Autonomous business is already underway. Most founders can't explain it yet.
I work with early-stage founders building in the autonomous business space. I help them develop the analytical framing, positioning, and buyer narrative that turns a hard-to-explain product into a category buyers recognize.
How I Can Help
One primary engagement. Structured, independent, founder-facing.
Independent. Research-grounded.
Autonomous business is an emerging area that no major analyst firm has a competitive product for yet. The work here draws on years of published research into how buyers actually evaluate technology, the rise of machine customers, and AI-agent-intermediated buying. Founders get an independent analytical voice that has studied this longer than most of the people they're trying to sell to.
"You don't generate demand. You enable outcomes."
Ready for a clearer read on what you're building?
Engagements start with a 30-minute conversation. No pitch, no obligation. Just a direct read on where you stand and whether working together makes sense.
Book a Free 30-Minute CallI help founders frame what they're building before their buyers have language for it.
For most of my career, I studied how organizations buy technology, not how vendors sell it. That distinction matters. It's the difference between describing a product and explaining a category buyers don't yet recognize.
The research path
I spent years as a research analyst publishing original work on technology buying behavior, B2B buyer segmentation, CFO buying dynamics, commercial model design, and the structural reasons most software purchases end in regret.
That research took me deeper into the actual buying journey: the misaligned teams, the chaotic evaluation processes, the long cycles that still produce dissatisfied customers. Over time, my work expanded into the forces reshaping those dynamics. AI-mediated discovery. Agent-driven purchasing. Autonomous business models. The rise of machine customers as a new class of economic actor.
My published work includes research on autonomous business as a necessary strategy for the next decade, the prediction that the majority of B2B buying will be AI-agent-intermediated within a few years, and the shift vendors must make from optimizing for human persuasion to enabling autonomous interaction with machine buyers.
The operating layer
Alongside that research background, I've operated inside an early-stage software business, building product, reaching buyers, and converting interest into revenue. Research tells you what should work. Operating experience tells you what does.
The practice
Today I work with early-stage founders building products in the autonomous business space. Not enterprise. Not growth-stage. Founders who are ahead of the market and need an independent analytical voice to help them frame and communicate what they're building.
The work is narrow and specific. Category framing for products that don't fit an existing one. Positioning hypotheses grounded in how buyers actually make sense of new technology. Buyer narrative structured so someone who hasn't heard the term “autonomous business” can still understand what the product does and why it matters now. It's inbound-only, founder-facing, and scoped to companies that large analyst firms don't serve.
What I believe
- Most positioning problems are category problems in disguise.
- Founders building ahead of the market need framing before they need tactics.
- Independent analysis is more useful than advice from people who are also trying to sell you something.
- Buyer narrative earns its keep when it works on a person who has never heard the category name.
- The companies that define the next decade will figure out how to sell to machines as well as humans.
Working with founders across North America. Remote-first.
One engagement. Structured around a specific outcome.
The Autonomous Business Readiness Brief is the primary way I work with founders. It's scoped, fixed-fee, and built around a single deliverable: a clear, defensible answer to the question “what are you, who is it for, and why does it matter now.”
Autonomous Business Readiness Brief
A structured diagnostic for founders and early-stage teams who are building in the autonomous business space and need independent analytical framing for their category, positioning, and buyer narrative. Delivered as a written brief with a follow-up working session. Outcome: a clear, defensible answer to the question “what are you, who is it for, and why does it matter now.”
- Category framing: where your product sits in the autonomous business landscape.
- ICP and buyer persona definition using the Enterprise Persona framework.
- Positioning hypothesis: what you are, for whom, and why the timing is now.
- Buyer narrative structure: how to explain this to a human who hasn't heard of autonomous business.
- Top 3 priority actions with rationale.
Pricing: Fixed fee. Scoped in our first conversation.
Book a call to discuss →Let's talk.
The fastest way to figure out whether working together makes sense is a direct conversation. Book a 30-minute call below. No pitch, no pressure. Just an honest read on where you stand and whether there's a fit.
Book a 30-Minute CallPrefer email? Reach out at garrett.astler@clearlykept.com. Expect a response within 1 business day.
Based in Charlotte, NC. Working with clients across North America. Remote-first.