Applied Intelligencefor growing companies

Intelligence built into the operations, teams, and products that drive your revenue.

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We’ve been building at the frontier of each major technology shift since 2006, from web to mobile, and now AI. Partnering with leaders to design, build, and operate technology that powers their business.

Our impact

In production

See customer stories

Teams across industries — from startups to enterprises — are building intelligence into their products and core operations.

“Substantial have set the standard very high for themselves, for us, and for future hires that join our team. They are the benchmark against which we will measure future performance.”
Soc Rosenfeld
Co-founder & CEO, Jane Technologies

What we do

Beyond efficiency.

Build capabilities.

We work with companies to build fundamentally different ways of working. Capabilities your team could not access before, built into how your company operates.

Find where AI creates real advantage in your business.

In two to four weeks, our team embeds with yours to map how your business actually operates — then shows you what it looks like when intelligence is built in. You leave with a clear plan your leadership is ready to act on.

Outcomes

Clarity on where AI will have the most impact in your business

Your leadership aligned, with a clear mandate to move

Confidence in what to build first, grounded in how your business actually works

The same team and the same context carry straight into building

Learn more about Strategy Sprints

Get new tools running across your workflows and teams.

Working software in four weeks — built against your real workflows, with your real data, measured by whether people actually use it. Each sprint ships something your team can put to work immediately.

Outcomes

Your team using new tools within weeks

People actually adopt what gets built — because it fits how they work

Proof that the approach works before you commit further

Each sprint makes your company capable of more than the last

Learn more about Build Sprints

Give your people capabilities that change how they compete.

Third-party tools, off-the-shelf software, and custom systems — integrated deeply into how your teams already work. The result: lean teams with formidable capabilities that change how your business can run.

Outcomes

Small teams outperforming much larger ones

Your people doing work that wasn't possible before

New hires reaching full capability in weeks instead of months

Every deployment making the next one more powerful

Learn more about Deploy

Your systems keep getting smarter.

Once your systems are running, we stay to make sure they keep improving. We govern performance, run evaluations, fold in new model capabilities as they emerge, and continuously build out what your organisation can do.

Outcomes

Systems that get smarter and more trustworthy over time

Your organisation doing things it could not do six months ago

Teams focused on their highest-value work

A compounding advantage that deepens the longer it runs

Learn more about Operate

Stay ahead as the technology keeps moving.

A fractional technology partner embedded with your leadership — helping you adopt the right technology at the right cadence, build the right competencies, and make confident decisions in a landscape that changes every quarter.

Outcomes

Your business adopting the right technology at the right time

Teams building the competencies that actually matter

Confident, well-timed decisions in a landscape that shifts every quarter

A technology partner who knows your business from the inside

Learn more about Strategy Advisory

Builders who embed. We build with you — same room, same sprint, same problem. Strategy and execution happen together.

Quick wins fund bigger wins. Start small, prove value, compound. Each sprint produces evidence for the next decision.

Working systems, lasting capability. We transfer knowledge, train your people, and leave systems that keep getting smarter after we're gone.

Perspectives

How we think about building with intelligence.

Read our perspectives

About

Two decades building what's next.

We believe technology can make people capable of more than they thought possible. We've worked with teams at companies both big and small, and we've seen what happens when technology is designed with the right intentions — it creates new kinds of possibilities. Possibilities that allow people to build a better world for themselves and others.

AI enables this now more than ever, and we continue to be deeply invested in the outcomes of the organisations we partner with. Celebrating human potential, and building software that improves teams, businesses, and products.

See our careers

2006Founded in Seattle
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Substantial starts as a product studio, building software for startups and enterprises at the dawn of the cloud era.
2008First enterprise client
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Began partnering with Fortune 500 companies to build custom software platforms.
2010Mobile revolution
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Early investment in native mobile development. Built some of the first enterprise iOS and Android applications.
2014Cloud-native practice
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Launched dedicated cloud infrastructure practice. Helped companies migrate from on-prem to AWS and GCP before it was standard.
201610 years building
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A decade of shipping products. Over 200 engagements across healthcare, finance, retail, and technology.
2018Machine learning practice
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Started integrating ML into client products — recommendation engines, forecasting systems, natural language processing.
2020Remote-first
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Transitioned to distributed work. Proved that deep, embedded partnerships don't require shared office space.
2022The inflection
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Large language models went from research to reality. We saw immediately what it would mean for the companies we work with — and started building toward it.
2024First AI deployments
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Early partnerships deploying AI into real business operations. Working alongside select companies to learn what actually works when intelligence meets institutional complexity.
202620 years. Just getting started.
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Everything we've learned — about teams, systems, and what makes technology stick — now applied to the most important shift in a generation. Substantial becomes an applied intelligence partner.

Headquartered in Seattle. Working worldwide.

“Substantial quickly grasped how to translate our requirements into an executable, achievable, cost-efficient plan.”
CTO, Bluescape

Applied Intelligencefor growing companies

In production

Beyond efficiency.

Two decades building what's next.

20 years building what's next.