The AI Trajectory Read

Where you actually stand on AI, in less than a week.

For the CEO of a mid-market B2B SaaS company who needs to know where they actually stand on AI. A methodical, defensible read on where you sit today, where current trajectory leads in six months, and three moves that change it. Hands-on with your team.

No charge if the AI Trajectory Read does not name at least three specific moves you can defend to your board chair.

Decision quality. Execution speed.

Two forces are compounding against you. Your only lever is the quality and speed of your decisions. The four zones below are the only places the lever can land.

Most B2B SaaS teams are not in the upper-right. You are already spending money and time on AI. The question is whether the decisions are high-quality and the execution is fast, or somewhere else. The AI Trajectory Read places you on this quadrant and names the three moves that shift the zone.

A five-page read and live presentation, delivered within one week.

// Step 01

Working time with you and your leaders

We scope the working time with you and your product and engineering leaders to fit the shape of the question. No deck. No slides. The conversation produces clarity; the Read is the deliverable.

// Step 02

The Read (5 pages + presentation)

A five-page document plus a live presentation, delivered within one week. Names where you sit today, where you will be in six months at current trajectory, your confidence in that trajectory, three specific AI moves that change it, and a board paragraph you can use directly.

// Step 03

The decision

The Read names three moves. You decide which to take. Some CEOs pick "execute these ourselves." Valid outcome. Some pick AI Catalyst as the next engagement. Valid outcome too. The conversion event is the decision, not a sales call.

// What Goes Into the Read

The deliverable shape

Every AI Trajectory Read produces the same five-page structure. The shape is consistent; the content is custom to your company.

Where you sit today. A five-pillar snapshot of your AI posture in product and engineering. Output: under-investing, mis-investing, or over-investing.
Where you will be in six months at current trajectory. Forward projection at current pace, anchored to the pillar gaps that scored worst.
Your confidence in that trajectory. A 1-10 confidence score plus the three things that would shake it. Most CEOs hesitate on the score. The hesitation is part of the diagnostic.
Three specific AI moves that change the trajectory. Each one defensible to your board, tied to the worst pillar gaps, and executable in 90 days.
The board paragraph. One paragraph the CEO can use directly with their board chair.

Fit profile and where we say no

This is for you if

You're the CEO of a mid-market B2B SaaS company
Your board is asking about AI and the answer you can defend isn't ready yet
Your CTO is reading, experimenting, "working on it." The plan keeps not arriving
You don't want a 9-month rollout up front. You want grounding in a week, then layered moves you can defend
You'd rather have a defensible read than a long, generic deck

Where we say no

If your team is already running disciplined AI experiments with a measured business case
If you have already chosen an AI partner
If your AI question is about back-office automation, sales enablement, or revenue ops
If your board is not asking yet
If you want to skip the assessment and commit to a multi-month rollout before knowing where you sit
If you are already in active M&A

// How We Work With Your Product and Engineering Leader

The AI Trajectory Read brings you and your product and engineering leader into alignment, not against each other.

We have sat in the seat. OLO operators have run product, engineering, and design organizations through agile, DevOps, product ops, and AI rollouts. We work hand-in-hand with the person leading AI in your product and engineering organization (whether that is your CTO, CPO, VP Eng, VP Product, Head of Engineering, Head of Product, or a Head of AI), not around them. They set context we cannot. We bring the outside read and the structural pattern recognition that is hard to do from inside the org while running it.

Our model is coach plus accountability, not consultant labor. We set up the system, name the moves, and stay in the room while your team executes. Your team owns the capability when we leave. No consultant dependency.

Your product and engineering leader is a partner in the engagement, not a problem the engagement solves. We do not consult on personnel decisions. We give you the structure and the outside read so they can lead this work effectively. The CEO decides what to do with the AI Trajectory Read.

The smallest commitment that produces a defensible answer.

The AI Trajectory Read applies John Rossman's Think Big, Bet Small framework from Big Bet Leadership: think big about where AI takes your company, but bet small until the bet is no longer a bet. The AI Trajectory Read is your bet small. One week, hands-on with your team, a five-page document and presentation at the end. The AI Catalyst engagement, when you are ready, is your bet big on conditions you have already validated. No charge if the AI Trajectory Read does not name three specific moves that pass your board chair's first question. You decide, not us.