Step 3 · Flow · by application · limited seats
Your competitors hire consultants. You have an AI guy.
The Fractional AI Partner retainer is the third rung of the ladder: I stay on after the build, watching the systems, finding the next leak, building what proves worth building. A fraction of a hire, from someone who has actually held the tools your crews hold.
Systems don't stay fixed. Businesses don't stay still.
Someone has to watch the water
An automation nobody maintains becomes the leak. Suppliers change APIs, phone numbers move, the thing that worked in March quietly stops in June. On retainer, that's my problem, you find out it happened after it's fixed.
The next leak is already forming
Fix the phone and the bottleneck moves to quoting. Fix quoting and it moves to dispatch. A standing partner keeps finding the current constraint instead of selling you last year's fix.
Your crew will actually use it
The graveyard of trade-business software is full of tools the office bought and the vans ignored. I've been the guy in the van. I build for how the work actually runs, and I can talk to your people without a translator.
The terms, out loud.
What does the Partner retainer actually include?
The systems built for you: watched, maintained and improved. A standing review of where your business is leaking now, because it changes as you grow. New builds as they earn their place, without a new procurement dance each time. And me on the other end of the phone when something breaks, changes, or looks like an opportunity.
Why 'by application'?
Because I run every engagement myself and the seats are genuinely limited, that's the honest constraint of a one-person operation, and I'd rather cap the list than quietly become an agency with account managers. The application is a short call where we both find out if the numbers make sense.
What does it cost?
It's priced on the call, against what it replaces, a part-time ops hire, a consultancy day-rate, or the leaks left running. I don't print the number because it depends on how much system there is to run. What I will say: it's a monthly retainer, it's flat, and you can leave with notice, the terms are written before the first invoice.
Do I have to climb the whole ladder first?
At least one build first, then Partner. The Report is optional. Not as a sales funnel: I won't take a retainer to babysit systems I've never seen inside. One build, even a small one on its own retainer, is how I know your business well enough to be worth a monthly fee.
Make the case.
Tell me what's running in your business today and where you want to be in a year. If a seat makes sense for both of us, we'll price it on a call. If it doesn't, I'll say so and point you at the right rung instead.