Business systems & AI studio · Denver, Colorado
Run on systems,
not memory.
Clydesdales Creative builds business systems and AI for owner-led companies, in the owner's own accounts, and runs them with them every month.
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Start with the honest part
Most people are wary of AI. They're right to ask questions.
How the increased use of AI in daily life makes U.S. adults feel
Americans say they want more control over how AI is used in their lives.
So we build for control
Agents draft and a person approves; automated replies use templates you approve first; everything is logged, and you can switch it off. The safety slide lists exactly how.
Source: Pew Research Center, survey of 5,023 U.S. adults, June 2025.
The gap
Owners have tried AI. Few run on it.
The surveys measure different things, from "tried a chatbot" to "built into how the business runs". Read together, they say the same thing: the tools are everywhere, and the setup is what's missing.
Sources on the last slide. Goldman's survey covers its own program participants, so it runs high.
The problem
In most owner-led businesses, the owner is the system.
Leads wait
Inquiries sit for hours or days, missed calls go to voicemail, quotes go quiet.
Software doesn't talk
A CRM, a calendar, a spreadsheet and three apps that each hold part of the picture. Some are paid for twice.
The evenings go to admin
Replies, reminders and reports get done by hand, late, after the real work.
Firms that contacted a web lead within an hour were nearly seven times as likely to qualify it as those that waited even an hour longer, and more than 60 times as likely as those that waited 24 hours or more. Harvard Business Review, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads", 2011; 2,241 U.S. companies. Older data, and a correlation, not a promise.
What we do
Audit. Build. Operate.
Audit
We see how the business really runs: how leads come in, how follow-up works, what software is paid for, and where AI could take work off the owner's plate.
Build
We build what's missing in the owner's own accounts: follow-up and automations, AI agents, a private command center, a website that brings in customers.
Operate
We run it with them every month, with a report from their own numbers, or we train their team to run it.
Practice areas
One studio, six kinds of work.
Missed-call text-back, lead follow-up, estimate follow-up, review requests, customer re-engagement.
Agents, private command centers and custom apps: which model, which tools, what it can see, what needs approval, and a log of everything.
Findability, speed and contact fixes, up to full builds.
Stories, reels, posts and captions tuned to the owner's own audience, aimed at bookings.
Cutting duplicate software, and teaching owners and teams to use AI well.
Running and tuning all of it every month, measured from the client's own data.
How we work
Nothing starts until you sign.
Look first.
A free 30-minute fit check first. Then an audit you pick, and a written quote.
In writing.
A written proposal: what we'll build, in what order, and the price.
Your accounts.
Your number, email, sheet and calendar. For a build, the code lives in a GitHub repository in your name.
Every month.
A report from your own numbers. No promises of hours saved or revenue; we show the before and after.
Safety & security, stated plainly
Twelve rules we run on. Tap any of them.
These are the rules our own business runs on today, and the ones we write into every client build we quote.
AI and the law, checked 2 Oct 2026
Federal and Colorado rules, and what we do about each.
Our own review, not legal advice; our attorney reviews it with our client agreement. Executive orders steer federal agencies and challenge state laws in court, but they don't repeal Colorado's laws, so we follow both.
Common questions about AI
What people actually ask.
The founder
Jonathan Thomas
Born and raised in Colorado. Over the last five years I've worked in virtually every sector of sales, and along the way I got certified as a personal trainer and built my own book of business.
The pattern kept repeating: good businesses weren't short on effort. They were running on memory, sticky notes and software nobody had time to connect. That's what I build now: the systems and AI that carry that load.
"Your business is one Clydesdale. We're the second, trained to pull in step with you."
Proof: our own system
We run Clydesdales Creative on what we sell.
AI agents run our own business: research, drafts, call reviews, proposals, finance and reporting, on one $100-a-month Claude plan.
Our website follow-up: test inquiries got an email reply in 4.7 and 7 seconds in our 25 Sep 2026 tests, day or night.
Every agent drafts; a person approves. Automated replies send only from templates the owner approved before they went live.
Try the live follow-up on clydesdalescreative.com: send a test inquiry and time the reply.
Inside a command center
Sample data · not real customersOne screen for the whole business.
New
Replied
Call booked
Proposal
Won
"Yes, we do Saturday estimates. I have 9:00 or 11:30 this weekend…"
"Checking in on the gutter quote. Happy to walk through either option."
"Thanks for having us out. Would you leave a quick Google review?"
Sample agent · Reply desk
Sample data · not real customersThe agent drafts. You approve.
Waiting for the next inquiry…
Choose your path
What would you like to see next?
For owners · The offer
A website built to bring in customers. Three tiers.
Built in accounts in your name, so the site and its code are yours.
What's included:
- Up to 5 pages from our starter, built for phones first
- Branding: a colour palette, two fonts, your logo placed correctly, a one-page style guide
- A contact form to your CRM, every enquiry logged
- Online booking on the site
- Google Business Profile set up: claim, categories, services, photos, link back
- Built in accounts in your name; if we part ways, the site stays with you
Fixed price, about 3 weeks. Extra page $250. Half to start, half when you approve the site.
Custom: a design built around your business, more pages, custom layouts, copy written with you (5 to 6 weeks). Signature, from $15,000: a flagship site with bespoke design, motion and interactive features. Both are quoted in writing.
CareSystems builds are quoted in writing after the audit: Small $3,500 to $7,500, Medium $7,500 to $15,000, Large from $15,000, with three months of Systems Care included. The audit is the Website Audit at $1,250 or the Full Business Audit at $2,500, which includes the Website Audit. Either fee comes off in full against any build you sign within 30 days of the readout.
