3,355
quotes analysed in one diagnostic
Client work — a Christchurch trade business
Applied AI Ōtautahi Christchurch
AI is the substrate your company is built on.
What thrives above is engineered below. We engineer that layer for operator-led businesses — and run it in our own companies first.
61.2%
win rate across the ledger
Client work — a Christchurch trade business
$1.59M
a year in lost-quote exposure, quantified
Client work — a Christchurch trade business
Diagnostic pass
SimulatedFindings
Simulated telemetryFive businesses we operate run on this layer before it reaches yours
The four foundations
Everything above the line depends on four things below it.
Strategy & architecture
Find the real constraint
We connect customer behaviour, conversion and margin so the build starts where value is leaking.
Workflow automation
Return time to the team
Handoffs, decisions and repetitive work become reliable flows, with a human kept at the right point.
Data foundation
One dependable source
Scattered inputs become governed, reusable business context that every workflow can draw from.
Observability & reliability
Prove what improved
Every system is instrumented to learn from live use, expose drift and compound what works.
Systems that become part of how the business runs
Applied AI works when it is fitted to the operating reality: your customers, your data, your team and the decisions they make every day.
Client engagement — a Christchurch trade business
One diagnostic. Twenty-four months of quoting. One pattern underneath.
Live customer quotes were analysed to expose the commercial pattern beneath the quoting result — not a survey, not a workshop, the ledger itself.
They keep the analysis: a 24-month quote-ledger model, delivered as an interactive dashboard.
Our own businesses
Yes, these are our own businesses. That is the point.
The systems meet real payroll, real customers and real margins before we recommend them elsewhere. If the model is wrong, we pay for it first.
Senior people stay close — from the first diagnostic question to the system running in production.
Proof before promise
Built on our own businesses first
Every figure below comes from a business we operate. Nothing here is a projection, and nothing here is a client's number wearing our name.
1,380+
clients behind the coaching model
Inception Nutrition
Eight conversational questions turn intent into a personalised 0–100 score, so first contact starts at question nine.
Provisional Our own business
Longest running
5.0★
across 1,000+ Google reviews
Inception Gym
One source of truth fans into structured schema, suburb pages and a durable library — so a standing machine can verify the answer.
Own-business production evidence
32
voice and claims rules run on every page
Silk Clinical
Schema builders, comparison content and a voice linter run against the site before release. A page that breaks the rules fails the pass.
Own-business production evidence
One team, both sides of the line
Operators who understand the business. Engineers who can build the answer.
Senior people stay close — from the first diagnostic question to the system running in production.
01
Dr Matt Walley
Strategy & psychology
22 years operating businesses
Owns the commercial outcome.
02
Deane Venske
Engineering lead
Enterprise engineering and AI-native transformation
Owns the production system.
03
Declan Watts
AI engineering
Production multi-agent orchestration
Owns the AI layer.
Start beneath the surface
Your next growth constraint is already leaving a trace.
Bring the numbers, the friction and the ambition. We'll help you find the layer worth building next.
Or write to hello@substrate.co.nz