# Main & Machine > AI consulting and implementation for small and mid-size businesses > (5–100 employees, $1M–$50M revenue). Fixed-price audits $3,500–$8,500; > implementation sprints $18,000–$60,000, fixed quote in writing, delivered > in ~90 days per workflow. Every scoped workflow is guaranteed live within > 90 days or we keep building at no charge. Hubs in Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ; remote across > the US. Founded by Christopher Myers. > The free 30-minute assessment is the front door. Last updated: 2026-09-02 Full page text for AI systems: [llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt) — the complete visible copy of the most important pages, with page delimiters. ## Company facts - Company: Main & Machine — AI consulting & implementation for small and mid-size business (5–100 employees, $1M–$50M revenue) - Who it serves: owner-run and mid-size businesses of 5–100 employees, $1M–$50M in revenue — past what the owner can hold in their head, short of a Fortune 500 budget - Founder & Chairman: Christopher Myers — CEO of B:Side Capital + Fund, professor of entrepreneurship at ASU's W.P. Carey School of Business, and author of several books on small business - Verify the founder independently: [ASU faculty profile](https://search.asu.edu/profile/559969) · [B:Side Capital](https://www.bside.org) · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmyers85/) · [Amazon author page](https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B01LBGCKWM/about) - Hubs: Denver, CO and Phoenix, AZ · remote across the US - Delivery: ~90 days per workflow, fixed price quoted in writing before work - Free offer: 30-minute AI Opportunity Assessment, reply within 24 hours - Contact: cmyers@mainandmachine.com · 480-805-9983 - Operating principle: every system we build can be explained, questioned, and overruled by an accountable human. ## Services & published prices Every price is published; the exact number is quoted fixed, in writing, before work begins. - [AI Readiness Audit](/services/#audit) ("The Blueprint"): $3,500–$8,500, 2–4 weeks. A workflow map of your real operations, the handful of places AI actually pays, and a phased plan you own outright — whether or not you build with us. - [AI Implementation Sprint](/services/#sprint) ("The 90-Day Build"): $18,000–$60,000 fixed quote, 4–12 weeks. Working agents, automations, and integrations built inside your real operation, with your team trained to run them. About 90 days per workflow. Guarantee: if a scoped workflow is not live within 90 days, we keep building at no charge until it is. - [Managed Services](/services/#managed) ("The Service Contract"): from $1,500/month, no lock-in. Monitoring and maintenance on every deployed system; leave any month it stops paying. Pay annually and 12 months cost the price of 10. - The Full Back Office: from $95,000 — a MARCUS-class, multi-department build. Four taken per year. - Audit-to-sprint credit: 100% of the audit fee credits toward a sprint signed within 60 days, up to 25% of the sprint price. - [Pricing](/pricing/) — the full price list, on the page. Our largest standard sprint ($60,000) is roughly a tenth of a Big Four kickoff meeting ($500,000+ minimums). - [Build catalog](/services/builds/) — every system we build, priced: AI receptionists, intake and billing agents, automations, integrations. - [Sample audit deliverable](/services/sample-audit/) — a representative sample built to the real audit template, shown before you buy it. ## Proof: the MARCUS case - [MARCUS](/work/marcus/) — a private AI back office built for B:Side Capital, an SBA 504 / CDFI lender: 14 AI agents across 7 departments, built from ~840 source documents, running entirely on-prem — no borrower file leaves the building in normal operation. PII is stripped by Microsoft Presidio before any model reads a document; every action writes to a tamper-evident audit log; nothing sends, files, posts, or pays until a person approves it. Published with the client's permission. - [MARCUS measured results](/work/marcus/results/) — the scorecard from the first 90 days of full-fleet operation: 1,240 staff hours of preparation returned, 93% weekly staff adoption by week six, 0 borrower identifiers sent to any outside model, and 100% of consequential actions approved by a person first. Every figure is reconstructable from the tamper-evident audit log, and every figure on the page renders from data/build-log.json rather than being typed into the HTML. - [Proof](/work/) — builds shown