ExponenLabsExponenLabs

Run your company on AI that keeps improving.

AI consulting and hands-on delivery for startups and SMEs. A fractional Chief AI Officer automates your business workflows; a Forward Deployed CTO builds your AI product. Both work inside your team, with guardrails, spend caps, and code you own.

Book a 30-min call

Month to month · Stop any month, keep everything

You speak to the senior lead who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.

Where do you want to start?

Teams we've led

Bloqsens
Involved
PowerSlides
Bloqsens
Involved
PowerSlides
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Involved
PowerSlides
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Involved
PowerSlides
20+
startups and SMEs we have helped
$1.75M
raised by a client on a product we built with them
$1M
revenue growth, and 90% better operational efficiency, from one transformation
20+ yrs
of senior tech leadership

Does any of this sound familiar?

“Everyone has ChatGPT. Nothing about how we actually work has changed.”

Tools were bought, but the process was never redesigned, so nobody can point to an hour saved.

“It got built, it works, and nobody can explain how.”

Code now arrives faster than any team can review it. The gap between what your software does and what anyone still understands keeps widening.

“We automated one thing, and it broke the step after it.”

Automations get bolted onto single tasks. Nobody mapped the whole flow, so the gains leak out somewhere else.

“We paid for a strategy and got a slide deck. Nobody stayed to build it.”

The plan and the build were sold by different people, so nobody owned the result.

The fix is not another tool. It is someone senior who maps how the work actually flows, decides where AI belongs, and stays until it improves on its own.

Sound familiar? Get your free AI operating plan in 2 minutes

Most AI projects start with prompts. We start with how your business works.

Five layers, worked from the top down. Each one makes the next one cheap to get right, and the last step feeds back into the first.

  1. Map the workGraph engineering

    A living map of how work flows: every step, decision, hand-off and owner. You see where AI belongs, and where it does not.

  2. Close the loopsLoop engineering

    Every process gets a measure and a feedback cycle, so you know whether a change helped, not just that it shipped.

  3. Build the harnessHarness engineering

    Agents with the right tools and permissions, plus spend caps, an off switch, evals and a human sign-off. Safe to switch on.

  4. Feed it your knowledgeContext engineering

    Your documents, data and decisions, structured so the AI knows your business, not the internet’s.

  5. Tune the instructionsPrompt engineering

    The last mile, and the cheapest to change. It goes last because it is easy to get right once the four layers above it exist.

  6. Then it improves itselfRecursive self-improvement

    What each loop learns updates the map, so every cycle the business runs a little better, with or without us.

The first 90 days

A map and a plan in 2 weeks. The first AI-run process or feature live by week 6. Your team running the loop by week 12.

  1. 1. Weeks 1–2

    Embed

    Map the work

    A senior lead joins your standups and decisions, maps how the work actually flows, and writes the plan and the cost.

    You have: A map of how work flows, and a plan and cost you can defend.

  2. 2. Weeks 3–6

    Equip

    Close the loops · Build the harness · Feed it your knowledge · Tune the instructions

    We put measures and feedback on the work, build the agents with guardrails and spend caps, give them your knowledge, and put the first one live.

    You have: Your first AI-run process or feature, live, measured and capped.

  3. 3. Weeks 7–12

    Hand over

    Then it improves itself

    Your people are trained as we build and take over the loop. The map, the code, the data and the playbook are already in your accounts.

    You have: A team that runs the loop without us, and the next cycle planned.

See the method in full

How we deliver: agents do the work, a senior lead signs off.

Agents do the repeated work and check it. A person decides what is right, and owns what ships. It is how we work for you, and what we leave you with.

  1. Step 1

    Agreed outcome and checks

    We write down what "working" means, and how we will measure it, before anything is built.

    A person owns this
  2. Step 2

    Agent-run work

    AI agents do the repeated work, in your code or in a business process, inside boundaries we set.

    Automated
  3. Step 3

    Automated checks and evals

    Tests, security checks, evals and spend caps run on every change.

    Automated
  4. Step 4

    Senior human review

    A senior lead reads and signs off every change before it reaches a customer.

