§ 01 — ONE QUESTION

“Which AI tools are actually making you money?”

Most mid-market teams can't answer in under a minute.

The cost of that uncertainty: between $80,000 and $600,000+ in trapped profit this year — lost revenue and bloated tool spend combined.

We're the AI-native consulting firm that answers this question — with the depth of a Big Four audit and the speed of a two-week sprint.

Fourteen days. One report.
Three precise answers.

advised by senior consulting insider·built by banker-operator·outcome-measured, not hour-billed
tessera · audit engine · live
live audit engine · synthesizes reports in under 30 seconds
§ 02 — THE MATH

Three of forty-seven
drive the profit.

The question isn't whether you need AI. It's which three. We identify them — where revenue is leaking and where spend is bloated — backed by data, not opinion.

A full business audit — sales funnel, ops leverage, cost structure, process gaps, then the AI moves that compound the upside.

47tools
average AI stack in a mid-market business in 2026
3of 47
drive 91% of the profit impact — the other 44 are overhead
$186k/year
average profit lift — combined revenue growth and cost optimization
return
median profit return on our paid engagements (n=127, Q1 2026)
SOURCE — Tessera AI research · Q1 2026 · n=127
§ 03 — GREENFIELD

Haven't started
with AI yet?
That's a window, not a gap.

58% of mid-market businesses в 2026 still run zero purposeful AI. The ones who start this year are quietly compounding — capturing market share from competitors drowning in tool chaos.

The adoption window is 18–24 months wide, and narrowing as models drop in price and compound in capability.

We don't just audit existing stacks.
We also build from zero.

Identify the three right moves for your specific business. Deploy them. Measure profit impact from month one.

MARKET SIGNAL · Q1 2026
58% of mid-market

still runs zero purposeful AI. Largest untapped segment of the 2026 economy.

ADOPTION WINDOW
18–24months

before the advantage closes. Each quarter of delay widens the competitor gap.

FIRST-MOVER LIFT
2.8×revenue growth

typical for greenfield adopters vs. reactive laggards, 12-month trailing.

SOURCE — Tessera AI research + cross-industry benchmarks · Q1 2026
§ 04 — THE REPORT

What you actually
receive.

No slide decks. No 40-page PowerPoints nobody reads. One dense, precise document — every finding traceable, every tool specifically named, every profit projection defensible.

Retainer clients get this refreshed every month, with implementation support alongside.

1-page density·citation-traceable·numbers, not adjectives
tesseraai.io / reports / q1-2026-fintech
PREVIEW
TEARDOWN · MID-MARKET SAAS · Q1 2026
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1. 23% of trial users never reach first value event. Segment benchmark: 6–9%.

2. CAC running 140% above segment median — paid spend on misaligned ICP.

3. Three best-fit AI tools unused in stack despite vendor contracts in place.

THE GAP

Onboarding friction is absorbing revenue you have already paid to acquire.

Trial → paid conversion sits at 4.1%. Segment median: 8–11%. Gap represents ~$148k in recoverable annual revenue at current traffic.

THE THREE MOVES

pendo.io — behavioral upgrade prompts tied to usage milestones

mutiny.com — AI-personalized pricing page per firmographic segment

clay.com — enriched PQL scoring for sales handoff prioritization

PROJECTED 12-MONTH PROFIT IMPACT
+$186,000
combined revenue lift + cost optimization · 8.4× engagement fee
AUTO-SCROLL · HOVER TO PAUSE
anonymized fintech client·q1 2026·auto-scrolling preview — hover to pause
§ 05 — METHOD

A fourteen-day audit.
Then a compounding partnership.

Depth of a Big Four engagement. Speed of AI-native synthesis. The work a traditional firm takes three months and $100k to do — we do in two weeks for a fraction of the cost.

THE FOURTEEN-DAY AUDIT
01
days 1–7

Diagnose

We go deep. Not a website scrape — a full business audit.

  • ·Full metrics access — analytics, CRM, financials, ops stack
  • ·Stakeholder interviews — founder, CFO, CMO, CTO
  • ·Process mapping of 2-3 highest-revenue workflows
  • ·Competitive positioning study
02
days 7–11

Synthesize

AI-native analysis. Every finding traceable.

  • ·30+ findings across five business dimensions
  • ·Each tagged: revenue-leak, cost-bloat, process-drag, AI-leverage
  • ·Ranked by dollar impact × implementation effort
  • ·AI moves surfaced where they unlock 5×+ return
03
days 11–14

Recommend

Three priority moves. Defensible projections.

  • ·Three moves — AI, process, or structural — delivered
  • ·Implementation roadmap with owners and timelines
  • ·12-month profit projection, backed by data
  • ·Live presentation, not a PDF you never open
→ THEN · THE COMPOUNDING PHASE

Retainer continues where the audit ends.

Monthly optimization cycles · install support · month-over-month profit tracking · stack re-tuning · async advisor access. The audit finds the moves — the retainer compounds them into durable advantage.

§ 06 — CASE STUDY

A real teardown,
one dense page.

Three precise moves. One concrete profit projection. Every number traceable. Retainer clients receive this refreshed monthly.

ANONYMIZED · Q1 2026
TEARDOWN · MID-MARKET FINTECH SAAS

$212,000/year in unlocked profit
via three precise AI moves.

