Systems to Scale cohort
Six weeks to make AI show up in your numbers.
You have already bought the tools and your team is already using them. What is missing is one process where AI is genuinely wired in, measured before and after, with rules your people actually follow. That is what these six weeks produce.
- Dates
- Sept 16 – Oct 28, 2026
- Sessions
- Six live 90-minute working sessions, Wednesdays 4:00–5:30 PM MT
- Seats
- Eight owners. 8 remaining
- Investment
- $2,500 per seat
- Enrollment
- Closes Friday, September 11, 2026
When this matters
You are not behind on AI. You are paying for it and cannot point to what changed.
That is a more uncomfortable position than being behind, and it is where most owner-led businesses actually are. The tools got bought. The team started using them, mostly without telling you. And the monthly numbers look exactly the same as they did before.
88%
of organizations now regularly use AI in at least one business function
McKinsey, State of AI, November 2025
39%
can point to any enterprise-level EBIT impact from it
McKinsey, State of AI, November 2025
2 in 3
have not begun scaling AI beyond experiments and pilots
McKinsey, State of AI, November 2025
Almost everyone is using it. Almost nobody can find it in their numbers. That gap is not a discipline problem or a hiring problem — the companies on both sides of it are running the same models. AI got bought as a tool when the actual constraint is architectural: systems purchased at different times for different reasons don’t connect, so you are still the thing connecting them. Approving, rekeying, remembering, rebuilding the same report every month. There is nothing for AI to plug into, so it stays stuck at the level of individual people typing faster.
McKinsey’s own read on what separates the companies seeing EBIT impact: they redesign the workflow instead of layering AI on top of it. That is exactly what these six weeks do, on one process, with a number at both ends.
Who this is for
Who the seats are for
Strong fit when:
- Owner-led services, trades, or project-based businesses
- Roughly 5 to 30 employees. You have revenue and a team
- You already pay for AI tools and cannot name what they changed
- Your team is using AI informally, with nothing written down about what is allowed
- Growth requires more of you, not less. Approvals and reporting route through you
- You can change how work gets done without asking anyone
Who runs it
A practitioner, not a trainer.
Blake Linde
Fractional Chief AI Officer, Company Vitals
Blake leads the AI and systems practice at Company Vitals. His background is ERP and data integration — NetSuite and Business Central environments for small and mid-sized businesses, built on an MIS degree from BYU’s Marriott School of Business — which is a deliberately unglamorous place to come at AI from. It is also why this cohort is built the way it is.
Most AI training is run by trainers. This is run by someone who spends the rest of the week inside owner-led businesses connecting the systems underneath, deploying AI where it pays and measuring it against what the process cost before.
The method in these six weeks is the same one he runs as a paid engagement. The difference is that here, you do the building.
What's included
What you will be able to prove at the end
Pricing
Eight seats. Six weeks. One process you can point at.
$2,500 per seat
Eight seats. Six weeks.
- Six weekly 90-minute live working sessions, capped at eight owners
- Your full business and AI spend audit before week one, and the re-measure at week six
- An optional mid-week build clinic in weeks two through six
- Two one-to-one sessions, after week one and after week five
- All templates, the SOP and policy frameworks, and session recordings
How payment works
Nothing is charged when you reserve. We send an invoice a few days before the cohort begins, due before the first session on Wednesday, September 16. Reserving now holds one of the eight seats and opens your Week 0 pre-work, so you arrive with your baseline already measured. Seats are released if the invoice is unpaid at the first session.
Cancel any time before September 12 and owe nothing. Once Week 0 opens and the cohort is set, the seat is committed.
Why it is priced here
Generic AI training runs roughly $500 to $1,200 a head and leaves you with notes. A custom AI implementation typically starts around $10,000 and leaves you dependent on whoever built it. This sits deliberately between the two. You get one process actually running, and the method to do the next one yourself.
The six weeks
Find the one that pays, make it safe, then prove it.
Week 00
Count what you already have
Async, before we meet. Every AI and software subscription you pay for, who actually uses it, a five-day log of where your hours go, and where work gets rekeyed between systems. Most owners find they are paying twice for the same capability.
What exists on Friday
A measured starting point, and a list of what you are paying for but not using.
