The Studio: Ship Something Real

The story

Fifteen years inside. Three years building out.

I've spent my career building commercial deals inside regulated industries - insurance, financial services, automotive mobility - at Direct Line Group, Aviva, ManyPets, BP, and Cazoo. Deals with no template, sold to senior buyers, often as the smaller party in the room.

Here's the part I'm rarely asked about. The quiet question at the top of this page was mine first. Three years ago I was the senior commercial person wondering, privately, whether fifteen years of craft was about to be repriced - and I didn't say it out loud in a single meeting.

Then I started rebuilding how I work with AI - inside my own company, where every operation runs on it. I went full-time on Kinship, an AI-native insurance business that closed its seed round this year: the research, the modelling, the automations, the meeting pipeline all run on systems I built. The difference was big enough that senior peers kept asking how. The methods I teach are the ones I run my own company on, not a curriculum I read somewhere.

What I offer now is my answer to those peers: a working method for commercial leaders who need to execute like founders - propositions, strategies, commercial models, prototypes, workflows - with AI as the engine, without leaving the role they're in.

If you want to know where you'd start, the diagnostic takes eight minutes.

Track record

The receipts behind the method

Everything below shipped - submitted, signed, or funded. Ship something real is the standard the method is judged by, and the standard you leave with: work out the door, not a certificate.

A nine-figure bid

Personally led the response to a multi-year, nine-figure GWP bid in personal lines insurance.

"Best bid in eight years"

Authored a partnership bid the buyer rated the best they had seen in eight years.

A category from scratch

Built OEM and bank partnerships for a car subscription category that didn't previously exist, negotiated at MD and board level.

First-of-their-kind contracts

Landed a roadside assistance brand's first OEM contract in its company history.

Value reframes that win

Redesigned a partnership value equation a competitor was trying to win on price - and kept the partner.

A funded AI-native company

Founded Kinship and closed a seed round while still in a senior commercial role - with AI doing the heavy lifting.

Specific clients and deal names are under NDA and shared, where possible, in conversation.

How I work

Four levels of commercial AI fluency

This is the curriculum spine of everything I do - the sprint and the programme both climb it. It's a leadership progression, from personal capability to AI in the proposition you take to market - not a tools course.

AI for yourself

Personal proficiency: your own prompts, workflows, and tools - applied to work that matters, not toy tasks.

AI for your team

Bringing direct reports into fluency without losing them: delegation, standards, accountability.

AI across your function

Workflow design from frontline to senior management: where AI sits, what stays human, the operating model.

AI in your proposition

The strategic layer: AI as part of what you sell, priced and structured into the deal - with a regulated-market story that stands up.

Illustration: a figure carrying an orange briefcase climbs four rising dock platforms, one for each level of the framework

Diagram: the four levels of AI fluency as ascending steps - 1 AI for yourself, 2 AI for your team, 3 AI across your function, 4 AI in your proposition - each level building on the last

Woven through all four levels: fifteen years of deal craft

Building propositions that don't yet exist - and selling them to senior buyers
Building deals in regulated industries: pricing mechanisms, volume structures
The regulated narrative: customer outcomes, Consumer Duty, fair value

Diagram: the two-altitude model - inside the fence you build on your approved stack with your own data; outside the fence you see frontier tools with safe data only; the Unlock Memo bridges the two

The diagnostic

Where are you on the four levels?

Before you decide whether any of this is for you, find out where you stand. I built a self-assessment on the four-level framework - the same tool I use in week one of the programme.

16questions

8minutes, roughly

4scores, one per level

You get a score for each level, an overall stage, and the two moves that would raise your score fastest. No question requires knowing any tool by name - it measures how you operate, not software trivia.

Take the diagnostic

Free. Your results render on the page - no call, no download.

Illustration: a harbour crane lowers an orange crate onto a desk on the dockside

Two ways in

Choose your entry point

Both routes anchor to the live commercial work you already own - a proposition, a strategy, a commercial model, a partnership, or a bid. The difference is who they're for and how close I get.

Done-with-you · MDs, Commercial Directors, and the divisional director who buys for them

The 90-Day Commercial Sprint

Ninety days inside your commercial function. Your team, your flagship deliverable, my methods - three workstreams, each with a defined finish line. Three variants: bid, proposition, or AI operating system.

Your commercial narrative and deck rebuilt to board standard
One flagship deliverable shipped - a bid submitted, a proposition launched, or your AI operating model live
AI implemented across your commercial operations
Your team trained to run the system after I leave

£25,000

Founding engagement (list £35,000).

Read the full sprint page

Written to be forwarded to procurement.

10-week cohort · Senior commercial leaders, Director and Head-of level

The Ship Something Real Programme

Ten weeks, 8-12 senior commercial leaders, one rule: ship something real. Your live work is the coursework.

Ten live 90-minute sessions across the four fluency levels
Two private 1:1s - diagnostic at the start, 90-day plan at the end
A London in-person day of pitch practice and live coaching
Your proposition, partnership, commercial model, or bid materially advanced by week ten

£5,500

Founding cohort seat (list £7,500). Typically funded from L&D or proposition budget.

Read the full programme page

Written to be forwarded to L&D.

Diagram: the product ladder - from the free diagnostic and guides, up through the Ship Kit, the Playbook, and the Team Diagnostic, to the programme, sprint, and in-house work — The sprint and programme sit at the top of a wider ladder - each rung earns the next.

Questions

Asked before, answered plainly

How much time does this actually take?

The programme is one live 90-minute session a week for ten weeks, plus the London day at week six. The coursework is the live deal you already own, so most of the work between sessions is work you'd be doing anyway - just done differently. The sprint is the other way round: my time is capped at two days a week inside your team, and the heaviest lift sits with me.

I'd be bringing a live deal. How do you handle confidentiality?

I'll sign your NDA before I see anything, and all work on your deal happens under your data and confidentiality policies. In the cohort, nobody presents deal specifics to the group - you work on your own artefact and share only what you choose. The method is common; the deal stays yours.

It's the same discipline I apply to my own record: specific clients and deal names on this site are under NDA and shared, where possible, in conversation.

I'm not technical. Is that a problem?

No - you're who this is built for. Nothing requires code. If you can run a deal, brief a team, and mark up a draft, you have the skills. The four levels are about judgement and operating method, not software.

How is this different from an AI course?

A course teaches tools and hands you a certificate. Here the coursework is your live work, and the exit standard is shipped - a proposition, a partnership pitch, a commercial model, or a bid, materially advanced and out the door. The other difference is what's woven through it: fifteen years of deal craft in regulated industries, which is the part no AI course carries.

Who pays for this?

The programme is typically funded from L&D, proposition, or strategy budget - at Director level that's usually a one-conversation approval, and the programme page is written so you can forward it to whoever holds the budget. The sprint is a delivery engagement bought by the MD, Commercial Director, or CCO - it sits against a live deliverable, not a training line.

What happens after week ten - or after the sprint ends?

The programme closes with a 1:1 that sets your next ninety days, and the cohort community stays open for three months after. The sprint ends with your team trained to run the system and an operating playbook that stays with you - no retainer, no dependency. Further days are available if you want them; terms are in the commercial pack.

I'm not in the UK. Can I take part?

It's built for the UK market and runs on UK hours, with the programme's London day in person. If you're elsewhere and the fit is otherwise right, write to me and I'll take it case by case - I don't run a US programme, and I'd rather say that plainly than sell you a stretch.

Your board has decided AI is your problem. The clock is quarters, not years.