A phased proposal for internal enablement, AI-assisted workflow improvement, and a future standalone platform business.
Activate Branding has an opportunity to improve how bespoke merchandise work gets sold, scoped, checked, and delivered.
Bespoke merchandise buying still relies on specialist knowledge, messy supplier data, manual checking, and back-and-forth communication.
All businesses are modifying using AI — Activate has the opportunity to cut through the hype and deliver tangible, valuable enhancements that actually work.
The long-term vision is a premium AI-enabled buying room for bespoke merchandise procurement — calm, precise, and reassuring.
Clients should feel looked after by specialists who understand the creative, commercial, and production realities behind each recommendation.
The product should work for both human users and AI-assisted buying agents — helping protect Activate from future shifts in how businesses buy merchandise.
The product should make complex decisions feel simpler, while keeping the care and expertise clients already value from Activate.
AI can already speed up a huge amount of work: research, mockups, content, data structuring, workflow ideas, integrations, and first-pass automation.
AI changes the speed and scale of delivery. Senior product and technical leadership makes sure the systems are secure, operationally sound, and ready for real business use.
Long-term value comes from building owned operational platforms around AI, not relying on temporary wrappers and third-party tooling.
Make the tool useful inside Activate first, then turn the proven workflows into a wider platform.
Real client work shapes the platform, and platform development feeds back into better internal workflows.
Activate already has the supplier relationships, client context, and operational complexity needed to build something useful.
The shared outcome is a platform business shaped by real operational use, live client work, and practical day-to-day learning.
Two separate streams of value are being created here — a lot is delivered before we even get to the platform side of the business.
My standard senior product / AI consultancy rate is £800-£900 / day including some engineering team time. Given the future platform component and mates rates, I propose Activate covers 4 days a month at 50%.
In reality, I'll likely sail past those hours — but it's a sensible baseline that gives this the diary space to be a priority strategic project.
Review at three months. Ideally by then we are close to launching the platform business, and my role inside Activate naturally shifts into lighter oversight.
The standalone platform is a separate long-term outcome, with shared ownership and shared upside once the product is ready to operate beyond Activate.
The retainer can be adjusted to reflect the future equity arrangement, while still recognising the value of the work being delivered now.
To spread the load, and ensure knowledge is built within the Activate team, I'll work closely with Ruth and other members of the team.
AI means we can move fast — but we should aim to be the best on the market, not just the first.
The aim is to build a platform business from real operational value and proven client workflows — rather than speculative software ideas.
We'll succeed where
99% of AI projects will fail.
The product gets better because the work is real, the feedback is live, and the platform remains closely connected to the business it first improves.