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Every industry runs on infrastructure that's invisible until it breaks.
Freight brokerages reconcile payments in Excel. Mining operators forfeit millions in assets because they miss compliance deadlines tracked in spreadsheets. TPAs audit claims after costs are already locked in. Collections agencies charge 20% to recover $1,000 debts with 50% success rates.
These aren't feature requests. They're missing layers.
Traditional software couldn't solve them because the complexity was intractable. Too many edge cases. Too much unstructured data. Too dependent on human judgment.
AI changes the fundamental equation. Not because it makes better dashboards, but because it can finally handle the complexity that made these problems unsolvable. It can read unstructured documents, make judgment calls, adapt to edge cases, and operate across fragmented systems.
We're looking for founders who understand this shift. Who can see where AI creates entirely new infrastructure, not a better tool, but a new primitive that becomes non-negotiable once it exists.
Here are four areas where we think this is happening right now. If you think we're wrong about any of these, or if you see the opportunity differently, we want to hear from you. Show us why our thesis is incomplete or how you'd approach it better. And if you want to build with us, let us know why you’re the right founder for the job.
1. Payment Reconciliation Infrastructure
Companies are forfeiting 30% of back-office time to reconciliation hell.
17,000 freight brokerages manually reconcile shipper invoices against carrier payments against factoring advances. 82% of construction contractors experience 30+ day payment delays because someone has to match purchase orders to delivery receipts to invoices. Insurance agencies spend 40-80 hours per month reconciling commission statements from 47 different carriers.
They all solve it the same way: The 47-tab Excel spreadsheet with nested VLOOKUPs and macros that break every quarter. One person "owns" it. If they leave, the company is paralyzed.
Why this works now: Agentic AI can finally handle what broke traditional software. Reading unstructured formats across different systems. Applying industry-specific logic like factoring advances, retainage calculations, commission splits. Reconciling across fragmented systems. Managing the edge cases that killed every RPA implementation.
The wedge: Eliminate 40 hours per month of manual reconciliation for one vertical.
The expansion: Become the payments layer for the entire industry. The same multi-party split patterns exist across freight, construction, and insurance. Once you've built the reconciliation engine, you can apply it horizontally across industries with similar payment complexity.
You're the right founder if: You've built or managed these systems. You can show us the spreadsheet from hell. You know exactly where it breaks at scale when you go from 50 to 500 to 5,000 transactions per month. You understand what "good enough" means because perfect reconciliation isn't the goal. Fast enough and compliant enough is.
2. Mining Rights & Lease Compliance Management
The government just made domestic minerals a strategic priority. Companies are still forfeiting assets because they track compliance in Excel.
DOE and DoD are flooding billions into critical minerals extraction. Rare earths, lithium, copper. Mid-size operators manage 200-500 active leases, each with work requirements, environmental deadlines, rental payments, royalty filings, and renewal deadlines.
Miss a deadline by one day, forfeit the asset forever. No second chances.
Current systems: Excel spreadsheets, paper files, regional consultants manually tracking obligations.
Why this works now: The capital is flowing but infrastructure hasn't caught up. Small exploration companies and mid-tier operators are ramping operations with compliance systems that haven't evolved past spreadsheets. The consequences are binary. Forfeiture with no room for error. AI can track obligations across hundreds of leases, monitor deadlines, automate filings, and flag risks before they become forfeitures.
The wedge: Become the system that prevents asset forfeiture.
The expansion: Compliance is the entry point. Capital optimization is the opportunity. When should an operator drill versus hold? How do they optimize cash flow across a lease portfolio? Layer on royalty management to track production, calculate payments, audit operators. Eventually become the operating system for domestic mineral extraction. Rights trading marketplace, title verification, capital formation. Own the data layer, build everything on top.
You're the right founder if: You've worked in mineral rights management, land administration, or exploration operations. You've seen assets forfeited. You know the specific triggers. The work requirements companies miss. The rental payments that slip through. The renewal deadlines no one catches until it's too late.
3. Claims Intelligence for TPAs
CMS just turned on the data. No one's using it yet.
TPAs have been fighting blind. Auditing claims after costs lock in, with no ability to influence adjudication decisions. They could only do retrospective analysis and hope to do better next time.
CMS price transparency mandates changed that. Machine-readable pricing files now exist. For the first time, you can see costs before adjudication and intervene in real-time.
