This is what you get.
No deck of buzzwords. A prioritized, costed plan you could hand your team on Monday. We walk through a real sample on the free intro call.
Executive summary
The findings in 60 seconds: your top three bottlenecks and what fixing them is worth.
Impact-effort matrix
Every fix we find, plotted, so you know exactly which one to make first.
Quick wins
The changes you can make this week, before any tool subscription starts.
Recommended solutions
3-7 specific, off-the-shelf tools matched to your stack, with pricing. No custom builds.
Four-day plan
A day-by-day rollout for your first tool, written so your team can follow it without us.
Financial impact
Your recovered hours × your rate vs. tool cost, netted on one page.
Effort vs. Impact
Tap a point to see the detail. Your report plots your own workflows, with every tool named.
Every fix we find, plotted. Top-left is the sweet spot: big time savings, little setup. You see at a glance which ones to make first.
Financial Summary
Sample figures at 50% realization. Your report runs the math on your numbers.
Your recovered hours, in dollars, against what the tools cost. One page. No hand-waving.
A typical report finds 7 hours a week, worth about $27,000 a year at a $150/hr rate.
Is the $999 Expert AI Audit worth it? See the business case below.
Assumes you actually reinvest the recovered hours. Even at 50% realization, it pays for itself in 2 weeks.
You're doing $50/hr work on a $500/hr schedule.
The work stealing your week already has a software solution. Most operators have simply never been shown it.
"I know I should use AI, but I don't know where to start."
You tried ChatGPT. Got generic answers. Gave up. The problem isn't that AI doesn't work. It's that nobody showed you which tools fit your specific workflows.
"My team is drowning in manual work that software should handle."
Copy-pasting between apps. Chasing people for updates. Re-writing the same email for the 40th time. These aren't job requirements. These are bugs in your process.
"Every hire I make is runway I don't get back."
Your Series A has to reach the next milestone, and headcount is the most expensive way to get there. Automate the work that does not need a person, and save new roles for the work that does. You pay once and own the plan.
Choose how you want to start.
The Deliverables
- Custom report: 3-7 specific, off-the-shelf tool picks. No custom builds. No coding required.
- Effort-vs-impact matrix so you know which fix to make first.
- 4-day quick-start plan. Implement the first tool and get immediate value this week.
- Financial summary: your hours × your rate vs. tool cost. On one slide.
Two Ways to Start
- Start now, free: a live AI agent runs your audit in real time. Talk or type, for as little or as long as you like.
- Book for later: choose the $999, 45-minute Expert AI Audit with Vaughn.
- Both paths lead to a custom, Uptick-reviewed AI Assessment and a 30-minute review call.
The Expert AI Audit
- The Instant AI Audit is free: a live AI agent runs it, and you choose how deep to go. The 45-minute Expert AI Audit with Vaughn is $999.
- Tool subscriptions average $20-80/month total. You choose which ones to buy.
- Need hands-on help? The $999 fee is fully credited toward any implementation project.
Most clients are up and running with their first tool within a week.
Vaughn DiMarco, CTO
Vaughn started as a data science and machine learning consultant in 2012. A few companies later he had raised $5M and pushed products past 100,000 users. Then came AI strategy inside a 4,000-person company. He has since screened more than 1,200 businesses for investors, and he runs your audit and writes your assessment himself.
Co-founded and scaled products from zero to 100k+ active users.
Built and led an AI Center of Excellence across 4,000 employees.
AI consultant and advisor to venture capital and private equity portfolios.
First-cohort alumnus of a top AI accelerator, mentored at one of Canada's leading AI labs · top-rated data science mentor to 10,000+ graduates · founder of a 10,000-member data community · engineering degree.
Expert AI Audit Guarantee
If the Expert AI Audit doesn't find 5-10 hours a week, you pay nothing.
The Instant AI Audit is free. If you choose the $999 Expert AI Audit and it doesn't surface 5-10 hours a week of recoverable time, you get a full refund. You keep your AI Assessment either way, and the fee is fully credited toward any build.