For owners · Try it
What would you automate first?
Pick the one that costs you the most time or business. We'll show where we'd start.
For owners · Your questions
What owners ask us most.
For owners · What you keep
It's built in your accounts.
You keep
- Your phone number, email, CRM sheet and calendar
- For a build, the code, in a GitHub repository in your name
- Your data, in your own accounts
- If you leave, we switch our automation off. Everything else stays yours.
What we never promise
- Hours saved, revenue or ROI
- Anything we can't measure from your own data
- We show the before and after, and report it plainly
For owners · Next step
A fit check. Free.
Thirty minutes, by phone or video, to see whether there is a fit: what you need, who decides, and a rough budget. Within two business days you get the next step in writing. Essential websites have one fixed price; anything bigger is quoted in writing after an audit.
For investors & partners · The market
Small business is most of business.
small businesses in the United States.
of all U.S. businesses are small businesses.
of private-sector workers, 62.3 million people, work at one.
Who we serve
Owner-led businesses: home services, restaurants, salons, auto repair, dental and medical, gyms, chiropractors, med spas, real estate, insurance and law firms.
Where we start
Denver metro and Colorado's mountain towns, then outward.
Source: SBA Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, 2026.
For investors & partners · The need
They want help putting AI to work.
would benefit from training and implementation help with AI.
name data privacy and security as a challenge.
lack the technical expertise.
struggle to choose the right tools.
Each of those is a service we provide: the audit chooses the tools, we build them in the client's accounts, the safety rules cover privacy, and care keeps it working.
Source: Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices survey, 1,256 program participants, Jan–Feb 2026.
For investors & partners · The model
Build once. Operate monthly.
- The audit: your website and search, or how the whole business runs, before anything is built
- Websites: Essential at a fixed price, Custom and Signature quoted
- Builds: lead follow-up, automations, AI agents, command centers and custom apps, quoted in writing after the audit
- Systems Care: a monthly check, fixes and small changes, with a note from the client's own numbers; three months included with every systems build
- Systems Care Plus: more hours, active monitoring and a monthly review call
- Website Care
Recurring revenue is the thesis; the build fees pay for the build. On builds, clients pay their own AI and software usage, so our margin isn't exposed to model prices.
For investors & partners · Why now, why us
The tools got cheap. The setup didn't.
Why now
Firms using AI in a business function are expected to rise from 18% to 22% within six months (U.S. Census Bureau). The tools are cheap; the setup and the running are what owners lack.
Why us
We build on ourselves first. The agents, the command center and the follow-up engine run Clydesdales Creative every day before a client sees them.
No lock-in
Clients own their accounts, their data and, for builds, the code. We keep them by being useful every month, not by holding their systems.
For investors & partners · How we sell
Agents prepare. A person approves.
Direct outreach
Cold email, calls and LinkedIn. Agents research prospects and draft; the founder approves every message.
The website demo
Visitors test the follow-up on themselves and watch a sample agent work.
Content
An Instagram media page and LinkedIn: proof and point of view, never a pitch.
Referrals
Every finished build ends with a referral ask.
Sales partner
A commission-only sales rep works cold leads alongside the founder.
The free fit check
A 30-minute call to see whether there is a fit. Anything bigger than a website then starts with an audit and a written quote.
For investors & partners · Where it's going
From hand-built to repeatable.
First clients
The first builds at a case-study rate, in exchange for a written case study and a review.
Make it a config
The first installs are done by hand from a checklist. Each one turns a manual step into a script, until an install is a configuration file and one access email.
Recurring base
Monthly care fees that grow with every install.
Next products
Bookmarked: an AI voice receptionist and a full back-end system.
For investors & partners · Your questions
What investors and partners ask.
For investors & partners · Let's talk
Let's talk.
We're looking for conversations: people who know owner-led businesses, partners who serve them, and introductions that help the first clients get built well.
Sources
Where the numbers come from.
- Pew Research Center, survey of 5,023 U.S. adults, June 2025: feelings about AI in daily life; wanting more control. pewresearch.org
- U.S. Census Bureau, Business Trends and Outlook Survey AI supplement, Nov 2025 – Jan 2026 (working paper CES-WP-26-25): 18% of firms use AI in a business function; 22% expected. census.gov
- NFIB, Small Business and Technology 2025: 24% of small employers use AI; 98% of users report no change in headcount. nfib.com
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Empowering Small Business, Aug 2025: 58% use generative AI. uschamber.com
- Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices, 1,256 participants, 27 Jan – 4 Feb 2026: 76% use AI; 14% fully embedded; 73% want training and implementation help; 50% / 49% / 48% challenges. goldmansachs.com
- SBA Office of Advocacy, Frequently Asked Questions About Small Business, Feb 2026: 36,207,130 small businesses; 99.9%; 62.3 million employees, 45.9%. advocacy.sba.gov
- Oldroyd, McElheran & Elkington, "The Short Life of Online Sales Leads", Harvard Business Review, March 2011; 2,241 companies. hbr.org
- AI law review, 2 Oct 2026: FTC Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, 16 CFR 465 (ftc.gov); FCC ruling on AI-generated voices, 8 Feb 2024 (fcc.gov); EO 14365 (presidency.ucsb.edu); EO 14409 (govinfo.gov); Colorado SB 26-189 (leg.colorado.gov), HB 26-1195 (leg.colorado.gov), HB 26-1263 (Colorado AG, coag.gov/ai).
- Anthropic privacy center, "Is my data used for model training?": commercial products are not used for training by default. privacy.claude.com
Our own figures (16 agents on a $100-a-month plan; 4.7 and 7 seconds) come from running Clydesdales Creative. Sample screens use made-up data.