Every company now needs its own AI team: a couple of elite engineers at the frontier who never miss a beat, continuously building custom tools that modernize how the company works, while building and maintaining the company's data layer. Almost no company can get that team — scarce, expensive, hard to evaluate, harder to retain. Tend is that team, as a service. You don't hire AI engineers; you retain Tend.
Boutique AI engineering firm — your embedded AI team. Not "AI transformation consulting." Not SaaS. The anchor is a line item every CEO understands: headcount — two real AI engineers run $520–730K/yr fully loaded, if you can find them, evaluate them, and keep them current. Comparison beats education in every room.
Owner-controlled companies, $30–300M revenue. Governance type over size: one decision-maker, short sales cycle, whole-company mandate. The credible competitors all fight over Fortune 1000; this segment is unserved. Vertical chosen by lead flow, not doctrine.
| Move | What it is | Duration | Band (proposal only) | What the client accumulates |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Install | Paid entry sprint: map workflows, stand up data layer v0, ship 1–2 working tools against their loudest constraint | 45 days | $35–50K | Working tools + data layer v0 + prioritized build map |
| 2. The Team ★ | The standing retainer — continuous tool building, data-layer stewardship, frontier watch | ongoing | $30–50K/mo | Compounding tool stack + maintained data layer, reported quarterly on the asset register |
| 3. Initiatives | Bigger systems scoped as projects — always sold from inside the retainer, never cold | 6–12 wks | $150–250K | The system |
★ The retainer is the product. Year-1 client value ≈ $500K–1.1M. Retainer scope defined in explicit units (N sprint-weeks/mo + stewardship + frontier briefing); initiatives strictly out of scope.
"Most firms rent you their platform. We build you yours."
Everything Tend ships lands on the client's side of the table: their tools, their data layer, their asset — appreciating every month. Every credible competitor keeps the compounding asset vendor-owned; nobody else says "you own it." Ours is contractual (client owns data layer + client-specific tools; Tend owns harness, playbooks, cross-client patterns) — deployed as the closer when a sophisticated buyer raises lock-in, never as headline copy.
No prices on the deck. Free part capped at one meeting — leave with a written scope; no free pilots (paid first engagements convert 60–70% vs <25%).