The person to call before you spend money on AI.
I build and run AI-driven software businesses myself. I'll tell you where AI will pay back in your business, where it won't, and what to do instead.
Most AI advice comes from people who have never had to make it work at 3 a.m. with real customers on the line. I have. Over the last three years I've designed, shipped and operated a portfolio of AI-assisted products — booking, messaging, search automation, agency operations — as a solo operator, which means every bad AI decision cost me directly. That is the experience I bring to your business.
I'm not selling a platform, a model or a licence. The outcome is a short, plain-English map of your operation: which workflows AI should take over, which it should assist, and which you should leave alone — ranked by payback, with an honest "don't bother" list.
How this sits with the studio. VelocityDev's venture work takes equity, not fees, and that doesn't change. Advisory is the one thing we do for a fixed fee, and it's deliberately kept separate: no equity, no platform to buy, no vendor commissions.
Who this is for
Owner-led businesses of 5–150 people in hospitality, professional services (legal, accounting, insurance), agencies and production, and light manufacturing. You have repeatable admin, customer messaging or data handling that eats staff time, and you want a straight answer before committing budget.
The audit
One fixed-fee product. Two weeks. A decision you can act on next Monday.
| What it is | A two-week review of how your business actually runs, and where AI will and won't pay back. |
|---|---|
| You get | A workflow map · a ranked opportunity list with payback estimates · the "don't bother" list · a 90-day sequence · a 60-minute readout call. |
| Your time | Three 60-minute sessions with you; 30 minutes each with two or three of your staff. |
| Timeline | 10 working days from kick-off to readout. |
| Fee | $4,500 Fixed · 100% on booking · R45,000 for South African businesses |
| Then | If the audit finds something worth building, an optional four-week implementation sprint ($8,000–15,000, scoped from the audit). The audit fee is credited against a sprint booked within 30 days. |
If I find nothing worth doing, the report says so — and you've spent $4,500 to avoid spending $50,000.
Proof
Three decisions from my own products. The same point each time: a deliberate "yes here, no there", with the reason.
Built a booking system for restaurants where guests confirm, change and cancel inside WhatsApp. AI handles the conversation for the routine 80%; a simple change-request flow with a hard cut-off hands anything unusual to a human. Deliberately did not let AI handle deposits or no-show disputes — money and blame need a person. Fewer no-shows, no new admin headcount.
A self-serve builder where AI writes the copy and lays out the site, then a set of agents keeps it visible on Google and in AI answers. The hard-won lesson: the automation had to be rebuilt after a search-engine algorithm change. AI pipelines need an owner and a review cadence, not a "set and forget" promise. That lesson is now part of every audit.
Rebuilt a 20-year-old casting and booking system for an agency. AI now reconciles registrations, IDs and headshots that used to be filed by hand. Deliberately kept the casting workflow itself off the AI roadmap until the reconciliation had proven itself for months — sequencing matters more than ambition.
Background: 45 years in IT, since 1981 — IT Technical Director for a global aviation telecoms company, programme manager on multi-million-pound infrastructure projects for a law firm, an insurer and Transport for London, and the last 15 years as COO/CTO of my own software companies in South Africa and the UK. PRINCE2 practitioner.
This is not for you if
- You want someone to build a chatbot because the board asked for "an AI strategy". I'll tell you if that's the wrong first move.
- You're looking for a reseller for a particular AI platform. I don't take vendor commissions.
- You need a 50-page strategy deck. You get a short report and a sequence you can act on next Monday.
- Your business runs on bespoke software nobody understands. Fix that first; I can point you to who.
Fractional and ad-hoc
For companies that want ongoing technical leadership rather than a one-off audit: ad-hoc advisory at $300/hour in five-hour blocks, or a fractional CTO / head-of-AI retainer at $2,000/day for a committed one to two days a week, three-month minimum. South African rates on request.
Three audits a month.
Booked on a first-come basis. Start with a free 20-minute call to find out whether an audit is worth your money — I'll tell you on the call if it isn't.
Prefer email? hello@velocitydev.ai
No NDA needed for the call. Times are shown in your local timezone.