See exactly where AI transforms your business.
We interview your team, map every opportunity, and deliver a ranked AI Roadmap in 7–14 days. The exact playbook to follow, before you spend a dollar on building anything.
$2,500 flat · up to 10 interviews · credited to your build
$2,500 flat.
Up to 10 interviews, delivered in 7–14 days.
Credited to your build. Plus a bonus cybersecurity audit.
Your data never leaves your business.
Everything we build runs on your own servers and your own accounts. We never store your data, you own all of the IP, and if we disappeared tomorrow it would all keep running.
Four steps from kickoff to roadmap.
Light on your team. Heavy on the output. Most of the work happens on our side once we have the interviews.
You pick who to interview
Tell us who to include, up to 10 people. Founders, leadership, frontline operators, whoever has the clearest view of where work gets stuck. One flat fee either way.
We interview each person
30 minutes on Zoom, one at a time. We ask the questions that surface what slows your team down: handoffs, repetition, judgement calls, frustrations. Everything recorded and transcribed.
We map every opportunity
Every pain point becomes an opportunity. Each opportunity gets specced with our IPO STAR framework, ranked by impact vs complexity, and slotted into a phased roadmap.
You get your AI Roadmap
Delivered in a walkthrough call within 7–14 days. Full Opportunity Matrix, phased AI Roadmap, IPO STAR tool specs, ROI summary, and a bonus cybersecurity audit.
Every opportunity, plotted and ranked.
We plot every opportunity we find on a 2×2: Impact vs Effort. Hover any dot to see what is in that cluster. The list on the right is the order we recommend.
Sample audit · Audit output
All 7 ideas worth shipping.
Plotted by impact and effort. The list on the right is the order we recommend.
Quick wins
High impact, low effort
Big bets
High impact, high effort
Skip these
Low impact, low effort
Time sinks
Low impact, high effort
In recommended order
Example Opportunity Matrix from a Hourglass audit we've delivered · anonymised
The exact order to build.
Each build sets up the next. Foundation first, then quick wins to build momentum, then the big bets that need the foundation in place. Numbered and sequenced.
- 2 builds
Phase 01 · Foundation
The brain comes first. Without it, agents are disconnected tools.
Business Brain
Wk 1–3A central knowledge base of brand tone, guidelines, and company information that any team member can use to draft emails, format documents, and stay brand-consistent.
Chief of Communications
Wk 2–4Agent for shared and personal inboxes that organises by priority, drafts external emails, and redirects mail autonomously. Saves hours of manual processing and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
- 2 builds
Phase 02 · Quick Wins
High-impact, low-effort builds that pay back fast.
AI Chief of Staff
Wk 4–6An AI chief-of-staff and personal assistant for the founder. Your first virtual employee who knows your business, learns your preferences, and handles founder admin autonomously.
AI Meeting Assistant
Wk 5–7Meetings run with a ready-made agenda every week, with previous actions carried forward, key context surfaced, and everything posted to Slack before anyone sits down.
- 3 builds
Phase 03 · Big Bets
Deeper integrations that need the foundation in place first.
Marketing Analytics Dashboard
Wk 7–9All your marketing data (bookings, ads, email, and social) in one place, saving hours spent manually sourcing data and redirecting those hours to creative pursuits. Can be integrated with Competitor Intelligence Monitor to track your own performance.
Document Generator
Wk 8–10Upgrade a brief, meeting note, campaign plan, or idea into the format you need (slide deck, spreadsheet, visual brief) without the reformatting work. Generate bespoke, brand-aligned artifacts across the team.
Competitor Intelligence Monitor
Wk 10–12Tracks competitor occupancy, website traffic, SEO health, and PR mentions on a weekly basis so you always know how you're positioned without anyone spending time on manual research. Generates AI-powered insights on businesses that have seen genuine improvement.
Sequence and timing confirmed on the walkthrough call · indicative weeks
Every build, with scope and impact.
The same builds, grouped by phase. Impact, effort, and indicative pricing on each.
Recommended builds
Where every transformation starts
2 builds
Chief of Communications
Agent for shared and personal inboxes that organises by priority, drafts external emails, and redirects mail autonomously. Saves hours of manual processing and ensures nothing slips through the cracks.
Impact
Effort
$6k
$500/mo
Business Brain
A central knowledge base of brand tone, guidelines, and company information that any team member can use to draft emails, format documents, and stay brand-consistent.
Impact
Effort
$8k
$1000/mo
Quick wins
High impact, low complexity
2 builds
AI Chief of Staff
An AI chief-of-staff and personal assistant for the founder. Your first virtual employee who knows your business, learns your preferences, and handles founder admin autonomously.
Impact
Effort
$3k
$99/mo
AI Meeting Assistant
Meetings run with a ready-made agenda every week, with previous actions carried forward, key context surfaced, and everything posted to Slack before anyone sits down.
