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In the news

AI has arrived in family business. The rules mostly haven't.

86%of US family businesses are piloting or already using AI
40%have a formal way to govern it
73%of next-generation family business leaders see generative AI as a powerful force for change

Sources: KPMG 2026 US Family Business Report (opens in a new tab) (109 US family businesses); PwC, Success and Succession in an AI World (2024, over 900 next-generation leaders).

The challenge

If this sounds familiar, you're in good company.

None of this means you're behind. It means AI arrived faster than anyone's rules. Each of these is fixable, and fixing them is where the real opportunity starts.

01

Your people are already using AI, often without rules.

Somewhere in your business, someone is pasting a customer list or a price sheet into a free chatbot to save time. It isn't bad intent. Nobody has given them a safe way to do it.

In 2023, Samsung restricted staff use of ChatGPT after engineers pasted confidential source code into it.Widely reported, including by Bloomberg, May 2023

What we do: clear rules, approved tools, and one controlled door for AI, so sensitive details stay in-house and every request is on the record.

Today: three requests, three trips outside the company, and no record of any of them.

02

AI is starting to act, not just answer.

The new generation of AI, often called agents, can send emails, update records and place orders on its own. That's a big step up from a chatbot. It also raises the question every board, bank and insurer will ask: who approved that?

In 2024, a Canadian tribunal held Air Canada responsible for a refund policy its website chatbot made up.Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149

What we do: every important action waits for the right person, is checked against your rules, and is recorded.

  1. AI prepares itA refund, an order, an email to a customer
  2. Your rules check itLimits, customers, what's allowed
  3. A named person decidesApproves on their phone
  4. It's recordedWho, what, when, and why

Without this, the AI just acts. With it, you can answer "who approved that?"

03

Your most experienced people won't be here forever.

Decades of know-how lives in a few heads: the founder, the plant manager, the person who knows every customer by name. When they retire, it usually leaves with them, and the next generation starts from scratch.

What we do: capture what your best people know, with their help, and make it available to everyone who needs it, with the source shown every time.

Ray31 years on the shop floor
Your company's know-howSearchable, with sources
Every new hireFrom their first day

A business your family spent decades building shouldn't be put at risk by tools nobody controls. And it shouldn't fall behind because the risks felt too big to start.

Your guide

You don't need to become an AI expert. That's our job.

We've spent decades building serious software for businesses where mistakes are expensive. We bring that discipline to AI, explain everything in plain language, and stay with you until it works.

Matt Dahl, Founder & Chief Architect, has spent decades in enterprise software. He architected the platform now behind three commercial applications that run under HIPAA and government energy-compliance rules.

  • We listen before we recommend anything.
  • We tell you what we can show, and what we can't yet.
  • We'd rather make your people more capable than make them redundant.

“Useful, Usable, Beautiful. Always and only in that order.”

MATT DAHL · 2019
319%projected first-year return for a mid-sized client: $1.1M on a $345K investment, in a 90-day project
80%less time spent on compliance documents for the same client
36 / 36attempts to get around Darsena's controls blocked in testing, on synthetic data
3commercial applications we have built, running under HIPAA and government energy rules

What's possible

Saving time is just the start.

Most people meet AI as a faster way to write an email. The bigger prize is doing things your business could never do before, at your size. These are the kinds of goals we help families reach, including some they hadn't thought to set.

Keep what you know

Every new hire learns from your best people

What your most experienced people know, on hand for everyone, with the source shown.

Win more work

Quote in minutes, not days

Custom quotes and proposals turned around while the customer is still on the phone, within your pricing rules.

Govern well

Board and family-council reports, on time

Monthly reports drafted from your own numbers, and checked by your finance lead before anyone sees them.

Grow the market

Serve customers you couldn't afford to serve

Smaller accounts, new regions or new languages, without adding a team for each one.

Bridge generations

Test the next generation's ideas in weeks

Try a new product, market or service quickly and cheaply, so decisions rest on evidence rather than on who argues best.

New revenue

Offer a service you could never staff

Monitoring, analysis or support that runs around the clock, under rules you set.

10X–100X
The opportunities we look for are worth ten to a hundred times what they cost.

That's how we choose where to start, not a promise about results. We put a number on each opportunity, using your own figures, before you spend a dollar.

How it works

A clear path, one step at a time.

