risks called out
- Three pilots ranked, with success metrics
- 90-day sequence we would run ourselves
- PDF report plus a working session to walk through it
“Read it once, decide for the year.”
Integration Pilot02
Build
One real system, live inside the tools your team already uses. We pick the workflow with the audit, build it, plug it in, and stand behind the metric we agreed on.
Price
$12,000–$24,000
Timeline
30 days
- One production workflow live in 30 days
- Connected to your CRM and the tools around it
- Documented so your team can take it over
- Measured against a single number that matters
- 30 days of close support after launch
“When it lands, you can run it or we can.”
Managed System03
Operate
When the system works and you would rather we keep it running, we do. Uptime, tuning, vendor changes, and a monthly read on what it actually delivered.
Price
$2,500–$5,000/mo
Timeline
Month-to-month
- Uptime monitoring and exception review
- Prompt, retrieval, and workflow tuning
- Model and vendor change management
- Monthly performance report
- Hand off whenever you want, with full docs
“Stay as long as it earns its keep.”
Sample deliverable
Plain English, written down.
The audit ends with a real report — something the team can read, share, and act on without us in the room. Every opportunity is sorted into start now, look at later, or skip entirely, with the reasoning behind each call.
- Workflow map across the process under review
- Opportunity register with the risks called out
- Three pilots ranked, with the metric to watch
- What to leave alone, with the reasoning
- A 90-day sequence we would run ourselves
- PDF plus a working session to walk through it
Signal Audit ReportPage 04 of 23 · redacted
Workflow under review
New-client intake and follow-up
Stack: HubSpot, Microsoft 365, Twilio, Calendly. Volume: ~40 inbound a week.
START NOW
Auto-summarized intake routed into the CRM.
~3 weeks · cuts time-to-first-touch in half
LATER
Drafting follow-up emails from intake notes.
After Pilot 1 ships and the data is clean
SKIP
Inbound voice agent for new-business calls.
Too low volume to be worth the build right now
Worth building
3
Worth waiting
4
Hours saved/wk
11
Who we work with
Built for SMB operators.
Industry-agnostic — the workflow shape matters more than the label on the door. The good fit is usually a smaller team that wants real systems, moves fast, and does not have a six-month procurement cycle.
Owner-operator
You can say yes in one meeting — founder, COO, or RevOps lead with budget and the call.
Yours, not ours
We work inside the tools you already pay for. If something is missing, we tell you straight. If something fits, we use it.
Now, not next year
Most engagements move in days and weeks. If you need an enterprise transformation program, you need a different shop.
Where we have worked
If your team handles inbound leads, follow-up, intake, scheduling, research, or reporting — the work travels. Below is a sampling, not a fence.
B2B and professional servicesAgencies and home servicesSpecialty trades and field operationsHealthcare practices and clinicsIndependent advisors and brokersPE portfolio operators
The Math
The numbers, side by side.
Most teams already pay for one of these in some form. Here is roughly what we cost against the alternatives.
AlternativeTheir costWalterSignal
Strategy consultant
A working report, not a slide-bound recommendation.
$25–80K, 8–12 weeks
$4,500, 10 days
Custom-dev integration firm
One workflow, one metric, one team behind it.
$60–150K, 90+ days
from $12,000, 30 days
Full-time AI hire
Hire when you are ready. Until then, we run it.
$140–220K all-in, 6+ months to ramp
from $2,500/mo managed
DIY Zapier and vendor stitching
Drift gets caught before the number moves.
Untracked, unowned
Documented, monitored
Rough comparisons against publicly published rates. Your numbers will vary; happy to walk through yours on a call.
The research
Why this approach.
The patterns we see day-to-day line up with what the bigger research keeps finding. The work changes when you start with the workflow instead of the tool.
“78% of organizations used AI in 2024, up from 55% in 2023 — adoption is no longer the issue.”
Stanford HAI
AI Index Report 2025
“Top blockers: data accuracy, proprietary data, expertise, business case, privacy.”
IBM Think
AI Adoption Challenges
“Legacy integration, governance, unclear use cases, and lack of expertise dominate.”
Deloitte
State of GenAI in the Enterprise 2025
“Value capture depends on workflow redesign, leadership ownership, and KPI tracking.”
McKinsey
The State of AI 2025
“Many enterprise GenAI pilots fail to produce measurable business impact when not integrated into workflows.”
MIT NANDA
The GenAI Divide 2025
What we publish
View the slate Read what we think before we work together.
Vendor teardowns, real surveys of how operators are using AI, the patterns we keep running into. New pieces ship on a schedule, not when the marketing calendar says so.
ReportWeek 2
The 2026 AI Vendor Teardown for Professional Services
Forty vendors scored on integration surface, data posture, and total cost of ownership for a 10–200 person firm.
Notify meSurveyWeek 4
What 100 SMB Operators Actually Use AI For
Workflow-by-workflow survey across the five locked verticals, with anonymized direct quotes from owners.
Notify meEssayWeek 6
The Integration Failure Pattern
Why pilots stall in professional services — and four diagnostic questions that predict it before kickoff.
Notify meStart with the audit
Signal Audit. $4,500. Ten days.
Ten days from kickoff to a clear, written plan you can act on. From there, build with us, run it yourself, or just keep the report. Whichever fits.
Or just book a call and tell us what you are working on.