A fund and a studio
AI can learn an industry. It can't earn its trust.
We fund the people who have, and build everything else, supplying the build, the capital, and the operational backbone that turns deep market knowledge into a B2B software company.
The opportunity
Why now
For decades, the people who understood an industry best watched software get built for them, badly, by teams who didn't know the work. Building was expensive and technical, so the experts were locked out.
AI has changed that. The cost of building software has collapsed, and the advantage that lasts is the one that was always scarce: deep knowledge of a market, and the trust to sell into it.
That is the opening TSD AI exists to take.
The thesis
A software company needs three things. We bring two of them.
Those three are domain knowledge, delivery, and distribution. We back founders who own the first, genuine experts in a B2B market, then supply the second and steer the third. The founder stays the lead and the face. We become the technical and operational co-founder they could never assemble alone.
Domain knowledge
First-hand expertise in a B2B market, and the trust to sell into it. The scarce, durable advantage.
Delivery
The product, built through our AI harness and 23 years of encoded delivery experience.
Distribution
Capital, operational backbone, and governance to take the product to its first customers and beyond.
How it works
Two parts, one engine: a fund that invests, a studio that buildsEvery company runs the same pipeline
The founder leads. Our AI build harness and decades of encoded delivery experience do the heavy lifting, and our agents keep the build, the governance, and the reporting running at low cost. That low cost is what lets us back more companies, and back them more carefully.
Source
Deal flow drawn from 23 years working inside the industry.
Validate
Pressure-test the market, the problem, and the route to first customers.
Build
Our AI harness and encoded delivery experience do the heavy lifting.
Govern
Agents keep governance running and related-party terms in check.
Report
Continuous, low-cost reporting on every company we run.
The fund invests and the studio is paid to build, with the related-party terms overseen by an advisory committee and independently benchmarked.
Why TSD
Built on 23 years that compound.
TSD AI is built on TSD. That experience isn't a line on a résumé. It's encoded into how we screen, build, and govern every company, and it compounds. Each company we build and run sharpens the next. It's also where our deal flow comes from.
For founders
You can see the software that should exist. We build it with you.
You know your industry better than anyone, and you can see the software that should exist but doesn't. We fund it, build it with you through our harness, and stand up the operations around you, while you stay the lead and the face.
You bring the market knowledge and the trust. We bring the product, the capital, and 23 years of knowing how delivery goes wrong, so it doesn't go wrong for you.
Tell us what you'd build- We fund it.Capital to start, without you assembling a team or raising a round alone.
- We build it with you.Our AI build harness and delivery experience turn your knowledge into product.
- We run the operations.Governance, reporting, and the backbone, all handled, so you can lead and sell.
- You stay the lead and the face.It's your market and your company. We're the co-founder behind the build.
For investors
Lower variance, faster to revenue, a wider portfolio on a leaner cost base.
We back experienced operators in markets they understand, then build and run the companies on a pipeline that keeps the cost per company low.
Returns come two ways: from companies we sell, and from cash-generative companies we hold and draw distributions from. That returns capital earlier, rather than only at a distant exit.
Request the deckCompanies we sell
Built to a pipeline that's lower-variance and faster to revenue, then realised at exit.
Companies we hold
Cash-generative businesses we keep and draw distributions from, so capital comes back earlier.
What we look for
The shape of a company we can build.
An expert founder
A subject-matter expert with real, first-hand experience of their market.
A real B2B problem
Something that's manual, slow, or fragmented in the market today.
A warm route in
An existing path to the first customers, on trust that's already there.
An angle that travels
Ideally a community or collective-buying angle that compounds reach.
Team
Operators who have built, sold, and scaled.
Tim Gaunt
Tim founded TSD in 2003 and has spent two decades delivering software for clients across sectors and company sizes. Having launched and exited companies of his own, and helped others do the same, he understands the challenges founders face and brings the scrutiny and insight investors look for.
Gareth Mann
Gareth has spent 20 years building engagement products for investment platforms. A serial founder now on his fifth company, he scaled his last venture to $6M ARR.
Contact
Two readers, one inbox.
Founders
Tell us what you'd build.
Bring us the software that should exist in your market. We'll tell you, plainly, whether we can build it with you.
Tell us what you'd buildInvestors
Request the deck.
If a lower-variance, cash-generative model fits how you invest, we'll send the detail privately.
Request the deckOr email us directly at enquiries@tsd.ai