Before you build AI, understand this first: your business model is everything

Why this workbook exists

Founders come to us wanting AI. Almost none of them have a business model that would make AI worth the money. That is not a criticism, it is the normal order of events. The tooling is loud and the model is quiet, so the model gets skipped.

This workbook covers the thing we end up explaining in the first twenty minutes of most discovery calls: which of the three dominant business models you are actually running, what that model does to your valuation multiple, and why some structures quietly guarantee that the business can never operate without you in it.

What you will work out

1. Which business model you are actually running, as opposed to the one you describe in your deck.
2. How valuation multiples work, and what yours is likely to be under the current structure.
3. Why certain structures create founder dependency, and what it costs at exit.
4. The three dominant business models, their characteristics, and how each is priced.
5. What has to be true before AI or automation earns its cost in your business.

Who it is for

It is written for founders playing for a serious outcome, a $10M+ valuation, who want leverage rather than more growth for more effort. If you are considering AI, or you are already putting in more and getting back less, this is the piece to read before you spend anything.

Eleven pages. Fifteen to twenty minutes. Free.