About · The practice
A boutique partner, not a tier-one deck.
Plumbline AI is a single-principal practice. The partner who runs your readiness audit is the same person who runs the build, the same one who reviews the monthly operating hours — no junior team writing the deck, no handoff to a third-party integrator once the proposal lands.
The shop exists because the AI conversation at most owner-led companies has drifted toward tier-one consulting hours, agency retainers, or tooling marketplaces where the answer is whatever the vendor sells that quarter. A boutique fixed-fee partner sits in a tighter spot: close enough to the work to defend the recommendation, small enough to stay responsive, priced so the engagement pays out before the first renewal.
If that is the shape you need, the readiness audit is the door. If it isn’t, the FAQ answers the same questions in writing so neither of us spends an hour on a call that was never going to close.
Methodology
Four stages. One reference line.
The same vertical that runs the home methodology explains any Plumbline engagement. A diagnostic fixes a reading, the roadmap is written against it, the first build stands on it, and the operating cadence holds it level as the business grows.
Readiness
Two weeks of interviews, toolchain scans, and data plumbing review. Stakeholder walkthroughs, system inventory, and a one-page readiness read by the partner on day fourteen.
Sequence
A ranked list of where AI lifts productivity, revenue, or risk first — sized by hours saved, dollars added, or exposure reduced. Ranked, not brainstormed; defensible to a board.
Deploy
A costed 90-day roadmap: dates, owners, dollar estimates, and a clear stack call — custom-built code by default; off-the-shelf automation tools only when the workload is genuinely a better fit for them. Built in your accounts, owned by you.
Operate
A handoff plan for the first production agent, with a monthly operating cadence for monitoring, prompt tuning, and capacity additions as the business grows.
Positioning
What you skip by not hiring the Big 4.
Tier-one consulting produces a written recommendation the owner reviews in a board meeting, then translates to a separate RFI, agency RFP, and integration contract. Plumbline is the boutique alternative — same reference-line thinking, with the price point and responsiveness an owner-led company can actually act on.
Cost
A typical tier-one strategy engagement lands in the six figures and the full engagement plus build can cross seven figures over twelve months.
A fixed-fee audit — Solo $499, Team $1,499, Multi-team $4,999 — with a build path priced separately and agreed before any code is written.
Sequencing
Scope is written after the kickoff. The roadmap doesn’t land until month four, and the first build follows on a separate procurement track.
Interviews and toolchain scan land in week one; the ranked roadmap ships in week two; the first build slot is booked before the audit closes.
Continuity
A junior team drafts the deck; the partner signs off and hands the build to a third party. The person who sold the work is not the person who runs it.
A single principal runs the audit, signs the roadmap, builds the first agent, and runs the monthly operating cadence himself.
Owner-led outcome
A written recommendation the owner reviews in a board meeting, then translates to a separate RFI, agency RFP, and integration contract.
Working agents shipped in the owner’s own accounts on tooling the owner already pays for, with a monthly operating rhythm that holds the gains.
Next step
Ready to stop reading and start running?
The fastest read on whether Plumbline fits is a 30-minute call and a one-page write-up of where the dollars or hours come back first. No proposal track, no obligation to roll into an engagement.