Our story
Built for small businesses first
We have spent more than 25 years building new kinds of software early, for people who move fast. Here is what we built, and when.
- Since 2000 · 25+ years of small business automation
Milestones
Early, again and again
Before Ai1, our founder and his teams spent decades building things for small businesses and their customers, usually before there was a name for them.
2000
Social apps1
Social apps that went viral around the world, years before Friendster and MySpace, let alone Facebook.
2003
Our own online ticketing2
At a big tech conference we couldn't find ticketing that fit, so we built our own.
2016
Business systems
Custom business systems for event and retail clients, so they could run sales, stock and operations in one place.
2018 to 2019
Chat automation and an AI support bot
For Glow, a Christmas lights festival and our partner: Messenger marketing in 2018, then an AI support bot in 2019 that handled 85% of support tickets.
2026
Ai1
A team of AI agents that works for a small business on its own private server. What we built, and when, is below.
What we built, and when
Each date is when the piece went live for clients or first appeared on our public pages.
Early 2026
The first clients start using Ai1
Their own portal, with their agents' work, briefings and approvals in one login.
April 2026
A private server for every client3
Every plan runs on a server that belongs to that business alone.
April 2026
Agents draft, you approve4
Agents prepare emails and replies overnight, and nothing goes out until you say yes.
April 2026
Your own AI account3
You bring your own AI provider account and pay it directly, with no markup from us.
April 2026
A ready-made library of agents, with training3
Pick what you need from a catalog, and your team gets training sessions to put it to work.
June 2026
One live board for all your agents' work
See what is running, what is waiting and what is done, and act from the same screen.
June 2026
CRM, living SOPs and Council
A CRM your agents keep up to date, procedures that stay current as your tools change, and a panel of AI advisers that weighs a big decision step by step before you choose.
June 2026
Ai1 Tasks
One task board where your staff and your agents work from the same list.
August 2026
Whisper voice notes
Speak a note anywhere, and it is written up and sent to the right place.
September 2026
A status page for each piece of work, and the Needs panel
Share where a job stands with your team or clients, and see every question your agents have for you in one list, not lost in a chat.
Sources
How we work
Speed is the strategy
We move fast on purpose. When something new becomes possible, we try it, put it in front of real clients and keep what works.
We decide quickly and fix quickly. A small change shipped this week teaches us more than a perfect plan shipped next year.
And we learn in public: workshops, recordings and dated pages, so you can see what we built and when.
Three months can matter more than you think
Two businesses grow at the same speed: ten times a year. One starts three months before the other.
See the numbers
| Months from the early start | Early starter | Later starter | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 1.8 | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| 6 | 3.2 | 1.8 | 1.4 |
| 12 | 10.0 | 5.6 | 4.4 |
| 18 | 31.6 | 17.8 | 13.8 |
| 24 | 100.0 | 56.2 | 43.8 |
Who we fit
Made for people who like to move first
Our best clients understand that change is speeding up, and they want to be early. They are flexible, they like trying new things, and they adapt quickly when something better comes along.
If you want polished, decade-old software, there are great options. If you're ready to ride the wave, every small advantage compounds.
How Ai1 gets better
Every fix starts with one client
When one client hits a problem, the fix can help everyone. Here is how it works.
You hit an issue.
Something doesn't work the way you expect.
Your agent reports it.
It writes up what happened, so you don't have to.
You approve with one button.
Nothing is sent to us without your yes.
Our head-office agent fixes and tests it.
The fix is checked before it goes anywhere.
The fix goes out and is checked.
It is released to the client servers it applies to, and checked on each one.
From our founder
Mike Schwarz
Founder & CEO
My brain loves stimulation and change. Over 25 years I’ve started , and more than once I was too early. Clubvibes had a big audience before there was ad money to pay the server bills.
In 2018 and 2019 we built chat automation and then an AI support bot for Glow, a Christmas lights festival we partnered with. That project showed me where this was going.
Connect with me on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)“We believe software should work in real time, improve itself, and belong to the people who use it. That is what we are building with Ai1: software that everybody owns.”
See what Ai1 can do today
We will show you what is live now and the parts that fit your business.
- Your own private serverEvery Ai1 plan runs on a private server that belongs to your business alone.
- Your data stays yoursStored on your server, not used to train AI models, and you can export everything you build at any time.
- Choose your AI modelBring your own AI provider account and pay it directly, with no markup from us.
- No lock-inMonthly plans run month to month with no long-term commitment, and everything you build can be exported.