Week 01
Wednesday, September 16
Pick one and name the number
We score your candidate processes on two axes only: what it returns, and how fast it can be proven. Then you commit to one and we write down the number we intend to move, along with how it will be measured at both ends.
What exists on Friday
One chosen process, one baseline number, and one definition of success nobody can argue with later.
Week 02
Wednesday, September 23
Get the rules out of your head
We map the process end to end and write down the decision rules you currently make by instinct. This is the week everyone wants to skip and the one everything else depends on. AI cannot follow judgment that has never been written down, which is why most pilots produce confident nonsense.
What exists on Friday
A working SOP with decision rules your team can run without you.
Week 03
Wednesday, September 30
Write the rules of use
You write a one-page AI policy for your business: approved tools, what data may never go into them, what a human has to review, and who owns it. Your team is already using AI. This is the week that stops being a liability and starts being an asset.
What exists on Friday
A one-page AI policy in force, and a team using AI on that process on purpose rather than in secret.
Week 04
Wednesday, October 7
Kill one manual re-entry
We take the single worst place a human retypes something a system already knows, and we remove it with one integration. Deterministic connections before clever ones. This is the week the process stops depending on somebody remembering.
What exists on Friday
One live integration, and one round of manual re-entry gone permanently.
Week 05
Wednesday, October 21
Hand off one bounded task
One clearly bounded task moves to an AI assistant: defined inputs, defined outputs, and your approval before anything reaches a customer or a ledger. It drafts, a person signs off. Autonomy is earned later, once it has been consistently right on work you can check.
What exists on Friday
One assistant running on your process, with approval gates you set and control.
Week 06
Wednesday, October 28
Re-measure and cut what is dead
We measure the same number the same way and put the before and after side by side. Then we go back to the week-zero list and decide what to keep, consolidate, or cancel, and where the recovered hours are going, because capacity nobody redirects quietly turns into more meetings.
What exists on Friday
A before-and-after number, a cancel list, and a 90-day plan for the next process.
Phases two and three build on whichever process you chose in week one, so two owners in the same cohort will finish with different systems connected. The sequence is fixed. The target is yours.
Why this is not a course
Every week produces something that still exists on Friday.
It runs on your actual numbers
Before week one you complete a full audit: your systems, your data, your reporting, and every AI tool you pay for. Every session works from what that found in your business, not a generic case study. You get re-measured at the end, so the change is demonstrated rather than asserted.
It is a build, not a briefing
An SOP, a policy, an integration, an assistant, a number. You build it during the session, on camera, with help, because owners do what they did in the room and not what they took home.
It treats this as architecture
We do not talk about time management or accountability. We map where work actually breaks down between systems and people, then fix one break properly instead of five badly.
What six weeks can and cannot do
Six weeks is enough to fix one process properly and prove it. It is not enough to rebuild your operations, and it is not enough to run AI unsupervised. Anyone promising either is selling a demo. You leave with one process working, the numbers that show it worked, and a method you can run again on the next one.
Where this is not the right fit
We would rather tell you early.
- Pre-revenue businesses, and solo operators without a team. There needs to be a process someone else runs.
- Anyone wanting a survey of AI tools. There are free webinars for that, and they are worth what they cost.
- Owners who cannot change a process without another partner's approval. Bring the authority or bring the partner.
Bigger than this
When you want it done for you.
The cohort is the version where you do the building, with guidance, on one process. If you are past that, running roughly $2M to $50M with several processes worth automating, the Fractional CAIO engagement is where we do the work inside your business instead. It opens with a $2,000 diagnostic.
Not sure which fits? The AI Readiness Checklist is 29 yes or no questions with an instant score, and it takes about five minutes.
Our process
From discovery to delivery
A simple, four-step path designed to minimize disruption.
Reserve your seat
Eight per cohort. Enrollment closes Friday, September 11, 2026, or when seats run out.
Audit and baseline
Async, before week one. What you pay for, who uses it, where the hours go, and where work gets rekeyed.
Six weeks of building
One 90-minute session a week, each producing something that still exists on Friday.
Prove it and decide
Re-measure the number, cut what is dead, and leave with a 90-day plan for the next process.
FAQ
Common questions
Get Started Today
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Book a free, no-pressure discovery call. You will speak directly with a member of our leadership team, not a salesperson.