Somebody has to actually do it.
Buying an AI platform is not the same as changing how a business runs. Four stages, in order: three hours, thirty days, an optional build, then a system that stays on. A Certified Consultant - a trained person accountable for the outcome - runs them. The build is designed to end. You are not buying a report.
Exposure Report
Compiled from public sources before the Red Brief, so the session opens on the client's own name rather than on a generic threat deck. Nothing here required access to the business's systems.
| # | Exposure | What is publicly visible | Severity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Key-person fault line | Four of six service pages name the same individual as lead. Capability reads as resident in one head. | High |
| 02 | Response-time gap | competitor name redacted publishes a 2-hour proposal turnaround. Your stated turnaround is 5 working days. | High |
| 03 | Orphan systems in waiting | Three job adverts in 18 months reference "our internal tool" with no named owner or vendor. | Medium |
| 04 | Data leakage surface | Eleven staff list a personal AI assistant subscription on public profiles. No stated company policy. | Medium |
"How quickly could a knowledgeable former employee set up in direct competition with you, using today's AI tools?" The founder's own estimate is written down, unedited, before anything is demonstrated.
The findings above are also the sizing evidence. Headcount, sites and systems in scope are observable at the Brief, and they set the band that prices every stage after it - so nobody is asked to declare their own size, and no later stage renegotiates it.
The Wargame
Three futures are played out on one canvas: the competitor attacks, the business defends the way it would today, and the business defends with AI. The cost of doing nothing is shown rather than asserted.
competitor puts proposal generation and first-response on an AI system. Their quoted turnaround goes from two hours to twelve minutes. Nothing about their headcount changes.
Two more people on the bid desk, a process review, a new template library. The work gets faster by roughly a third and costs £96k a year to hold there.
The same work is compressed rather than staffed, the knowledge behind it stops living in one head, and the next compression is cheaper than this one because the system is already there.
The founder's own estimate from the Exposure Report is put next to what the build actually takes. In this specimen: estimated 4–6 months · demonstrated in 90 minutes. Every founder underestimates their exposure. The session is designed around the moment they find out by how much.
Priority Stack
Not a list of recommendations - a ranked queue, in order, with what each one is worth and which of the Five Drivers it pulls. The stack is what Red Embed is accountable to.
| # | What gets built | Driver | Worth / year | Effort |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Proposal compression | Conversion | £184,000 | 2 weeks |
| 02 | Delivery knowledge capture | Margin | £71,000 | 3 weeks |
| 03 | Competitor watch on 4 rivals | Conversion | £40,000 | 4 days |
| 04 | Renewal-risk early warning | Frequency | £58,000 | 2 weeks |
| 05 | Onboarding pack automation | Avg. order value | £22,000 | 1 week |
Rank is not value ÷ effort. Line 02 removes the key-person fault line the Exposure Report opened on, and line 03 is worth less once 02 exists. The order is argued in the document, not asserted - the owner is meant to be able to disagree with it.
Delivery Roadmap
Every deliverable is specified before the first day of delivery, with its approver and its measure attached. The striped bars are the client's own team, not ours - the plan includes the work we do not do.
Your team, not ours
The wind-down is on the plan from day one and it is red, like the provisioning bar at the other end. A delivery phase with no exit on the chart is a retainer wearing a project's clothes.
Compression Scoreboard
What the platform has actually returned: time saved, intelligence created, control gained. The baseline is taken before anything is built, which is the only thing that makes the measured column mean anything.
We publish no outcome number without written client consent and a measurement record behind it. No composite cases, no illustrative figures, no "typical client" - those are the numbers every consultancy prints and none can reconstruct a year later. The format is real and this is what you will receive. The values appear when an engagement has produced them.
An "hours saved across the business" figure. It is the headline number of the trade and it is unauditable. Every measure above traces to a dated record in the client's own systems or it does not ship.
Handover Certificate
Systems built at arm's length get abandoned. The point of embedding is that the business owns the change, so the phase closes on a checklist rather than on an invoice.
- Every deliverable on the roadmap has a named client-side owner. Not a team - a person, on the org chart.
- The North Star and the objectives beneath it are live in the platform, in the founder's own words, with the assumptions written down.
- Every agent has an owner, a budget and an approval route that belongs to the client, not to us.
- Two client staff can build and submit a new workflow without us in the room. Demonstrated, not asserted.
- The Compression Scoreboard baseline and period figures are agreed and traceable to client systems.
- Consultant configuration access reverts to support level. Elevated rights end with the phase.