    A person owns this
  5. Step 5

    Weekly plain-language report

    What shipped, what it cost and what is next, with no jargon.

    A person owns this

Read the playbook

Two ways in. One method. Priced monthly.

Start free. Month to month. Stop any month, keep everything.

Change how the business runs

AI-native operations

Led by a Fractional CAIO

From $3,000/month

Map how work flows, hand the repeated parts to AI agents, and set up the loops that improve them. No software team needed.

  • Month to month
  • Stop any month, keep everything
See what is includedNot ready? Get your AI operating plan (2 min)

Build an AI product

AI products

Led by a Forward Deployed CTO

From $2,000/month

A senior CTO in your team who decides what to build, ships it with you, and installs the AI-native SDLC your developers keep.

  • Month to month
  • Stop any month, keep everything
See what is includedNot ready? Get your AI readiness score (3 min)
See full pricing

Running an agency? See white-label partnering

What actually changes?

Buying tools changes individuals. Automating a task changes one step. Changing how the work flows, and closing the loop on it, changes the business.

ExponenLabs

Starts from
How the work flows
What changes
The process, measured and capped
What improves after
The loop keeps improving it
What stays
The map, the agents, the playbook, a trained team

AI tool rollout

Starts from
The tool
What changes
Individuals get faster, sometimes
What improves after
Nothing
What stays
Licences

Automation agency

Starts from
One task
What changes
One step, until the next one breaks
What improves after
Nothing
What stays
Automations nobody can debug

Strategy firm

Starts from
A deck
What changes
Nothing, until someone builds it
What improves after
Nothing
What stays
Documents
  • Not 10x, and that is fine. Faster, with the review kept.
  • Start from the work, not the tool. A map beats a shopping list.
  • Agents fail quietly, so everything ships with spend caps and an off switch.

“What sets them apart is not only their technical acumen but also their ability to bridge the gap between technical complexities and business requirements. For me, a non-technical founder, they demonstrated exceptional technical communication skills, translating intricate technical concepts into language easily comprehensible to our whole team.”

Involved

Nick Seedorf

Founder & CEO, Involved

Stealth startup
Currently embedded

Current work: an AI-native product, team, then company.

We hold two seats at once: technical lead on the product, and guide for the company changing around it.

The product

Done

Worked with the founder to the first breakthrough: the AI architecture the presentation product is built on.

Forward Deployed CTO

The engineering

Done

Streamlined how the team builds software with an AI-native SDLC, so AI speeds up delivery without losing review and control.

AI-native SDLC

The organisation

Next

Taking the same approach across the business model, so the whole company runs AI-native, not only the product team.

Fractional CAIO

Not launched yet, so no results claimed. We will publish measured results after launch.

Try our work before you talk to us

Free tools you can use today, and open-source code you can read before you hire us.

Self-serve

AI-Native Business Deployment

Six plain questions and you get the AI plan a business your size should run: what AI handles, where your people still decide, and what to do in week one.

Get your AI operating plan (2 min)
Self-serve

AI Scorecard

The same questions we ask on a first call. Answer a few questions and get a straight read on where you stand, in plain language.

Get your AI Scorecard (3-6 min)
Open source

AI Engineering Cookbook

Our internal playbook for building software with AI agents, published in the open. Agents write most of the code, humans set the intent and check the result.

View on GitHubRead the guide
Open source

Jev Playground

A simulated playground along with actual code samples and scenario-based examples. Sixteen interactive simulations showing what fast, typed decision models change in your architecture.

View on GitHubTry live demos
Explore all tools and open source in our toolkit
For Early-Stage Founders
100% Free · Selective Cohort

AI-Native Startup Bootcamp: From Idea to Working MVP in 6 Weeks

Have a promising AI product idea or an exploratory prototype? We run a hands-on, 6-week builder bootcamp for selected early-stage startups. We help you build your initial prototype or turn a brittle script into a working MVP with guardrails, evals, and tested workflows.

Idea to Prototype

Define the core AI loop, select models, and build your initial functional prototype rapidly.

