// Private Equity · per-portfolio sprint
Your Canadian portfolio companies, AI-enabled in 100 days each.
Operating partners get a per-portfolio AI sprint. Two workflows scoped against the operator's P&L, the first one shipped to production in 100 days, the team trained to maintain it. EBITDA lift you can point at on the next quarterly board.
Founder-led by Derik Lawlis. Two prior software exits. Bilingual EN/FR. NDA-comfortable. Ottawa-based.
// The short version
- One 100-day sprint per portfolio company. AI readiness diagnostic, workflow ranking, first shipped workflow, operator-team handoff.
- Master agreement available for 3+ portfolio companies in the same fund vintage. Repeatable playbook across the portfolio.
- Working systems, not advisories. The first invoice ties to a deployed agent, not a recommendation.
- Canadian funding pulled in (NGen, Mitacs, IRAP) to offset 30-50% of project cost where eligible.
What ships, per portfolio company
A 15-week per-portfolio engagement. Each phase has a concrete deliverable an operating partner can verify before authorizing the next.
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Wk 1-2
AI readiness diagnostic. We sit with the operator's leadership and read the P&L. Output: a one-page readiness scorecard (data, systems, team) plus a ranked workflow list against actual line items.
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Wk 3-4
Top two workflows scoped. Each with the agent shape, the integration touchpoints, the owner on the operator's side, and the expected hours-saved or revenue-touched per quarter.
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Wk 5-12
First workflow shipped to production. Working agent integrated with the operator's existing stack (QuickBooks, SAP Business One, Microsoft 365, HubSpot, NetSuite, or what the company runs). Audit trail and eval hooks built in.
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Wk 13-15
Operator-team handoff. The operator's team runs the agent without us. Runbook, eval framework, second workflow's build kick-off briefed. We exit; they own it.
What this is, specifically
- Implementation, not advisory. The back-half invoice ties to a shipped, integrated, production system. Not slides.
- Founder-delivered. Derik is personally on every portfolio company. No junior staffing leverage. No bench rotation.
- Bilingual EN/FR. Comfortable in Quebec dealflow, Quebec Law 25 data residency, and French operator conversations.
- NDA-comfortable, deal-room-comfortable. Used to clean rooms, data rooms, and DD timelines.
- Vendor-neutral. We do not take referral margin from Microsoft, Anthropic, OpenAI, or any platform. Your data, your stack, your IP at exit.
- Operator-trained handoff. The operator's team owns the system after Week 15. We do not build a dependency.
Canadian funding pulled in (where eligible)
We package and submit the funding applications. The operator does not run that process.
- NGen AI4M Challenge Program. Up to 40% of project cost on eligible advanced-manufacturing engagements ($1.5M-$8M project bands).
- Mitacs Accelerate / Elevate. 50% cost-share on research-anchored scopes with a Canadian university partner.
- NRC IRAP. Labour cost share up to 75-80% on eligible AI builds; advisory time included.
- Provincial top-ups. Quebec (Investissement Quebec), Ontario (OCI), Alberta (Alberta Innovates) where the portfolio company qualifies.
Who picks up the call
Derik Lawlis. Founder, Thrive Adventures Inc. Two prior software exits in Canadian SMB tooling. Engineering background. Bilingual EN/FR. Personally engaged on every portfolio company we accept.
References available on request, including PE-backed and founder-led Canadian operators currently running ThriveAI-built agents in production.
// Book a portfolio scoping call
Pick one portfolio company. We scope the sprint live.
Thirty minutes with Derik. You leave with the two highest-ROI AI workflows scoped for that portfolio company: what they do, what each will cost to build, and what ships first inside 100 days.
Book a portfolio scoping call →
Engagement scoped per portfolio company · master agreement available for 3+ companies · or
reply to Derik directly