You stay in control of every decision. We do the heavy lifting, and nothing goes live until you've agreed what success looks like.

STEP 1

We listen

We sit with your family and your people, learn how the business really runs, what it costs and what must never go wrong. Then we show you where AI pays off, including opportunities you may not have known were possible.

You get: a ranked, costed shortlist, built with the AI ROI Accelerator™, and for the opportunity you choose, a solution architecture document you own.

STEP 2

We build it safely

We build each solution to fit how you work, and agree in writing what "done" means before we start. Darsena keeps every AI action inside your rules, approved by the right person and on the record.

You get: a working solution, signed off by you against its Done Card.

STEP 3

You grow with confidence

We measure real results, not busyness. We improve what works, switch off what doesn't, and help you take on the next opportunity when you're ready.

You get: regular results against the numbers you agreed at the start.

Done Card · Your best expert on every service callExample
In your words

“When Ray retires next spring, thirty years of know-how walks out the door with him.”

How we'll know
9 mo → 8 wkfor a new technician to work alone
62% → 85%of faults fixed on the first visit
Rules
  • Answers only from approved manuals and Ray's recorded sessions, and shows the source.
  • Safety-critical steps always go to the supervisor on call.
  • Customer and pricing data never leave your network.
  • Reviewed at day 90, and switched off if first-visit fixes haven't improved.
Before launch
Ray rates its answers to 150 real past service callsPassed
Says “I don't know” when no source covers the questionPassed
Two weeks riding along with your techniciansPassed
Signed off by your Service Directorbefore launch, not after
Approved
Before we build anything, we agree on one page what "done" means: in your words, with the numbers that prove it. We call it a Done Card.

We measure results, not activity.

AI makes it easy to look busy: more tools, more reports, more spending. None of it counts until it changes a number your business cares about, after counting the time your people spend checking the AI's work.

Looks like progressWhat we measure
Number of AI tools in useResults they changed
Reports producedDecisions someone made with them
“That would have taken a week”Hours saved after people check the work
Pilots startedPilots scaled up or stopped, on evidence
Money spent on AIReturn on that money

Products

Built for businesses that can't afford AI mistakes.

These products grew out of real client problems. The safety piece comes first, because everything else depends on it.

AI safety and control

Darsena

The controls and the logbook for your company's AI.

Darsena is the AI safety system we deploy and support: software that runs on a small, dedicated server in your building and puts your company in charge of what AI can see and do.

It sits between AI and your business systems. Every AI request goes through it, so it can check your rules, ask the right person before anything important happens, and keep a record where any attempt to alter it is detected.

  • One door for AIEvery AI request goes through one route that you control.
  • The right person decidesImportant actions wait for a named person to approve that exact action, on their phone.
  • A record you can trustWho asked, who approved and what happened. Any attempt to alter it is detected.
  • Stays in your buildingRuns on your own hardware. Sensitive details stay on your network.
  • Safe when something failsIf a check can't run, nothing happens. And there's an emergency stop.
  • Spending limitsCaps on what AI can spend, per task and per month.
36 / 36attempts to get around it blocked
11.3 sto check 67,500 records for tampering

Status: Test Edition, results on synthetic data. First customer deployment planned; a small number of early partners welcome. The name comes from the darsena, the sheltered inner basin of Venice's Arsenal.

Getting Darsena in place

Three steps, at your pace

  1. A short assessmentWe look at the AI your people use or want to use, what it can reach, and who should approve what. Fixed price.
  2. A pilot on one taskOne real task, governed by Darsena on your hardware, with your rules and approvers, proven against a Done Card.
  3. Everyday useDarsena runs your AI tasks day to day under a lifetime licence, sized to the people, AI agents and policies it governs, with a standby unit if you need one.

Works with Microsoft 365. Google Workspace support is planned.

Ask about Darsena

Four cornerstones, one standard.

It has to pay its way, and it has to be safe.

Find it

The opportunities worth building

We look at how your business runs and put a number on each opportunity, including ones you may not have thought to look for.

Delivered by the AI ROI Accelerator™, as a toolkit or a session with your leadership team

Keep it safe

AI that stays inside the lines you draw

Limits enforced by the system, sensitive details kept in-house, and testing for misuse before anything goes live.

