Operations design · SMB verticals

AI Automation Company — Operating Model

Design and delivery system for underserved SMB industries — starting with Construction & Trades and Property Management. Generate consulting revenue, discover repeatable automation patterns, and convert winners into SaaS — with governance traceability at every deployment.

Contact operations Request Governance Brief Copilot governance (shipped)

Scope (locked). Contract offerings today remain Trust Brief, Copilot Governance Pack, and Bank Pilot. This page is the services & platform discovery operating model — not a public SKU list until founder sign-off. TrustField Technologies is a separate company; Phase 8 describes its governance role for automation engagements, not Noetfield Copilot product scope.

Phase 1 — Market

Mission: validate revenue paths in Vancouver + remote SMB verticals before product build.

TAM (North America SMB ops automation)

Segment	Est. addressable firms	ACV potential	Entry wedge
Construction & trades (5–50 FTE)	~450k firms	$15k–$80k/yr services → $3k–$12k SaaS	Job costing, scheduling, invoice chase
Property management (residential)	~280k operators	$12k–$60k/yr	Tenant comms, maintenance triage, lease docs
Remote professional services	Global	$8k–$40k/yr	Back-office workflow packs

Vancouver market (90-day focus)

Signal	Data point	Implication
Construction permits (Metro Van)	High renovation / infill activity	Trades need dispatch + client update automation
Rental pressure	Tight inventory, high tenant churn cost	PM firms need faster maintenance routing
Labor cost	Admin burden on owners	AI ops audit ROI is 2–4× in year one

ICP & buyer personas

Persona	Title	Buying trigger	Objection
Owner-operator	GM / Owner	Missed invoices, schedule chaos	"We tried Zapier, it broke"
Ops lead	Office manager	50+ hrs/mo manual data entry	Security & data residency
Portfolio PM	Director of ops	SLA breaches, vendor coordination	Integration with Yardi/AppFolio

Pain-point matrix

Pain	Construction	Property mgmt	Automation pattern
Quote → job → invoice gap	High	Medium	CRM + accounting sync agent
After-hours tenant requests	Low	High	Triage + vendor dispatch
Document version chaos	High	High	RAG + approval gate
Compliance evidence	Medium	High	Decision log + export pack

50discovery calls / quarter

8paid audits / quarter

25%audit → implementation

Phase 2 — Offer design

Offer	Price	Scope (2–4 wk)	Deliverables	Target margin
AI Operations Audit	$4,500–$8,500	Workflow map, tool stack, AI readiness, ROI model	Audit report, opportunity backlog (scored), 90-day roadmap	55–65%
Automation Factory	$12k–$35k fixed	3–6 workflows automated end-to-end	Deployed agents, runbooks, monitoring, handoff training	40–50%
Managed AI Operations	$2.5k–$8k/mo	Monitor, tune, incident response, monthly ROI report	SLA dashboard, change log, quarterly optimization sprint	50–60% at scale

Onboarding (all offers)

Intake + data-access checklist (metadata-first)
Evidence & retention agreement signed
Baseline workflow capture (shadow week)
Kickoff with RACI + success metrics
Weekly steering + decision log export

Phase 3 — Product discovery

Every engagement feeds a workflow intelligence database — the factory for SaaS ideas.

Deployment tracking system

Field	Type	Use
deployment_id	UUID	Cross-offer traceability
vertical	enum	construction \| property_mgmt \| other
workflow_pattern	string	Normalize for SaaS candidacy
time_saved_hrs_mo	decimal	ROI proof
revenue_impact_usd	decimal	Churn/recovery/collections
automation_frequency	int	Runs per week
implementation_complexity	1–5	Engineering cost
vertical_applicability	1–5	Repeatability score

Opportunity scoring framework

score = (time_saved × 0.3) + (revenue_impact × 0.3) + (frequency × 0.15) + (vertical_fit × 0.15) − (complexity × 0.1) — promote to SaaS when score ≥ 70 across 3+ deployments.

