What it looks like when we step in.

The situation

A fast-growing consumer brand whose technology organization had been built for an earlier stage of the company. The platform and the team both needed to change, and the business could not pause while they did.

What we did

We stepped in as Co-CTOs and ran the rebuild ourselves. We led the migration to Shopify and restructured the team. Most of the job was the people: keeping a nervous organization productive through twelve months of change, and bringing along the teams that had not asked for any of it.

We also wrote the company’s first AI policy: what the company would and would not do with AI, how it would treat customer data, what employees could use, and who was accountable.

What changed

Commerce running on Shopify, a technology organization built for the company’s next stage, and its first official AI policy.

The situation

General Things was our software and design consultancy. It ran digital transformation work for large organizations: Nike, National Geographic, Cisco, SETI, TED, and GoPro among them. Each needed to ship software and products in ways it never had. For GoPro, we were already running ecommerce before the acquisition.

What we did

We built what our clients needed: apps, websites, ecommerce, app stores, and digital art installations.

GoPro acquired General Things in 2013. Nick became VP of Software and Services and JT a Senior Director, and we stayed through the company’s 2014 IPO and after. We grew the software team from 60 people to 250 and started the company’s first AI initiatives, working with members of the original Siri team from SRI International.

What changed

GoPro, known for its cameras, had a software and services business of its own, run by a team four times the size of the one we started with. We launched multiple new products and services, including GoPro Plus (our subscription business) and GoPro’s first forays into AI-enabled video processing.

The situation

The MAZE Group was a scrappy, successful digital agency doing transformation work for clients like LVMH, Dior, Veronica Beard, Ledger, and HelloFresh. It wanted to grow into a much larger firm, and to attach a private equity firm so it could share in the value its work created for clients.

What we did

Nick served as President and JT as COO. We worked on the agency itself and on its client work. Inside MAZE, we modernized the systems a bigger firm runs on, including HR and IT, and rebuilt the processes for how the work got done. For its clients, we worked on the digital transformations MAZE was hired to deliver.

What changed

MAZE grew into the larger firm it set out to become and launched its private equity arm, on systems and processes built to support both.

The situation

Three AI-native companies: an AI platform for digital marketing and answer-engine optimization, AI software for the legal industry, and an AI card trading platform. All three are working out how to run a company with no playbook: small teams, new roles, and decisions with no precedent.

What we did

At the AI marketing platform, Nick coaches the CEO and members of his executive team. At the AI legal software company, he coaches one of the founders and members of the executive team, and runs workshops and assessments for them. At the AI card trading platform, he coaches the CEO, and we do contract CFO work and other consulting for the company.

What changed

These engagements are ongoing. All three companies hired a coach who has run technology companies through a shift like this one and builds with AI now.