Business Model & Licensing
License the standard. Keep the engine running. Deliver coupled, renew decoupled.
Confidential · June 2026. Pricing below is set as indicative ranges anchored to company size; final on the initial assessment and scoping with counsel and the first design partner.
What we license
- The process — the assessment method, the crosswalks, the playbook.
- The product — the standard plus the Aperture engine.
- The brand rights — govrn.ai as the mark an enterprise program is certified against.
The license is on a defensible standard; the engine underneath turns it into a recurring, measured relationship.
The three revenue lines
| Layer | What they pay for | Switching cost | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost meter | real-time spend / ROI once connected | low | the hook — fastest yes, easiest to rip out |
| Operate / managed run | the engine running monitoring + board readouts | medium | the body of the annuity |
| Attestation | the independent, fresh-record verdict a board and regulator accept | high | the true annuity — a CISO can't casually churn it |
The land motion leads with cost + shadow AI (the fastest yes) and must bridge to governance/attestation, or it sells a rip-out-able tool. The recurring dollar lands on the attested run-state, not the meter.
The annuity mechanics
- Assessment lands the account; the running engine is the recurring relationship — services in the front, software underneath.
- An attestation is valid only against a fresh record — so continuous measurement is required, not optional.
- The accumulated baseline history is the switching cost; evidence stays portable, so the stickiness is trust, not lock-in (sovereignty is the brand).
- Deliver coupled, renew decoupled — the managed-run and the attestation are delivered as one system but contracted to renew on separate clocks, so a wobble in one doesn't re-open both.
Kelly / MCG — the first channel, not the destination
A near-term partnership with MCG Kelly Services is a de-risked distribution channel and a live proving ground — a way to put the standard in front of real enterprise accounts fast. It is the first license, not the ceiling.
The horizon — enterprise & Microsoft
The destination is enterprise licensing at scale, and the horizon is a Microsoft play — for which the team already holds the senior-executive relationships (see Team & Structure). A defensible standard, an enterprise channel, and a regulatory clock the buyer can't stop is exactly the profile that ends in a licensing or acquisition outcome.
Pricing by company size
The engagement is priced to the estate it has to measure. The initial assessment — "the discovery" — runs $150K to $350K by company size: the entry and the wedge, where the build, managed-run, and attestation scale on top as the annuity.
| Tier | Initial assessment | Implement build | Operate / run (yr) | Attestation (yr) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SMB (<200) | $150K–$175K | $150K–$300K | $90K–$160K | $45K–$85K |
| Mid-market (200–2,000) | $200K–$250K | $300K–$600K | $180K–$350K | $90K–$160K |
| Enterprise (2,000+) | $300K–$350K | $500K–$1M | $350K–$700K | $200K–$400K |
| Regulated-enterprise | $350K+ (custom) | $1M–$2M+ | $600K–$1.2M | $350K–$650K |
The assessment is deliberately small and fast — a cheap, honest discovery that surfaces shadow AI with a dollar figure is the wedge into the whole account. The recurring lines (operate + attest) are the annuity: for a mid-market account they compound to match the one-time build within roughly two years and don't end. Indicative ranges, finalized on the initial assessment and scoping with counsel and the first design partner.