We didn't discover this problem. We lived it.
Steerco was built by operators who'd spent a decade buried under the same broken cycle: manual data gathering, slide-by-slide rebuilds, board meetings where nobody could trace a single number back to its source. We left to fix it. Then enterprises asked us to fix it for them, too.
The Traceable AI problem.
Before Steerco, we were the people building board decks at 11 PM. Pulling numbers out of CRM, finance systems, and product analytics, then manually copying them into slides. Re-doing the work every quarter. Hoping nobody asked where the data came from — because we couldn't always prove it.
AI was supposed to fix this. Instead, generic chatbots produced confident decks with numbers nobody could verify, tables that were stacks of shapes, and citations that didn't exist. The output looked fast. The audit trail was nowhere. So we left our corporate jobs and built the thing we wished existed: a Traceable AI platform that turns live data into auditable, executive-ready communications — every insight cited, every output explainable.
Then enterprises asked us a bigger question.
While we were building Steerco, the same conversation kept happening. Customers would say: "This solves our presentation problem. But our real problem is bigger — how do we actually roll out measurable AI across the whole function? Marketing, finance, ops, CS. Without ending up with a dozen pilots and zero ROI."
That's how Practical AI was born. Same operators. Same engineering DNA. Applied to the function-by-function rollout problem most companies can't solve on their own. We audit the function, design the AI-native workflow, and ship the agent that does the work — measured, governed, and live. Custom built across GTM, Marketing, Ops, Finance, R&D, and CS.
See the Practical AI servicesWe Didn't Discover This Problem. We Lived It.
Three operators who've sat in your seat — running portfolios, fielding 11 PM board prep, building production AI before "AI-native" was a LinkedIn bio.
Zach Hawley
CEO & Founder
14 years in enterprise SaaS. Ran a $200M+ portfolio at Workiva. Has been building production AI products since GPT-3.5 — long before "AI-native" was a LinkedIn bio. Knows the difference between a demo that wins a meeting and a system that survives a board review.
Nate Tucker
Head of Product & CS · Co-Founder
The operator AI was supposed to replace. Lived the manual prep cycle across hundreds of accounts, then rebuilt it. Has a sharp instinct for what AI can actually ship — and a low tolerance for the rest.
Grant Borgognoni
Founding Engineer · Co-Founder
Valedictorian. Top 10 worldwide in Call of Duty. Builds full-stack AI for big-data enterprises. Architected the multi-agent system that makes Steerco hold up where single-prompt tools fall apart.
Operators on both sides of the table.
If your team is buried in the same cycle we were — or your board is asking what's actually live — let's talk.