Applied AI Intelligence · On Retainer

Every CEO now pivots weekly. We're the team that makes that possible.

Companies are hiring full-time staff whose only job is staying on top of AI. Within eighteen months, that role becomes a set of agents. NextUp is the bridge. Fractional AI intelligence for your leadership today. The agent layer we ship for you tomorrow.

Engagement Retained · 90-day minimum
From $15,000 / month
Focus PE Portfolios · Mid-Cap CEOs
01 · Thesis

AI moves faster than any executive team can track. Someone has to.

For the past decade a CEO could read the quarterly and plan for a year. That window has collapsed to a week. The companies pulling ahead already have a dedicated AI intelligence function. Everyone else is improvising.

The new hire at every serious company is the person whose entire job is staying on top of AI. They read the papers, test the models, watch the competitors, and translate it into decisions the CEO can actually make.

That role is a bridge role. Within eighteen months, most of it is software. A set of agents that ingest the same signal, make the same recommendations, and ship into the same calendar.

NextUp is built for the transition. We staff the intelligence function today (human, embedded, accountable to the exec) and we build the agent versions of our own deliverables as the models mature.

Hire us now for the people. Keep us on retainer for what replaces them.
Release velocity Frontier models · per month
2019: one frontier model a year. 2023: one a quarter. 2026: multiple a month, with enterprise features shipping weekly. The cadence of decisions has to move with it.
02 · Deliverables

Tangible weekly rhythm. Nothing abstract.

You sign on Monday and something lands on your desk the following Monday. Every week, every month, every quarter. Here's what you actually get.

Mon · 07:00 Weekly briefing · PDF
Tue – Wed Flash alerts as they happen
Thu 30-minute exec sync
Fri Weekend read-ahead
Continuous Shared Slack channel
Weekly · Mon 7am

The Briefing

A single page. What shipped, what matters, what to do next. Written for the exec. No links to chase, no summary to write yourself.

PDF · 1 page · Inbox
Weekly · 30 min

The Sync

Standing video call with your leadership. We walk the briefing, field questions, and leave you with three decisions queued for the week.

Video · On your calendar
Real-time · As needed

Flash Alerts

When something breaks that affects you (a model launch, a competitor move, a regulatory shift), you hear it from us within the hour. Short, opinionated, actionable.

Slack · Email · SMS
Quarterly

The Board Section

The AI section of your board deck, written, sourced, defensible. You walk in with a story the board can validate against their own reading.

Deck · 8–14 slides
Continuous

The Channel

Shared Slack or Teams between our team and yours. Direct line to the analyst on your account. Ask anything, reply inside one business day.

Slack · Teams · Signal
Quarterly

The Review

Ninety-minute strategic review with the CEO and leadership. Where has the roadmap shifted? What changed competitively? What agents are now worth building?

Workshop · In-person / virtual
03 · Practice

We operate as an embedded intelligence team. Part research, part strategy, part build.

Every deliverable reaches the executive in the form a CEO actually uses: short, decisive, and linked to action. And every deliverable is designed to eventually be re-implemented as an agent.

01
Executive Briefings

Weekly intelligence packets tuned to leadership priorities: what shipped, what matters, what to do next.

02
Opportunity Mapping

Continuous scan for the AI adoptions that would move your top line or margin fastest. Specific and sequenced.

03
Competitive Surveillance

Which competitors shipped what, on which model, and what it means for your positioning and moat.

04
Model & Vendor Review

Vendor-neutral read on frontier, open-weight, and specialist models: capability, cost, security, risk.

05
Pilot Design & Runbooks

From "interesting" to shipped. Scoped pilots, success criteria, and internal runbooks your teams can execute.

06
Workflow Automation

Finding and automating the manual work your team already does, with the agents and tools available today.

07
Agent Strategy

A roadmap for where the business becomes agent-native: what role moves first, what changes for customers.

08
Build & Deploy

We build the agent versions of the intelligence work we do for you. When the model is right, the function ships.

04 · Who we work with

Built for one buyer first: the PE operating partner accountable for AI across a portfolio.

We don't try to serve everyone. Our model works best where AI sits at portfolio or board level, where decisions compound across multiple companies, and where one embedded team beats ten vendors-per-portco.

Primary ICP · Who we're built for

PE operating partners & portfolio COOs

Middle-market firms with 5–25 active portfolio companies. AI questions now sit at portfolio level: from LPs, from boards, from individual portco CEOs. You don't want ten fragmented vendors. You want one team that shows up Monday with a read on every company you're accountable for.

  • One retainer · every portco covered
  • Weekly read on competitive, model, vendor and regulatory shifts
  • Direct line to each portco CEO when it matters
  • The AI section of every portco board deck, done

We're a fit if

  • You sit at portfolio, board, or exec level on AI decisions
  • You have no Chief AI Officer, or one who needs leverage
  • AI is on the agenda this quarter, not "next year"
  • You'd rather retain one team than manage five vendors

Probably not a fit if

  • ×You need engineering capacity to build an AI product
  • ×You want a one-off deck or a six-week project
  • ×Your budget is procurement-driven, RFP-gated
Secondary Mid-cap public-company CEOs & CTOs ($500M–$5B revenue), typically warm inbound from our weekly distribution. Same engagement model: one retainer, continuous.
05 · Approach

Embedded. Vendor-neutral. Continuous.

We don't sell you a platform, and we don't drop a deck and leave. We sit inside your week, read the work, and stay accountable for the decisions that follow.

  1. Principle 01 Human today. Agent tomorrow.

    What we do for you with people this year becomes what we ship for you as agents next year. Every deliverable is designed to be re-implemented as software.

  2. Principle 02 Embedded, not consultative.

    Standing calls, shared channels, direct access to the exec. We're an extension of your team, not an outside opinion that shows up quarterly.

  3. Principle 03 Vendor-neutral.

    We sell you no model, no platform, no license. Our only bias is what's going to work for your business today, and six months from today.

  4. Principle 04 Retained, not project-based.

    AI does not stop changing after a six-week engagement. Our work is continuous, and priced that way.

06 · Start a conversation

If AI is on the agenda this quarter, let's talk.

Tell us a little about your company and what you're trying to figure out. We read every inbound and reply within one business day.

Inquiry · Private Encrypted · 1 business day reply
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We read every inbound personally. Expect a reply within one business day, from a real person on our team.