01 · work theory
Work Theory is an AI enablement and infrastructure practice for startups, scaleups, and SMBs. We put AI inside your team's real workflows, build the rails underneath, and redesign how your org learns, so the capability compounds after we leave. Agency, not dependency.
02 · thesis
Adoption is no longer the problem. Scaling is. Pilots are everywhere. Practice is almost nowhere.
88%
use AI somewhere. Only a third are scaling it.
Most "AI-enabled" orgs are running isolated pilots, not transformed operations. Two-thirds haven't started scaling at all.
mckinsey · state of ai 2025
95%
of orgs see zero profit impact from AI investment.
An NBER survey of 6,000 global executives found 89% see no effect on labor productivity. The technology is real. The translation layer is missing.
mit · gallup · nber, q1 2026
2.8×
High performers are more likely to redesign workflows, not buy more tools.
They're also 3× more likely to have leaders actively championing AI use. The differentiator is how the org reorganizes around what the tools can now do.
mckinsey · ai trust maturity, mar 2026
12%
of employees say AI has actually transformed how work gets done.
Manager-led adoption is a top driver of frequent AI use. The gap between deployment and durable practice runs through the middle of the org chart.
gallup workforce, q1 2026
The orgs that close this gap won't do it with a course library. They'll do it by redesigning how their people learn, inside the work, with peers, at the speed the tools change. That's the theory we work on.
Underneath it, a simpler belief: when work is an expression of who you are, it becomes what you want it to be. We build teams that get to work that way.
03 · services
<track 01 · workflow enablement>
For teams putting AI inside the actual work.
We start with the work, not the tool. Your team brings real tasks; we build the AI-handled version together, then turn it into shared practice with rituals, reviews, and a cadence managers can run.
Engagements start with a four-week pilot on a single workflow your lead can defend, and scale with proof: a full unit, a department, the org. Your people own the work after we leave.
<track 02 · ai infrastructure>
For orgs whose adoption has outgrown the chat window.
Durable practice needs rails. We design and build the layer your team works on: internal agents, prompt and context libraries, integrations into the systems where the work already lives.
Built with your team, not for them. Every piece ships with the documentation and training to run it without us. Infrastructure your people can extend is infrastructure that lasts.
<track 03 · product & post-sales enablement>
For teams that bought the tool but can't staff the rollout.
You signed the contract. The vendor handed you a quickstart and a Slack channel. Adoption stalls at the team you didn't have time to train.
We come in as the adoption layer between vendor and end user. Embedded enablement, custom workflows, manager rituals, and a usage feedback loop the vendor can act on. No new headcount.
04 · who it's for
Startups & scaleups
<no L&D function · adoption is uneven>
Pockets of power users; everyone else watching. We embed alongside the team, get AI into the workflows that matter this quarter, and close the gap with shared rituals, manager-led cadence, and infrastructure that makes the good patterns the default. Practice, not process debt.
SMBs
<lean team, every hat>
Owner-operators with no ops layer and no time to build one. We find the few workflows that buy back real hours and make them stick, so AI is this quarter's leverage, not next year's project.
05 · team
Daye
<partner>
Learning systems engineer. Previously Slack, Salesforce, Uber, Vonage. Across GTM, Support, Ops, People, Product. A lifelong supporter of animal welfare, from a heritage of artists, educators, and entrepreneurs.
Nelson
<partner>
Learning systems engineer. Previously Meta, TikTok, Amazon, Slack. Across GTM, Marketing, Ops, Legal. A lifelong educator who loves being in front of a classroom, and is learning Portuguese just because.
We take on a small number of engagements per quarter. Tell us the workflow you want to change and we'll send back a scope.