AI Basecamp for SMEs
AI is powerful. It's also genuinely confusing.
Make sense of it with other SME leaders in AI Basecamp — a free community where founders cut through the hype together, not alone.
Free to join · Application required
Apply to Join AI Basecamp
Free to join · Application required
Attended by executives from UNICEF, NHS, Chughtai Lab, and 40+ SMEs across 12 industries
The Problem
You've been told to “do AI.”
Nobody told you where to start.
Your board gave you the mandate. Your competitors are moving. And you're stuck in a loop that looks like this:
- Three months of internal debate about which tools to buy
- Vendor demos that all sound the same
- A team excited about AI but no framework for choosing where to start
- $4,000/month in senior time spent on AI discussions with nothing shipped
This isn't an AI problem. It's a sequencing problem. AI Basecamp fixes the sequence.
What's Inside
Three steps. From stuck to shipped.
Know your readiness level
Start with the same diagnostic scorecard we use in our $3,000 AI Audit. You’ll get a real readiness score across the dimensions that actually predict ROI — no vanity assessment, no guesswork about where you stand.
Find your use case
Apply the 87→58 framework Ehmad used to restructure Cogent Labs. You’ll score your top processes and walk away knowing your single highest-leverage AI opportunity — not a list of maybes.
Ship in 30 days
Bring your work to the weekly live calls and ship a real win inside a month. You’re in the room with people solving the same problem — momentum, feedback, and accountability instead of another doc you never open.
Who's Teaching This
The CEO who cut his own team from 87 to 58 — and shipped more.
18 months ago, Cogent Labs had 87 people. Ehmad Zubair made a decision that changed everything: restructure the entire company around AI.
Today they have 58 people doing more work — more clients, more complexity, more output — with 29 fewer.
But there was a point, three months in, where it almost fell apart. Two senior people left. A major client called and asked “are you guys falling apart?” Ehmad was re-architecting workflows at 2 AM on four hours of sleep.
The mandate was clear. The framework worked. The numbers spoke for themselves. That framework is what you'll put to work in AI Basecamp.
Ehmad Zubair — CEO & Co-founder, Cogent Labs
87 → 58
Team reduced. Same output.
29
Fewer people. More shipped.
2023
In production GenAI since day one.
Inside AI Basecamp
What you get when you join.
Start here
The Scorecard
Your readiness diagnostic plus the 87 → 58 ranking framework — the same tools we use on day one of a paid audit. Fill it out on your own business and know exactly where to start.
Weekly live calls
Bring what you’re building and get unstuck in real time. Working sessions, not lectures.
The community
A room of SME leaders deploying AI right now. Compare notes, steal what works, stay accountable.
AI Audit offer
A direct path into the $3,000 AI Audit when you’re ready to go deeper. Only if it fits.
What Most AI Advice Gets Wrong
Three myths we'll break in the room.
The Tool Trap
Most companies start with tools. They Google “best AI tools for business,” book three demos, get dazzled by the UI, buy two licences, and six months later adoption is at 12%. You’ll learn the exact sequence that works instead.
The Data Myth
“We need to sort out our data first.” It sounds responsible. It delays ROI by 12 months. The truth: you don’t need perfect data. You need a repeatable process. 95% of businesses are already there.
The Hidden AI Tax
Every month you spend debating where to start? That’s $4,000/month in senior time at loaded cost. Over six months, $24,000 with nothing shipped. The scorecard stops that tax the day you fill it out.
Qualification
Is this for you?
AI Basecamp is for you if
- Your board or leadership has said “we need to do something with AI”
- You’re tired of tool roundups and want a framework that actually sequences the work
- You’re ready to ship a real AI win in the next 30 days, not just plan one
- You’re a C-suite exec, VP, or senior leader at a company with 20+ employees
It's NOT for you if
- You want a polished board deck handed to you, not to do the work yourself
- Your company has fewer than 20 people or isn’t at the right revenue stage yet
- You want hype and predictions instead of a plan you can execute
- You’re looking for a tool demo or a done-for-you build today (that’s the audit)
Questions
Before you apply.
Yes. No credit card, no obligation. AI Basecamp is free to join — we ask for an application so the room stays full of leaders who are actually ready to do the work.
Come ready to think about your top three most time-consuming, repeatable processes. You’ll score them against the framework and bring real work to the weekly calls. A laptop beats a phone.
No. The value is in the scorecard, the live sessions, and the community. If the $3,000 AI Audit is the right next step for you, there’s a clear path to it — but there’s no pitch in the room and no pressure.
You don’t watch, you ship. It’s not a course you binge once and forget. It’s a community with weekly live work sessions, real accountability, and a 30-day target to put something into production.
Yes — send the people who own the processes and can make decisions. The framework works best when the person in the room actually knows where the bottlenecks are.
Stop debating.
Start shipping.
Join a free community of SME leaders putting AI into production — and ship your first real win in 30 days.