# Subversive

> Startup ways of working, for businesses taking on AI. Every business has great ideas it just can't make happen. We bring the way startups work to businesses, from founders to enterprises: untangle how the work runs, refine AI on a real job until it fits, then build in what works.

## Company
- **Spoken name**: Subversive
- **Entity**: Subversive Ltd, registered in England and Wales (Company No. 07562033, VAT GB389104183)
- **Registered office**: 20 Parkside Road, Exeter, EX1 3TN, United Kingdom
- **Based**: Devon, and wherever you are
- **Established**: 2013
- **Founder**: David (Dave) Ashenden, who leads every engagement himself
- **Website**: https://subversive.ventures
- **Writing**: https://subversive.ventures/blog/ (the column, "Uncommon Sense")
- **Newsletter**: https://subversiveventures.substack.com/ (email delivery; the articles live on subversive.ventures)
- **Email**: hello@subversive.ventures
- **Phone**: +44 (0) 1392 535 900

## How it works
Untangle the work, and the business starts to move.
1. **Untangle**: We map every job with the people who do it. Then a written plan: the jobs AI should do, who checks each one, the ones that stay human, and which AI tools your staff may use.
2. **Refine**: We take the jobs with the most in them and refine the AI with the people who do them, on real work, until it fits the way your business runs.
3. **Build**: What fits goes in for real, made for your business, and a named person checks it. You can see what it did, and undo it.
4. **The next one**: The next job, and the next, each one checked.

## What it costs
- Small and medium businesses: £950 a day in the South West, excluding VAT. Start with a single day, a workshop or a discovery day, and keep the written notes whatever you decide next. Or a retainer: two days a month at least (£1,900), three months to begin, then month by month; 10% off for six months, 15% off for a year. A busy month's extra days at £950, agreed first.
- London and larger organisations: £1,500 a day, excluding VAT, on the same terms.
- New ventures: a technology partner for founders with a venture and nobody to build it. Terms are discussed directly.

## Background
Twenty-five years designing things people use, from Ordnance Survey to startups finding their feet:
- Unisys: Product experience architect, AI and emerging solutions, since 2023
- Ordnance Survey: Legacy systems to open source, in-house team trained
- Matter: Cofounder and head of product
- Tabl: Interim CTO, then chief experience officer
- The Food Corporation: Head of service design

## Key pages
- [Home](https://subversive.ventures/): what we do, how it works, what it costs, contact
- [About](https://subversive.ventures/about/): David Ashenden and his background
- [For small businesses](https://subversive.ventures/for/small-businesses/)
- [For larger organisations](https://subversive.ventures/for/enterprises/)
- [For founders](https://subversive.ventures/for/founders/)
- [For boards](https://subversive.ventures/for/boards/)
- [Uncommon Sense](https://subversive.ventures/blog/): the column. Essays on judgement, taste, technology and the everyday chaos that keeps good businesses stuck
- [RSS](https://subversive.ventures/rss.xml): every article, newest first
- [Privacy](https://subversive.ventures/privacy/): privacy policy
- [Full site context for LLMs](https://subversive.ventures/llms-full.txt): extended version of this file

## Contact
Tell us three jobs, and we'll tell you where to start. The reply costs nothing and comes from Dave.
- Email: hello@subversive.ventures
- Phone: 01392 535 900