- Ongoing advisory is a separate decision, taken after handover on the Consultant's own terms, never bundled into it.
One line on the invoice stops. The implementation services end; the licence, live since your Red Eye completed, continues at the same figure. Your monthly cost falls - nothing is switched off, nothing is handed across, and nothing new is signed.
A decision, not a proposal.
Three hours, one fixed fee, owner-eyes only. You leave having chosen the first three things we build - not holding a document you read once and file.
Ends with a system, not a report.
Thirty days on two tracks - owner-level strategy and staff-level process observation - delivered on your own RedOS instance, stood up before day one. Scoped by your band plus units priced from the same published card.
Building onto a system already running.
Optional, and only if the Priority Stack says it is worth it. A Certified Consultant works inside the business against the roadmap, on the install that has been live since your Eye. When the build stops, the licence carries on.
Live from the end of stage two.
Not the thing at the end of the arc - the thing the arc switches on partway through. Your instance is provisioned before the Eye begins, and the licence starts on the Eye's scoped end date, stated on the order the day you sign it.
Five things a licence cannot do for you.
The platform is real and it is the point. But every one of these has to happen before it is worth anything, and none of them is a feature.
One person, accountable for all four.
Every stage of the arc is run by a Certified Consultant - trained and certified by redfirst.ai, backed by shared libraries from live installs, and holding the outcome rather than the hours.
Two tracks under a Practice Licence - a certified Consultant leads, Technicians deliver under supervision and never run a session solo. Seats are bought; certification is assessed, and the pass standard does not move.
Red Certified Consultants have access to libraries of learning, resources and pre-built components from across our live installations - so they deliver more value, more quickly, to a higher standard.
Every deliverable is specified, approved and measured before delivery starts. The unit of accountability is the thing you receive, not the day it was worked on.
The Red Brief runs with no staff present and is not recorded. A founder cannot say the true thing about their own business with their leadership team in the room.
Your Consultant works in your own RedOS instance under the same gates as everyone else. There is no consultant back door and no cross-client console.
Everything on the arc is billed by Red First - one company, one invoice, one policy for deposits, refunds and cancellations. Your Consultant leads the work; they never bill you separately.
The engagement ends. The system does not.
Each of the first three stages exists to make the fourth one worth having.
Every redfirst.ai engagement lands on RedOS - your own instance, isolated from every other client, with your people and your agents on one org chart under one set of gates. The arc is how it gets pointed at something worth doing; the platform is what keeps doing it after we have gone.
See the platformSized once. Priced from a card.
You are sized once, at the Red Brief, on observable evidence. That one band key then sets the price of everything after it. No stage renegotiates size.
Around 10–25 people. Single site, up to two department tracks.
Around 25–100 people. Up to two sites, up to five department tracks.
Around 100–250 people. Up to four sites, up to ten department tracks.
One price whatever size you are, on-site or remote. No travel extras, no day-rate ambiguity, no commitment beyond the session.
The core diagnostic is set by your band, above. Extra sites, department tracks and systems reviews are priced from the same published card and applied by configuration - never negotiated. The order carries your licence start date.
Optional. The band sets the monthly basis; the Priority Stack sets how much gets built. Typical initial term three to six months, with the end date on the chart from day one.
The same fixed figure every month at your band, with an allowance sized so most installs never see an overage. Unlimited people. No per-seat fee, no per-agent fee, no connector fees.
The Red Eye doesn't end with a report - it ends with RedOS live on your business. That is why the licence starts when it does. Your instance is provisioned before day one of the Eye, and billing begins on the Eye's scoped end date - written on the order the day you sign it, not decided afterwards. If a Red Embed follows, its fee sits alongside the licence and stops when the build does.
Embed monthly bases and licence list prices are confirmed on the order, from the same band set at the Brief.
The build ends. The relationship needn't.
Some owners want the person who rebuilt how their business runs to stay in the room at board level. Red Counsel is that arrangement - and it is between you and your Consultant, on their own terms, not another line on our card.
A standing review of whether the system is still pointed at the right thing, and what has changed outside that should change something inside.
Closer to the running of it: the intelligence feeds read with you, the next quarter's build argued before it is committed.
Board-level and continuous. Threat briefings, board instruments, and a named person carrying a charter you sign - not a generic fractional.
Priced and billed by your Consultant, on their engagement letter. Red First's part is the platform functionality it unlocks, the escalation bench behind them, and the charter that makes them a Red Counsel rather than an adviser with a title.
Start with three hours.
One fixed fee, owner-eyes only, and enough information afterwards to decide whether any of the rest is worth doing.
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