Impact
Effort
$5k
$500/mo
Big bets
Phase 2 territory
3 builds
Marketing Analytics Dashboard
All your marketing data (bookings, ads, email, and social) in one place, saving hours spent manually sourcing data and redirecting those hours to creative pursuits. Can be integrated with Competitor Intelligence Monitor to track your own performance.
Impact
Effort
$6k
$1000/mo
Document Generator
Upgrade a brief, meeting note, campaign plan, or idea into the format you need (slide deck, spreadsheet, visual brief) without the reformatting work. Generate bespoke, brand-aligned artifacts across the team.
Impact
Effort
$8k
$1000/mo
Competitor Intelligence Monitor
Tracks competitor occupancy, website traffic, SEO health, and PR mentions on a weekly basis so you always know how you're positioned without anyone spending time on manual research. Generates AI-powered insights on businesses that have seen genuine improvement.
Impact
Effort
$10k
$1000/mo
Indicative pricing. Final scope and fees confirmed on the walkthrough call.
Every tool gets the IPO STAR treatment.
Generic AI proposals say “use ChatGPT for emails.” Hourglass specs every tool to four dimensions: what flows in, what happens, what comes out, and what it could become. This is our methodology.
Input
What flows into the agent. Emails, calendar events, CRM records, documents, voice notes, sensor data. The triggers and the data the agent acts on.
Process
What the agent actually does. Classification, drafting, summarisation, lookups, decisions. The logic, the prompts, the rules, the tool calls.
Output
What you get back. A draft reply, a tagged task, a routed ticket, an updated record, a notification. The deliverable that lands in your workflow.
Star
The aspirational future state. Where this agent can grow to. What it unlocks when it gets really good. The reason we are building it in the first place.
Example tool spec · Chief of Communications
Real spec from a delivered audit · anonymised
Chief of Communications
Impact
Effort
$6k
$500/mo
Full scoping
Input
Process
Output
Star
Hard numbers on every recommendation.
Every tool gets a real ROI breakdown. Hours saved per week, annual cost saved, build cost, payback period, and Year 1 multiple. So you can prioritise on dollars, not vibes.
| Tool | Hrs / week | Annual saved | Build cost | Year 1 ROI |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| InboxCopilot | 8 | $26,000 | $5,000 | 5.2× |
| Meeting Router | 6 | $19,000 | $6,000 | 3.2× |
| FAQ Assistant | 7 | $22,000 | $7,000 | 3.1× |
| CRM Autopilot | 14 | $48,000 | $15,000 | 3.2× |
| Year 1 totals | 35 | $115,000 | $33,000 | 3.5× |
InboxCopilot
5.2×
- Hrs / wk
- 8
- Annual saved
- $26,000
- Build cost
- $5,000
Meeting Router
3.2×
- Hrs / wk
- 6
- Annual saved
- $19,000
- Build cost
- $6,000
FAQ Assistant
3.1×
- Hrs / wk
- 7
- Annual saved
- $22,000
- Build cost
- $7,000
CRM Autopilot
3.2×
- Hrs / wk
- 14
- Annual saved
- $48,000
- Build cost
- $15,000
Year 1 totals
3.5×
- Hrs / wk
- 35
- Annual saved
- $115,000
- Build cost
- $33,000
Example ROI summary from a Hourglass audit we've delivered · anonymised
A bonus audit and a walkthrough call.
Cybersecurity audit
Every Hourglass audit includes a light-touch cybersecurity review of your AI surface area. Data governance, prompt injection exposure, vendor risk. Catch the gaps before you scale.
Walkthrough call
We present the findings live, walk through every deliverable, and answer every question. You leave with full clarity on what to do next and why.
Companies that started with the audit.
Main Sequence
Main Sequence, a 40-person venture fund, runs on a full Company AI Brain with workflows across the whole team.
Forestry & timber business
Their board reporting used to take two days. It now takes about 20 minutes, and the report is better.
“We’ve decreased our administration costs by 40%, while improving customer service benchmarks by up to 80%. The biggest help has been automation of repetitive weekly reporting, which has saved me 8 hours per week.”
Phil Amato · Director, Integr8
The audit pays for itself.
One flat fee, up to 10 interviews. The full fee comes straight back off your build. Start the build within 30 days of your report and we credit double.
$2,500flat
Up to 10 interviews · delivered in 7–14 days
Credited in full to your build
Move ahead within 30 days of your report and we credit double, $5,000 off your build.
- Up to 10 × 30-min Zoom interviews with your team
- Full Opportunity Matrix delivered
- Phased AI Roadmap with build order
- IPO STAR spec for every recommended tool
- ROI Summary across all opportunities
- Cybersecurity audit (bonus)
- Walkthrough call to present findings
Flat $2,500, credited to your build · Delivered in 7–14 days
The questions every discovery call asks.
See where AI can save your team time.
30-minute discovery call. We confirm fit, scope the audit, and book kickoff. One flat fee, credited to your build. Your roadmap lands 7–14 days later.
No lock-in. Aussie-based team.