HIA / BUILD + SOLVE TOGETHER ONE WORKFLOW AT A TIME
One problem. Built together.
Your insight and skills. Our technical foundation.
Bring a customer problem, domain experience, or useful skills. Build and validate one repeatable workflow with us, using the HireTenure and Virideon technical foundation.
Business and product owners, hands-on contributors, and early-career problem solvers are welcome. Join Discord to explore a pilot, a commercial partnership, or a role helping with customer research, building, testing, and adoption.
Useful AI begins with a real problem. Concept diagrams, not product demonstrations.
01 / WHO WE WANT TO MEET
Bring your skills. Work on a real need.
You may run a business, own a product, or want to help solve a practical customer problem. Technical, marketing, operations, design, research, and domain skills all have a place. Early-career people with useful skills and initiative are welcome.
Business owners and partners help us understand the workflow and reach real users. Contributors help investigate, build, test, communicate, and support adoption. HIA brings product, engineering, and AI execution using the existing HireTenure and Virideon foundation.
You do not need to own a business, bring existing customers, or hold a senior title to join Discord. Project roles, scope, access, and commercial arrangements are discussed before work begins.
02 / WORK TOGETHERCUSTOMER KNOWLEDGE + TECHNICAL EXECUTION
Three ways to take part.
Bring a problem. Bring useful skills.
Project work starts with a specific customer problem and a bounded test. We check the tools, information, human handoffs, and measures of success before expanding.
CUSTOMERS + COMMERCIAL PARTNERS
Know the need.
Customer pilot. Explore a paid pilot for one workflow in your business. Bring the current process, the person responsible, and examples of what gets delayed or lost. We agree scope, responsibilities, and commercial terms before work begins.
Commercial partner. Bring domain knowledge, customer relationships, and a route to adoption. You own customer discovery, onboarding, and account follow-through; HIA brings technical execution. Together, test whether a useful solution can become a repeatable offer.
CONTRIBUTORS + COLLABORATORS
Help make it useful.
Bring technical, marketing, operations, design, research, or domain skills. Help investigate customer needs, build and test a workflow, explain its value, or support adoption.
Introduce what you can contribute on Discord, with an example from study, projects, or work. Early-career contributors are welcome. Roles, scope, and any commercial arrangements are discussed before project work begins.
Joining Discord starts a conversation. Project scope, technical fit, delivery responsibilities, capacity, and financial terms are discussed before commitment. Founder in Residence is a separate program below.
03 / ONE WORKFLOW FIRSTINQUIRY / NEXT STEP / FOLLOW-THROUGH
Start small. Learn from use.
Follow one customer request from arrival to a useful next step. Test the routine work and make human decisions and handoffs explicit.
01Map
Pick one loop
Understand where inquiries stall, which details matter, and who owns the next step. Talk with the people doing the work.
02Scope
Agree a bounded test
Confirm the tools, information, permissions, human approvals, and a practical success measure. Integration fit is checked case by case.
03Test
Build and observe
Try the agreed workflow with the people who use it. Review accuracy, handoffs, follow-through, and delivery costs.
04Decide
Choose what comes next
Review evidence together and choose to continue, revise, or stop before extending the scope.
Start from the existing HireTenure and Virideon Tenure front-office foundation for inquiries, scheduling, and follow-up, with Virideon Core for business context. We confirm which capabilities and integrations fit each pilot.
Dog boarding & daycare
Explore an inquiry, the care details staff need, a staff-approved booking next step, and follow-up. Staff retain booking and care decisions.
Specialist staffing
Explore employer inquiry, clarification of the hiring need, an intake meeting or handoff to the account owner, and follow-up. This example covers employer intake, not candidate selection.
Real estate
An additional case to explore: property inquiry, buyer preferences, a staff-approved showing request, and follow-up.
These are starting points for discovery. Each needs a fit check before a pilot. On Discord, share a workflow you know or how your skills could help investigate, build, or test it. Keep details non-confidential.
Ryan is a technical founder and systems engineer with more than 30 years of experience across scientific computing, network infrastructure, and AI. As co-founder and CTO of Virideon, he builds systems that help organizations use their knowledge, preserve what they learn, and bring people and AI agents into productive collaboration.
His entrepreneurial path began with ADS LTD, an internet service provider he built from scratch in his parents’ basement. He later founded SCD Networks, a music streaming service, and ran the BabbleTees T-shirt printing business. His apparel work also included co-owning Isotope: Inc. reported nearly 9,000 Etsy T-shirt sales in 2010.