REVENUE LEAK
23% of trial users never hit first value event. Segment benchmark: 6–9%. Gap absorbs ~$148k in conversions already paid to acquire.
COST BLOAT
Four AI tools contracted, two actively used. Redundant vendor lock on $64k/year that delivers nothing measurable — consolidation frees the budget.
THE THREE MOVES
pendo.io · mutiny.com · clay.com (consolidating redundant vendors)
PROJECTED 12-MONTH PROFIT IMPACT
+$212,000 revenue + savings · 8.2× engagement fee
§ 07 — ENGAGEMENT

Every tier pays
for itself many times over.

Transparent pricing, anchored to outcomes. If retainer clients don't hit their Q1 profit target, we refund 50%. No hidden “contact sales” vacuum. No hourly billing surprises.

TIER 01

Teardown

Free
Public data · 30 minutes
PROFIT IMPACT
Surface $40–150k trapped profit
  • ·Automated one-page audit
  • ·One revenue leak uncovered
  • ·Three tool recommendations
Show me my three
TIER 02

Deep Audit

$800–2,500
Two-week engagement
PROFIT IMPACT
Map $80–300k combined profit lift
  • ·Full access to your metrics
  • ·30+ prioritized recommendations
  • ·Revenue + cost impact per move
  • ·Implementation roadmap
Book a consultation
★ RECOMMENDED

Retainer

$1,500–5,000
Per month · compounding
PROFIT IMPACT
8× median profit return, year one
  • ·Everything in Deep Audit
  • ·Monthly profit tracking
  • ·Install support
  • ·Stack re-tuning
  • ·Async advisor access
Schedule a call
TIER 04 · BESPOKE

Fractional AI Officer

Embedded advisor. Strategic AI decisions. On-call for leadership. Custom scope, priced $12,000–30,000/month. Typical engagement drives $300k–1.5M combined profit impact in year one.

Discuss scope
§ 08 — THE FIRM

An AI-native consultancy,
not another McKinsey slide deck.

New category. AI used as leverage, not as topic. The legacy firms sell you hours; we sell you outcomes — measured monthly, refunded if missed.

EP
TESSERA · FOUNDER2026
FOUNDER

Eugene Panin

BANKER · TRADER · OPERATOR

A decade inside banking and trading — board-level comfort, unit-economics rigor, P&L obsession. Built and operated multiple SaaS products from zero to real revenue. Hands-on with product shipping, hiring, and sales — not advising from the sidelines.

Tessera is the firm he wished existed when he was scaling his own companies: comprehensive business analysis, AI-native speed, priced for founders who can't afford a three-month Big Four engagement.

§ 09 — FAQ

What founders ask
before signing.

How is this different from McKinsey, Bain, or Deloitte?

+

Three ways. One — we're AI-native: we use AI internally to synthesize analyses the legacy firms do manually, so a $100k engagement becomes a $2,500 engagement. Two — we're vendor-neutral: zero affiliate revenue, so recommendations align with your interests, not our kickbacks. Three — we price on outcome, not hours: retainer clients who miss Q1 profit targets get 50% refunded. Legacy consulting cannot offer any of these guarantees structurally.

Do you take kickbacks from the tools you recommend?

+

No. Zero affiliate revenue. Ever. Client fees are our only income. It is the single reason our recommendations can be trusted — and the reason we can name which three tools actually move the needle, rather than whichever vendor pays most.

What profit impact should I realistically expect?

+

Median across our first 127 engagements: 8× fees returned in year one through combined revenue growth and cost savings. Bottom quartile: 3×. Top quartile: 20×+. Figures depend on your current AI stack maturity and process hygiene — the messier it is, the more profit is sitting unclaimed.

What does a Deep Audit actually include?

+

Full metrics access (analytics, CRM, financials, ops stack), 2–3 stakeholder interviews, process mapping of your highest-revenue workflows, competitive positioning study, and a 30+ findings document — each tagged as revenue-leak, cost-bloat, process-drag, or AI-leverage, ranked by dollar impact × implementation effort. Delivered as a live presentation, not a PDF nobody opens.

How do you measure profit impact?

+

Pre-engagement benchmarks captured — both revenue KPIs and tool spend baseline. Month-over-month tracking of both. Written expected outcomes per recommendation. If retainer clients miss their Q1 profit target, we refund 50% — no questions.

What if my industry is too niche?

+

The analysis layer is industry-agnostic. Recommendations become vertical-specific during the engagement based on your actual metrics and buyer patterns. Our framework has held across SaaS, fintech, ecom, agencies, manufacturing, and professional services.

Can I see a sample audit first?

+

Yes. Request a free teardown above — automated, public data only, delivered in 30 minutes. Signal check, not the full product. The Deep Audit is an order of magnitude deeper, with full metric access and team interviews.

Do you store or resell our data?

+

No. Audit data is NDA-protected, encrypted at rest, and deleted on engagement close unless you opt in to retainer data retention.

§ 10 — FIRST STEP

Three of your AI tools are making you money. The other forty-four are overhead.

Drop your company URL. We produce a one-page profit map — where revenue is leaking, where cost is bloated, and which three AI moves close the gap — delivered in 30 minutes.

ONE-PAGE AUDIT · 30 MINUTE DELIVERY · ZERO SPAM

NO SPAM · NDA-PROTECTED DATA·OR DOWNLOAD SAMPLE PDF·OR BOOK A CALL