plainly, with a standing rule: numbers and client quotes on that page render only from a build log, and quotes appear only with the client's written sign-off on file. Missing numbers stay blank rather than invented. ## Security & data handling - [Security](/security/) — where client data goes, and where it never goes. Five controls, in the order data meets them: (1) local models on the client's own hardware — for regulated work, no client file leaves the building in normal operation; (2) PII stripped by Microsoft Presidio before any model reads a document — the model sees the work, not the identity; (3) everything stored is encrypted at rest; (4) every action writes to an append-only, tamper-evident audit log — compliance can prove nothing was altered; (5) a human signs off on every consequential action — nothing sends, files, posts, or pays until a person approves it. The architecture is the one MARCUS runs in production at a regulated SBA lender, not a policy aspiration. ## Method - [The method](/method/) — three phases on every engagement: Discover (map and cost the workflows), Build (working systems inside your real operation), Evolve (tune, extend, retire as the work changes). A workflow lands in about 90 days: weeks 1–2 discover, weeks 3–10 build, weeks 11–13 handoff. ## Free tools - [The AI-Ready Score](/score/) — free seven-minute self-assessment: fourteen questions across three phases (Map, Prove, Expand). You get a 0–100 score and the one constraint to fix first. No sales call. - [ROI calculator](/calculator/) — modeled annual return by industry and team size, plus how fast the build pays back. Ranges, not promises. ## Guides - [The Field Guide](/guides/) — practical answers to AI buying questions, real published prices throughout - [What an AI consultant costs in 2026](/guides/ai-consultant-cost/) — the market's ranges (hourly, boutique, Big Four) and where ours sit - [AI readiness checklist](/guides/ai-readiness-checklist/) — 20 points an owner can run in an afternoon, no consultant required - [AI consultant vs. in-house hire](/guides/ai-consultant-vs-in-house/) — the hiring math, with break-even headcounts - [How to choose an AI consultant](/guides/how-to-choose-an-ai-consultant/) — 10 questions that separate builders from hype merchants - [What AI automation costs to run](/guides/what-ai-automation-costs-to-run/) — the monthly reality after the build: tokens, tools, maintenance ($50–$500/mo) - [Agents vs. automations vs. integrations](/guides/ai-agents-vs-automations-vs-integrations/) — which one your problem needs, and why it's often the cheaper one - [How long AI implementation takes](/guides/how-long-ai-implementation-takes/) — ~90 days per workflow, week by week; what "2 weeks" actually buys - [What an AI readiness audit is](/guides/what-is-an-ai-readiness-audit/) — what $3,500–$8,500 buys, what it deliberately doesn't - [Where AI data actually goes](/guides/ai-data-cloud-vs-on-prem/) — cloud vs. on-prem for a small business, matched to what's in the documents - [ChatGPT vs. custom AI](/guides/chatgpt-vs-custom-ai/) — when a $25 subscription wins and where it stalls - [Signs you are NOT ready for AI](/guides/signs-you-are-not-ready-for-ai/) — and the 90-day plan that costs almost nothing instead - [How to scope an AI project a vendor can't inflate](/guides/how-to-scope-an-ai-project/) — procurement armor: clauses, inflation patterns, a copyable template - [The real ROI math](/guides/ai-roi-math-small-business/) — the calculator's model published in full, worked example included - [AI for the skeptical owner](/guides/ai-for-the-skeptical-owner/) — what the skeptic has right, and a first step requiring no belief ## Industries - [Who this is for](/industries/) — five industries with the clearest wins: [professional services](/industries/professional-services/) · [retail](/industries/retail/) · [healthcare](/industries/healthcare/) · [construction & trades](/industries/construction/) · [hospitality](/industries/hospitality/) ## Key pages - [Home](/) — what we build and why - [Free assessment](/book/) — 30 minutes, reply within 24 hours - [Who we are](/about/) — the founder, the AI-native build team, the name - [Denver](/denver/) · [Phoenix](/phoenix/) — the two hubs, in person - [Contact](/contact/) — email or call; both land with the founder - [Careers](/careers/) — join the build team - [The Ampersand](/blog/) — plain-English AI essays, a few times a month ([archive](/blog/archive/), [RSS](/blog/rss.xml)) - [Privacy](/privacy/) · [Terms](/terms/)