This creates an entirely new category: systems that check eligibility, estimate member responsibility, flag pricing anomalies, and suggest interventions before claims finalize. If you can influence 5-10% of claims pre-adjudication, you drive millions in value.
Why this works now: The infrastructure just went live. CMS Prior Authorization and Interoperability rule effective January 2026. FHIR-based APIs for electronic prior auth are now mandated for payers. Price transparency files are available. TPAs are desperate for tools that actually reduce costs, not just report on them after the fact.
The wedge: Pre-adjudication intelligence. Prove you can influence 5-10% of claims before they lock in.
The expansion: Post-claim repricing, denial management, appeals automation, then build a verticalized AI-native TPA. Traditional TPAs charge 3-6% of claims as service businesses. You could build an AI-native TPA that guarantees cost reduction and charges on outcomes.
You're the right founder if: You've worked in claims adjudication, TPA operations, or healthcare pricing. You understand both the technical infrastructure, what's actually in those machine-readable files, how FHIR APIs work, and the business model. How TPAs make money, what drives their costs, where intervention creates real value.
4. Full-Stack, AI-Native Services
Tools alone can't transform industries where outcomes depend on expertise, regulation, and trust.
The opportunity isn't selling software to professionals. It's using AI to deliver the outcome better, faster, cheaper than they can.
We're looking for founders building AI-native services that guarantee outcomes at software economics. Not tools for professionals. AI that becomes the professional. Read more here.
A few examples:
Revenue Collection Management
Collections agencies operate at 15-30% contingency fees, 40-60 day cycles, sub-50% resolution rates.
AI can automate skip tracing, payment plan optimization, communication sequencing, and compliance monitoring. The cognitive work that made this a people business is now automatable. Deciding when to call, what to offer, how to escalate.
The opportunity: Guarantee higher recovery rates at lower fees with faster resolution. Start with consumer debt, expand to commercial collections and healthcare.
Insurance Claims Processing
Claims adjusters spend 60-70% of their time on data entry and document review. Auto claims alone represent a $35B+ market with 90+ day cycle times.
AI can handle first notice of loss, damage assessment from photos, fraud detection, settlement calculation. Most claims are routine. The complexity comes from volume, not sophistication.
The opportunity: Guarantee faster cycle times and lower loss ratios. Start with auto property damage, expand to homeowners and commercial.
Construction Lien Management
27% of construction invoices contain errors. Mechanics liens cost contractors millions in legal fees and project delays.
AI can automate lien waiver tracking, progress payment validation, preliminary notice filing, compliance deadline management. Lien compliance is formulaic but unforgiving. Miss one deadline, lose your payment rights.
The opportunity: Guarantee lien-free projects and faster payment cycles. Contractors would pay 2-5% of project value to eliminate lien risk. AI can track obligations across hundreds of projects and never miss a deadline.
AI-Native Medical Billing & Prior Authorization
Medical billing companies charge 5-8% of collections with 90-120 day cycles and 65-75% first-pass acceptance rates. Prior auth takes 2-14 days per request with 30%+ initial denial rates.
AI can automate coding, prior auth submission, denial management, appeals. Medical billing is rules-based with well-defined logic. The complexity comes from scale and keeping up with payer policy changes.
The opportunity: Guarantee 90%+ first-pass rates and 30-day collection cycles at 3-4% fees. Start with complex coding specialties like oncology and orthopedics, then expand across specialties.
You're the right founder if: You've worked in one of these service industries. You're convinced AI can deliver the outcome better than humans. You understand where expertise creates value versus where process creates waste. You can show us why AI changes the fundamental economics now.
How to Pitch Us
We don't need polished business plans. We want your point of view.
If you've lived one of these problems and have a perspective on how to solve it, pitch us your thinking. Better yet, if you think we're wrong about how to approach these opportunities, tell us why. Show us what we're missing.
We'll work together to validate the market, find design partners, and build the case for incorporation. Market diligence, problem-market fit validation, studio fit assessment, finding design partners, building the narrative. By the end, we both know if there's a company to build.
The deal: $250K investment plus our full studio team. Product, engineering, growth, and recruitment working alongside you to get from zero to momentum.
We've launched 17 companies this way. We know what it takes to get from idea to funded company.
If you're one of those founders, or if you think we're completely wrong about these opportunities and you can show us why, we want to talk.
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