Delivered by Darsena and our launch testing

Keep it accountable

Every important action approved and on the record

Named people approve what matters, and any attempt to alter the record is detected. Ready when your bank, auditor or insurer asks.

Delivered by Darsena

Build it to fit

Made to measure for how you work

Built from a specification you approve and tested against its Done Card before you sign it off. Your data, confidential information and business rules are never used for anyone else.

Delivered by SpecWerks, the software factory we build with

The 2-minute AI self-check

Where does your business stand today?

Six quick questions. Your answers stay on this page and are never sent anywhere.

1. Do you know which AI tools your people use at work?
2. Is there a written rule for what company information may go into AI tools?
3. How many of your family and leadership team use AI every week?
4. Is AI doing real work in a business process today, beyond drafting text?
5. If your most experienced people retired next year, how much of what they know is written down?
6. Could you show your bank, auditor or insurer what your AI tools did last month?

Getting started

Start small. Grow when the numbers say so.

Our philosophy is simple: A.I. = R.O.I. If it doesn't make or save you money, we don't build it.

Three ways to start

A leadership sessionStill deciding

A working session with your family council or leadership team on where AI pays off for you and what to do first. You leave with a ranked, costed shortlist.

A Darsena assessmentAlready using AI

What AI you run or plan to run, what it can reach, and who should approve what. You leave with a plan for putting Darsena in place.

A pilot on one taskReady to prove it

One real task, on your systems and under your rules, proven against a Done Card before anything grows.

Each is a fixed price, agreed before you start. Discovery work stands on its own: you keep a solution architecture document that any capable firm, or your own team if it is experienced with AI, could build from.

How we price

DarsenaA lifetime licence, priced by the size of what it governs: your people, AI agents and policies. Setup is a fixed fee, agreed before work starts.
Fixed-price projectsEach solution is priced from its Done Cards before work starts. The price is the price.
Managed serviceA monthly fee to run, measure and improve your AI. You pay for results kept up, not hours logged.

What time saved is worth

Time your people get back shows up twice: in this year's results, and in what the business is worth, whether you sell one day or hand it to the next generation. We count it after the time spent checking the AI's work.

Hours back per year1,920
Saving per year$105,600
Added value of the business at 6.4x to 9.5x EBITDA$675,840 to $1,003,200

An illustration, not a forecast. Multiples are mid-market ranges from GF Data (H1 2025) and Capstone (Q3 2025).

A year from now

Built over generations. Ready for the next one.

FoundedOn hard work and good judgment
GrownThrough people who knew the business
Handed onWith care, to the next generation
Ready for what's nextWith AI working for the family, safely
  • Your people use AI every day, within clear rules.
  • What your most experienced people know is available to everyone who needs it.
  • The family and the board can see what AI did, what it cost and what it returned.
  • The next generation is building with AI alongside you, not arguing about it.
  • When your bank, auditor or insurer asks how you use AI, you have the answer.
  • You're doing at least one thing you couldn't do before.

Questions

What people usually ask us first.

We're not a tech company. Can we really do this?

Yes. You bring the knowledge of your business; we bring the technology and do the heavy lifting. Everything is explained in plain language, and we work alongside your existing IT provider.

We already pay for ChatGPT or Copilot. Why would we need more?

Keep them. They help individuals write and search. We focus on AI that does real work in your business processes, under rules you set, with the right approvals and a record of what happened.

Is our data safe?

Darsena runs on hardware in your building. Sensitive details stay on your network, and only requests you allow go to vetted and approved outside AI services. Every request is recorded.

Will this replace our people?

Our aim is to make your people more capable, not to make them redundant. AI does the routine work; your people make more of the decisions that matter.

What does it cost to start?

Every first step, whether a leadership session, a Darsena assessment or a pilot, is a fixed price agreed before you start. Discovery work stands on its own: you keep a solution architecture document that any capable firm, or your own team, could build from. Darsena itself is a lifetime licence, priced by the size of what it governs: your people, AI agents and policies. Larger projects are priced from their Done Cards before any work starts.

What if it doesn't work?

Every project has a Done Card with the numbers that prove it worked, agreed before we start, and you sign off against it. If a pilot shows an idea won't pay, we stop there, before the bigger investment.

How do the family and the next generation fit in?

We can run the first workshop with the family council and leadership team together. Seeing AI work on your own business tends to turn a debate into a plan.