Prototype to Working MVP

Add guardrails, evals, spend limits, and put real test users on it before you invest in heavy scaling.

Powered by Our Toolkits

Direct access to our open-source tools: Jev Playground, AI Engineering Cookbook, and RAG architectures.

Senior CTO Guidance

Pair directly with technical leaders who have taken products from 0 to 1 and scaled to millions.

No equity taken. No upfront fee. Strictly limited to 2–4 startups per cohort.

Explore the Bootcamp & Apply

Frequently Asked Questions

Straight answers about how we work, what AI realistically delivers, and where the risks are.

How much does it cost?
AI-native operations, led by a fractional CAIO, is $3,000–$6,000/month. AI products, led by a Forward Deployed CTO, start from $2,000 a month. We strictly cap our client roster at 3–4 companies at a time so every engagement receives direct senior focus (typically 10–15 dedicated hours a week, including standups, architecture review, and hands-on delivery). The exact figure depends on scope, the type of engagement and how long it runs, and we fix it after the free call so there are no surprises.
We do not build software. Is this for us?
Yes. Most of our operations work is with businesses that do not sell software. We start with how work flows between your people, not with code: who does what, where decisions sit, and which repeated work an AI agent can take over safely.
What is the commitment?
Month to month, with no minimum term. Stop any month. The code, data, playbooks and tools are already in your accounts, so you keep everything built so far.
How fast will we see results?
A map and a plan in 2 weeks. The first AI-run process or feature live by week 6. Your team running the loop by week 12. You see a plan and a cost before any real build starts, then small pieces you can use.
Who will we actually work with?
A senior lead with 20 years of technology and business leadership. The person on the first call is the person who does the work.
Will this replace people on my team?
It moves repeated work to agents so your people spend their time on decisions, customers and the work that needs judgement. Which work moves is your call, decided on the map before anything is switched on, and we train your team to run and improve the agents themselves.
What does "improves itself" actually mean?
Every process we change gets a measure and a feedback cycle. Each cycle, what the measures show (an exception the agent handled badly, a step that still waits on a person) updates the map, the agents and their instructions. Your team runs that loop, so the gains keep coming after we step back.
We already have a development team. Why do we need you?
Because the gap is usually not build capacity, it is the seat above it. Someone has to decide what is worth building, own the architecture and security calls, and say when an idea is not worth the money. That is the CTO role most small and growing companies are missing, and it is what the Forward Deployed CTO does.
Who owns the code and the data?
You do, from day one. It sits in your accounts, under your control. We document everything and train your team as we build, so your people can run it without us.
What is a fractional CAIO, and when do we need one instead of a CTO?
A fractional Chief AI Officer owns AI across the whole business: how the work flows, where agents take over, the AI policy, vendor choice, how the team changes, and whether it pays back. A CTO owns the product and the platform. If you are building an AI product, start with a CTO. If you are changing how the business runs, start with a CAIO. If it is both, it is one partnership and one person leads.
Which tools will we have to buy?
We start with the systems and software you already use. Where new AI capabilities are needed, we recommend open-source tools or pay-as-you-go APIs (like Claude or OpenAI) with hard spend caps, rather than expensive enterprise SaaS subscriptions with multi-year lock-in. Typical monthly tool and API spend is modest: usually $50–$200/month for an active process or workflow.
How many hours a week do we get, and how many clients do you take?
We strictly cap our work at 3–4 clients at any one time so you work directly with a senior lead, never an account manager. An embedded engagement typically includes 10–15 focused hours a week across daily standups, architectural sign-off, direct Slack access and hands-on delivery.
What if AI is not the right answer for our business?
Then we say so. Part of the job is telling you where AI adds nothing and a simpler fix works better. We would rather lose the work than build you something you do not need.
You are based in Bangalore. What about our time zone?
We work remotely with clients in other time zones. At the start we agree fixed overlap hours for standups and calls, and we work around them.

Make your business AI-native, starting this month.

You speak to the senior lead who would do the work. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.

Book a 30-min callGet your AI operating plan (2 min)