A proposal for ASICS / May 2026

ASICS × LCA: AI Acceleration for the venture studio.

An embedded partnership to make the ASICS venture studio AI-native. Speed, system, signal. Plus strategy, design, and deck support for the June presentation.

Prepared For
ASICS · The venture team
Engagement
AI Acceleration Partnership
Tentative Start
May 2026
Focus
AI-Native Venture Studio
01|The Opportunity

A new way to go 0-1.

ASICS already has a venture studio. What's changed is the product loop. Prototypes that took six months ship in two weeks. Signal that took a launch reads in a sprint. Distribution rides on AI-mediated discovery.

The venture team can be the north star for ASICS on this — running fast with conviction, using AI to accelerate, turning a small team into a powerhouse of output, outcomes, and acceleration. The June presentation is the moment to plant the flag.

What's missing is the new operating model. Speed: individual leverage and first wins. System: the shared architecture that turns individual gains into team velocity, before acceleration plateaus. Signal: feedback rhythms that close the gap between customer signal, business signal, and team self-signal. Underway today, written down, transferred to the team.

An embedded partnership is the smartest place to start. By the end, the venture studio is well on the path to AI-native, the June presentation is polished and in the team's hands, and the November story is already taking shape.

02|The Engagement

Speed, system, signal. Plus the June presentation.

A senior LCA operator embeds with the venture team. We run it with you, not for you. By the end, the team has the leverage to operate at an AI clip, the product loop is taking shape, and the June presentation lands.

The four pieces fit together. Speed installs individual leverage and first wins. System layers in shared architecture, before acceleration plateaus. Signal sets up the feedback rhythms that close the gap between customer, business, and team self-signal. The June presentation arms the team to land the story across the org. Hand it off and the studio is set up to compound without us.

Four areas of focus on the path to a venture studio for the AI age
01
Speed.

Individual leverage with AI, and the first wins that come with it. Skills, skill chains, what good looks like, where to start. By end of the first phase, the way each person on the team works has visibly started to change. The shape of an AI-native venture operator, in practice.

02
System.

A shared architecture, before individual acceleration plateaus. The team's individual systems get architected — capturing context, ingesting key details, data, and goals from ASICS and the org. Foundations laid for a starting central brain, agent harness library, governance and security from day one, and an operating model that's AI-native by default. The team has the foundations to stop operating as individuals using AI and start operating as an AI-native venture studio.

03
Signal.

Feedback rhythms that close the gap between customer signal, business signal, and team self-signal. The loop turns rapid prototypes and real-user tests into product direction, with foundations for a labs ecosystem so the venture studio is set up to step into its future-facing role. Loops underway, in starting form, by the time we hand off.

04
The June presentation.

Strategy, design, and deck for the internal teaser — what the venture studio is becoming, what the org is going to see in November, why it matters. Polished and ready, in the team's hands, so they're well-prepared to communicate it.

03|The Plan

Speed, system, signal. Three phases.

Individual leverage with AI, and the first wins that come with it. We meet the team where they are. Audit how venture work happens today, the friction, the comfort levels, the wins to chase first. Run a custom workshop that anchors what good looks like for an AI-native venture operator — skills, skill chains, where to start. Strategy, design, and deck for the June presentation lock during this phase, in the team's hands by month-end.

OutputStudio auditFoundational AI roadmapDefinition of "good"Custom team workshopJune presentation deck

A shared architecture, before individual acceleration plateaus. We architect the team's individual systems — capturing context, ingesting key details and data from ASICS and the org so context is preserved. Foundations laid for a starting central brain, agent harness library, governance and security from day one, and an operating model that's AI-native by default. The team has the foundations to stop operating as individuals using AI and start operating as an AI-native venture studio.

OutputFoundations for the central brainAgent libraryOperating playbookGovernance and security

Feedback rhythms that close the gap between customer signal, business signal, and team self-signal. The loop turns rapid prototypes and real-user tests into product direction, with foundations for a labs ecosystem so the venture studio is set up to step into its future-facing role. We run the loop on real venture work, hand off the rhythms, document what's working, and plan the November rollout. Ninety days sets a foundation, not a finished system.

OutputSignal loop foundationLabs ecosystem foundationMeasurement scaffoldOperating rhythmHandoff toolkitNovember rollout plan

In the 60-day version, System and Signal compress into a tighter sequence — the central brain and signal loop in starting form by handoff, rather than fully laid foundations.

04|The Team

A senior operator embedded. Plus support across the firm.

  • AI Strategist & OperatorEmbedded
    Runs the engagement day to day. Speed, system, signal. Hands on the keyboard with the team.
  • DesignSupport
    The June presentation deck. The illustrated picture of an AI-native venture studio. Interface design for any in-engagement prototypes.
  • Head of AI & Product StrategySupport
    Operating model, milestones, direction.
  • Co-FounderSupport
    Executive sponsorship, strategy, stakeholder alignment.
  • AI EngineeringSupport
    Central brain architecture, agent harness, security posture.
05|The Investment

AI Acceleration Partnership.

One senior operator embedded with the team — speed, system, signal. The June presentation ready, the studio well on its path.

Two ways in:

60-day engagement
$43,750/ month

Speed phase anchored, system foundations laid. June presentation strategy, design, and deck delivered, core rhythms transferred.

90-day engagement
$35,000/ month

Further all across the board: stronger individual AI leverage, deeper system architecture with pipes into the ASICS ecosystem, signal loop more comprehensive, labs page in starting form, prototypes co-created with the team.

Includes (both):
  • 1 embedded AI Strategist & Operator
  • AI-native venture studio operating model, defined and documented
  • Custom team workshop
  • Speed, System, Signal tracks
  • June presentation strategy, design, and deck — delivered to the team
  • Senior support across strategy, product, design, engineering
  • Handoff toolkit and operating playbook

Tentative start May 2026. Start date subject to continued conversations between ASICS and LCA.

What this sets up: by end of engagement, the venture studio is well on the path to AI-native and the June presentation is in the team's hands. From there, the next phase is a scoped conversation about which parts of the loop to keep building with us, and which the team carries.

06|Why LCA

The Design Firm for the AI Age.

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01

Focused Acceleration.

We're not here to rewire ASICS. We're here to accelerate the team in front of us and leave them set up to run faster.

02

AI-native by default.

We wrote the AX book, the Agentic Design Field Guide, and recently taught the webinar this proposal builds on. We build AI-native products every day. We know what's hype and what's real.

03

Built for venture teams.

Late Checkout was itself a holding company and studio — we've lived 0-to-1, going to market, and getting signal as operators. Everything we bring is in service of installing speed and tightening the loop.

04

Done-with-you, not for you.

We pair on real work, embed into your rhythms, and your people own every artifact we co-create.

05

Change management as craft.

Psychological safety is a real feature of how we work. We move at the pace that gives change a chance to stick, and meet you where you are.

06

Consumer-grade by default.

Whether the work is internal tools or consumer-facing ventures, we bring the same care, craft, and bar. Adoption is the metric we hold ourselves to.

Let's rock.

Any questions, ping me directly. WhatsApp or iMessage, whatever's fastest.

/ Theo