His creative and athletic life has been equally varied. He traveled and worked internationally as a DJ from the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, and has raced as an amateur cyclist since age 15. His endurance cycling experience includes finishing the Race Across America (RAAM) and participating in Mallorca 312. He also brings hands-on skills in historic-home preservation and renovation, holds a boat captain’s license with sailing and towing endorsements, and rides motorcycles—from track days on RSV4s and cross-country touring on Ducati Multistradas to back-road ramblings on classic air-cooled twins.
His research infrastructure work spans Argonne National Laboratory and IKIM at the University of Duisburg-Essen, supporting researchers with experimental AI hardware, cloud platforms, and large-scale computing and storage. He is a co-inventor on a patent for metric-driven cloud deployments and a co-author of an IEEE paper on trustworthy machine learning infrastructure in a hospital setting.
At The Higher Intelligence Agency, Ryan brings that experience to founder partnerships: working with people who understand a market to explore useful AI-enabled products and services. The community remains a place for shared learning, hands-on projects, and practical work.
HIA Founder in Residence. Three months to bootstrap.
A separate three-month intensive session to bootstrap a venture, bringing business, marketing, domain, and technical skills together around customer problems, validation, and building.
People early in their careers, including students, are welcome to bring demonstrated skills and initiative from study, projects, or work. Program fit and participation expectations are discussed individually.
The Chicago house at 3322 W Washington Boulevard is part of the HIA Founder in Residence offering. It spans 6,000 square feet, with 11 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms.
Discuss current room availability, furnished-room amenities, rent, lease terms, and participation arrangements before making plans. Specific living arrangements are agreed separately before any commitment.
Housing and venture agreements are separate. Work is not a condition of tenancy. Living here does not guarantee a program place, funding, or paid work. Tours are by arrangement.
The Teal Room
A private room with tall windows, a king bed, and original woodwork.
Around the table
The existing dining room—a setting for future shared dinners.
Beyond the desk
Shared space to take a break and spend time together.
A house with history
The entrance hall and carved wooden staircase.
Photographs from our existing Airbnb listings. Gallery images are originals. Furnishings and room availability will be confirmed on your tour.
STAY CONNECTED
Interested in Founder in Residence? Join Discord, introduce your background and what you want to bootstrap, and ask about the program and Chicago home base.
Bring a customer problem you understand or an example of useful skills from study, projects, or work. For a business pilot, describe the workflow, current tools, and who can own the next step. Keep customer details non-confidential.
Can I contribute without owning a business?+
Yes. Technical, marketing, operations, design, research, and domain contributors are welcome, including people early in their careers. You do not need business ownership, existing customers, or a senior title to join Discord. Introduce how you could help; project roles and arrangements are discussed before work begins.
Am I a customer or a commercial partner?+
A customer explores a paid pilot for a workflow in their own business. A commercial partner brings domain knowledge and customer access, owns discovery, adoption, and account follow-through, and explores a repeatable offer with HIA. Scope and terms are agreed individually.
Can this work with my existing systems?+
We check the specific tools, available interfaces, information, and access permissions during scoping. Integration support and human approvals are confirmed for each pilot.
What does a pilot involve?+
Start with one workflow, an accountable owner, clear boundaries, and a useful success measure. Agree scope, costs, responsibilities, and handoffs before work begins, then review evidence before expanding.
What is Founder in Residence?+
HIA Founder in Residence is a separate three-month intensive session to bootstrap a venture. It welcomes people early in their careers with demonstrated business, marketing, domain, or technical skills and initiative. Specific dates, availability, and participation expectations are discussed before commitment.
What about housing?+
A Chicago home base is part of the Founder in Residence offering. Confirm room availability, rent, amenities, and lease arrangements separately before making a housing commitment. Work is not a condition of tenancy.
Is funding or paid work included in the program?+
Program participation does not guarantee funding, paid work, or commercial outcomes. Financial, ownership, and resource terms are discussed individually before commitment.
Can I join from outside Chicago?+
You can join the Discord community from anywhere. Discuss Founder in Residence location, participation, and living expectations before making plans for the intensive.
Where do I start?+
Join HIA on Discord. Introduce your background, a problem you understand or skills you can contribute, and whether you want to explore a customer pilot, commercial partnership, collaboration, or Founder in Residence. Keep details non-confidential.
How can I correct or delete information I shared?+
For correction or deletion of details previously shared with HIA, email [email protected].
