Painkiller Labs

Industry software, equity partnerships and leadership mandates

We build industry software and work with owners and leadership teams on products, growth and the use of AI.

Platforms Partnerships Mandates

The company

Three ways we work

Each activity has its own commercial model. Our platforms connect them.

Platforms

Industry software
What it is
We invent and build software for industries with specific needs. Our first set of platforms centres on client relationships, each product under its own industry brand.
Who it serves
Businesses whose workflows and client relationships call for a specific product.
Commercial model
Product revenue, services, or outcome-based fees.

Partnerships

Equity partnerships
What it is
We work with owners to grow their businesses and take an equity interest in the outcome.
Who it serves
Owners of small and mid-sized companies.
Commercial model
Equity participation.

Mandates

Leadership mandates
What it is
We work with executive teams and boards on where AI will pay, and how to put those decisions into practice.
Who it serves
Executive teams and boards of larger enterprises.
Commercial model
Retained fees.

How the activities connect

Our platforms are the common thread. We build them in Platforms, bring them into partner companies where client relationships drive growth, and draw on the experience of building them in our work with leadership teams. What we learn in each activity shapes the other two.

Platforms

One shared foundation

One foundation, many brands. Each product is branded for its industry and draws on the same five capabilities.

Behind our platforms are more than thirty years of client relationships. We turn that experience into three disciplines: science-based client feedback, careful capture of market signals, and orchestration that tells a team what to do next.

Delivery
Software
Software with services
Outcomes

Some clients license the product, some take it with our services, and where the business model suits, we deliver an outcome and are paid for the result.

Industry brands
A dynamic branding layer: each product is branded for the industry it serves

Several brands sit on one platform, and each works alongside the systems a business already runs.

Shared platform
  1. Relationship dynamicsTracks the pattern of contact with each client and flags when it changes: longer gaps, fewer replies, a shift in tone.
  2. Opportunity orchestrationProposes the next step for the team to review: who to contact, when, why, and with what message.
  3. Client intelligenceBrings recorded information about each client together and builds on it over time.
  4. Market signalsLearns which messages and contact rhythms a market responds to, across many clients, from research and interviews.
  5. Direct and simulated feedbackCompares what each client actually says and does with what simulations predicted, and uses the difference to improve the next recommendation.
The science of what to say next Calibrated and orchestrated outreach

The platform in practice

From signals to orchestrated action

Three kinds of signal feed one model of each relationship. The platform turns it into a specific next step, and learns from the response.

1 · Signals

Market signalsResearch, a simulated population of clients, and live interviews read for tone, pauses and hesitation.
Relationship signalsContact rhythm, who initiates, response times and the sentiment of correspondence.
Client recordsThe history already held in the systems a business runs today.

2 · Intelligence

Relationship dynamicsWho needs attention, and whether the team is keeping up with each client.
Client intelligenceWhat matters to each client, built up over time.
Message calibrationWhat is likely to land with this client, in what tone, and how often to be in touch.

3 · Orchestration

Opportunity orchestration
  • Who to contact
  • When
  • What to say, and how
  • Through which channel
The team reviews each recommendation before it is sent.

4 · Feedback

Direct and simulated feedback
  • Did the client respond?
  • With what sentiment?
  • Did the relationship strengthen?
  • How did reality compare with the simulation?
Every response and its sentiment refine the models.
Real responses recalibrate the simulated population.

Evidence stays distinct

ObservedContact history, correspondence, interview responses and records held in existing systems.
InferredWhere a relationship stands, and what is likely to help.
TestedWhether the client responds, with what sentiment, and whether the relationship strengthens.
SimulatedA population of simulated clients used to compare messages before sending, and recalibrated against real responses. A simulated response is never treated as a client's.

Working together

Owners and leadership teams

At the outset we agree the problem, what each side contributes, and who is responsible for the work.

Equity partnerships

Many sound businesses reach a point where their systems and processes no longer support the next stage of growth. Software alone rarely changes that.

Our work can cover the product range, brand, intellectual property, manufacturing, distribution and systems, with introductions where they help and our platforms where client relationships drive growth.

We agree the scope and the equity terms with the owner, and share in the outcome. Where succession is part of the picture, the agreement sets out ownership and control.

Leadership mandates

Investment
What should the business fund, change or stop, based on what its AI spending returns?
Revenue
Where can AI grow sales and client relationships, as well as reduce cost?
Competition
Where could someone reinvent part of the business, and should the business do it first?
Implementation
Who owns AI, how is it governed, and how does the organization change around it?

Where the platform began

Our experience spans more than thirty years of client relationships, leading large businesses, and building and using AI systems. During work on a large enterprise CRM deployment, we saw the gap between what the records held about clients and how those relationships were actually changing. We built a listening engine to close that gap. Our platforms carry that work forward.

Start a conversation

A first conversation establishes what the business needs, what is already under way, and where we can contribute.

rh@pklabs.ca

Leadership

Robin HutchinsonExecutive Chair and Founder

Our products and work in progress are at PKLabs.