On the review call, we total the time drains using your own numbers. You see and confirm the calculation.
Audit. Optimize. Automate. One week, start to finish.
Audit
Map the real inputs, outputs, frequency, exceptions, and value of the work.
Optimize
Remove unnecessary steps and standardize the process before adding software.
Automate
Automate only the bounded work that survives the first two passes.
Choose how to start
Start the Instant AI Audit now, or book the 45-minute Expert AI Audit with Vaughn for a time that works for you.
Complete your audit
Talk through your day, your dreads, and your workarounds: with the live AI agent for as long as you like, or with Vaughn for 45 minutes. Every time drain you mention gets mapped, with no sales pitch.
We build your report
Effort-vs-impact matrix. 3-7 specific tool picks. 4-day quick-start plan. One-page financial summary showing exactly what your saved hours are worth.
Review call
We walk the report together. You ask anything. At the end, one question: what do you want to implement yourself, and what do you want help with? Zero pressure.
Want to see the report format first? We share a sample on the free 15-minute intro call.
Eight common leaks. One of them is yours.
We call them leaks: the hours draining out of your week through work software should be doing. These are the categories that show up most often. The value isn't the tool name, it's knowing which one fits your stack and what to fix first. Your report is specific to your workflows.
Meeting scheduling
2-3 hrs/wkThe email back-and-forth that eats a chunk of every week.
Manual meeting notes
1-2 hrs/wkTyping up what was said instead of acting on it.
Copy-pasting between apps
3-5 hrs/wkMoving the same data by hand because your tools don't talk.
Writing from scratch
2-4 hrs/wkRe-drafting the same proposals, emails, and summaries.
Tribal knowledge in six docs
1-3 hrs/wkHunting for the SOP or the status nobody wrote down.
Answering the same client question
1-2 hrs/wkRetyping the answer you've given a hundred times.
The spreadsheet holding ops together
2-4 hrs/wkOne tab away from breaking, and only you understand it.
Context-switching eating deep work
2-3 hrs/wkDays that fill with tasks and never leave room to think.
A good fit if…
This is for you
- You run a business with 2-20 people and $500K-$5M revenue
- You're personally doing admin work that feels below your pay grade
- You've tried AI tools but got overwhelmed and quit
- You want a discrete, one-time engagement before committing to anything bigger
- You value a money-back guarantee over a slick sales deck
This is not for you
- You need custom software built from scratch
- You want a $50K digital transformation project
- You're a seed-stage tech startup looking for AI workforce architecture
- You already have an internal AI ops team
You can implement the plan yourself.
About half of our assessment clients take the report and run. The other half ask us to help implement. Both are fine. If you want help, here's what that looks like:
- Process RedesignClean up the workflow before adding tools.$3,000-$5,000
- Automation SetupCustom automation infrastructure.$1,000-$3,000
- Knowledge SystemsCustom agentic systems grounded on your company data.$3,000+
- AI Concierge RetainerMonth to month, with two working calls and bounded async guidance. Cancel anytime.$2,500/mo
The $999 assessment fee is credited toward your first implementation project if you hire us.
The practical details.
The Instant AI Audit with the live AI agent is free. The Expert AI Audit is $999 and credited toward any implementation project.
A live AI-agent audit that takes as little as 10 minutes (go longer for a richer report), or a 45-minute Expert AI Audit with Vaughn, plus a 30-minute review call.
Start instantly with no prep, or complete a short intake after booking with Vaughn.
Your final report lands within two business days of completing the assessment.
Your assessment data stays private, is never used to train models, and is deleted on request. Instant-session audio is not stored by Uptick.
Common questions.
You get a full refund, no questions asked. You keep the report.
Get Started
Find the 5 to 10 hours your current workflows cost you each week.
Start free right now: a live AI agent audits your workflows in real time, and you choose how deep to go. Or book the $999 Expert AI Audit with Vaughn for later. Either path gives you a custom AI Assessment: 3-7 tools matched to your workflows, the math on what they're worth, and a 4-day rollout your team can follow.