Phase 4 — Software roadmap

MVP concept	Priority	Moat	Monetization
FieldOps Copilot — job + invoice agent for trades	P0	Vertical templates + QuickBooks bridge	$299–$799/mo per crew
TenantFlow — maintenance triage for PM	P0	SLA playbooks + vendor graph	$199–$599/mo per portfolio
Pattern Library — reusable automation modules	P1	Discovery data flywheel	Upsell from services

Milestones (12 months)

M0–3: 10 audits, 4 factory builds, intelligence DB live
M4–6: MVP private beta (1 vertical)
M7–9: Self-serve onboarding + billing
M10–12: Second vertical + partner channel

Phase 5 — Technical stack

Layer	Design	Stack direction
Multi-tenant	Org → workspace → deployment; row-level isolation	Postgres + tenant_id; align with governance-console patterns
Workflow engine	DAG steps, human gates, retries	Extend Noetfield workflow JSON + event bus
AI agent framework	Tool policies, shadow mode, rate limits	Agent run guard + RID decision logs
Vector search	Per-tenant embeddings, doc boundaries	pgvector or managed retrieval
Integrations	CRM, accounting, comms	HubSpot/Pipedrive · QBO/Xero · email/SMS/Slack

Phase 6 — Sales engine

Channel	Tactic	KPI (90d)
Outbound email	Vertical-specific 3-touch: pain → audit offer → case stub	8% reply, 2% meeting
LinkedIn	Owner-operator content + DM after engagement	200 ICP connects/mo
Referral	15% fee on first audit for trades associations	3 referrals/qtr
Partnership	Bookkeepers, MSPs, PM software consultants	2 co-sell pilots
Vancouver local	Chamber, trade associations, property mgmt meetups	4 events/qtr

Phase 7 — Delivery engine

SOP	Stages	Output
Project lifecycle	Discover → Design → Build → Verify → Handoff → Operate	Signed acceptance + runbook
Onboarding	Access, baseline, RACI, success metrics	Intake pack complete ≤ 5 days
Deployment	Staging → shadow → limited prod → full	Rollback plan + monitoring
Support	L1 client / L2 ops / L3 engineering	4h critical / 24h standard SLA
Reporting	Weekly ops + monthly ROI	Time saved, $ impact, incidents

Staffing (year 1)

Role	FTE	When
Founder / solutions architect	1	Day 0
Automation engineer	1	Month 2
Delivery / CS lead	0.5→1	Month 4
SDR (Vancouver + remote)	0.5	Month 3

Financial projection (conservative year 1)

Quarter	Revenue	COGS	Notes
Q1	$35k	$14k	Audits + 1 factory
Q2	$75k	$30k	2 factory + 1 managed
Q3	$110k	$44k	Managed expansion
Q4	$140k	$56k	MVP beta attach

Phase 8 — TrustField governance layer

Separate entity. TrustField Technologies provides audit, governance, and compliance framing for automation deployments. Noetfield ships Copilot governance & Trust Ledger evidence (TLE) in this repo — not TrustField product code.

Layer	Function	Artifact
Audit	Immutable record of what ran, when, with what data scope	Decision log + export slice
Governance	Policy gates before external execution	Allow/deny + human override
Decision logs	RID-threaded approvals per workflow change	TLE-aligned entries
Execution traceability	Agent tool calls, retries, failures	Event replay + procurement pack
Compliance framework	Map controls to ISO 42001 / NIST AI RMF language	Trust Brief → shadow pilot evidence

Risks & mitigations

Risk	Mitigation
Scope creep into payments/custody	PRODUCT_TRUTH gate on every feature
Over-promising AI autonomy	Shadow mode + human-in-the-loop default
Vertical churn	Intelligence DB scores repeatability before build
Brand confusion (Noetfield vs TrustField)	Separate domains, contracts, and buyer copy

Execution checklist — next 30 days

Publish audit one-pager + Calendly for Vancouver ICP
Stand up deployment tracking sheet (Phase 3 fields)
Run 10 discovery calls (construction + PM split)
Close 2 paid AI Operations Audits
Document first factory workflow as pattern candidate
Align governance narrative with Trust Ledger samples for diligence buyers