FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

    What you probably want to know.

    Five sections. No detours. Question not listed? Email us directly.

    CATEGORY 1

    How do you work?

    The short story on process, timeline, and what to expect from us.

    We respond to your request within one business day. Then we schedule a 45-minute intro call. The full pre-track, from self-check to findings session, takes about a week. No sales pitch, no mandatory follow-up. Sometimes the outcome is that we're not the right fit, and we'll tell you that too.

    It depends on the track. In Focus we build one system end to end within six weeks. Kick-off takes one week, then four to five weeks of building.

    In Scale you start with a two-week kick-off plus roadmap. The first system is usually live within four to six weeks, with more systems added month by month.

    In Embed we run a three-week deep-dive and build several systems in parallel. First deliveries from week four.

    For every track: a live system isn't a finished system. From go-live we keep sharpening every month based on what we see in production.

    We stay involved. A live system isn't "done", it gets sharper every month based on what we learn in production. Not an extra service, just how we work.
    Yes. ETQ Amsterdam runs in 9 languages, Eden Luca operates from Aruba in 4 languages. We work in Dutch and English and have clients inside and outside Europe.

    We come from entrepreneurship ourselves, we previously built two e-commerce businesses to €25M. We don't build prototypes for pitches, we build systems that run in production. No consulting decks, no "AI strategy" tracks. Just proven results in weeks. See the cases.

    The biggest difference sits in how we start. A dev agency gets a brief and builds. A consultant makes a deck. We first talk to the people doing the work, that's where we find what others miss. Only then do we start building.

    CATEGORY 2

    Our approach

    How we run the pre-track, and what it asks of you and your team.

    Because the biggest friction is rarely where the founder suspects. We've run companies ourselves and we know: a returns clerk, a marketing coordinator or an account manager sees things you miss from the boardroom. Five minutes of waiting per return, a report clicked together by hand every Monday, the same three questions coming in over and over, those are the real levers.

    If we only talk to you, we get 20% of the picture. If we also talk to your team, we get the other 80%.

    We deliberately keep it short. Thirty minutes of video per person, plus three business days of light logging, three short notes per day via WhatsApp or a form. No two-hour forms, no half-day interviews.

    We had to design this for our own companies. The less we ask of people, the more we get. Low threshold, high yield.

    Understandable, and we've seen it before. Our experience is that being open works better, "we're looking at how to make the work lighter" is a story most employees respond well to, because it works in their favour.

    But if you'd rather keep it discreet: we'll only talk to you and look in the systems. We'll get less of a picture, and we'll say so honestly in our findings. We don't force anyone.

    Yes. What we found, the three to five biggest leaks in your operation plus the twelve-month roadmap, is yours. Keep it, do something with it, or don't. No conditions.

    We do this because we believe an honest story beats a hostage situation. If you later decide to go with someone else, or do it yourself, that was probably the right call for you.

    Nothing besides using it for your engagement. No training of public models, no resale, no anonymisation for benchmarks without your explicit consent. We work GDPR-compliant and sign a data processing agreement before we have a single conversation.

    If you don't continue after the pre-track, we delete all raw data within 30 days. What remains is the report, and that's yours.

    CATEGORY 3

    What does it cost?

    Fixed prices, no hidden hours. Here's how it works.

    Three tracks, fixed prices, all 12 months:

    Focus — €3,500 per month. For one clear bottleneck.

    Scale — €5,500 per month. For multiple systems that connect to each other.

    Embed — €8,500 per month. For multiple systems at once and us as part of your team.

    No setup fees, no hidden hours, no extra costs for maintenance. Everything you get is on the pricing page.

    Automating an operation isn't a sprint. The first weeks are mostly building. The real results come once systems are running and we keep sharpening them based on what we see in production.

    With shorter terms you'd just be starting to learn when it's time to wrap up. The system that went live in week 8 is twice as sharp by month 6. That's where the real value sits.

    At the end of your 12 months you're free to stop, switch tier, or continue. No automatic renewal.

    No. No setup fee, no hidden hours, no extra invoices. You pay monthly what we agreed, nothing more.
    We expect that, operations change. Each month we look together at the next priority. You pay for the tier, not for a fixed feature list.

    Yes, in two scenarios.

    Upgrading mid-track is always possible. Notice in month 4 of a Focus track that you actually need Scale? We move you over from the next month. The 12-month track continues on the new tier.

    Downgrading mid-track we ask you to save for the end of your year. We choose a tier together based on what your operation needs. If you think halfway through "less is enough", we discuss it and decide together whether it's smart.

    At the end of your 12 months you choose again: continue on the same tier, switch, or stop. No automatic renewal.

    Per track, six elements, all included:

    1. Kick-off of one to three weeks to map your operation in detail
    2. Build of one or several systems, depending on your track
    3. Continuous monitoring, building and optimization between scheduled calls
    4. Scheduled check-ins, from monthly to weekly depending on track
    5. Response time within 1 business day, 4 business hours or 2 business hours, depending on track
    6. Documentation and walkthrough sessions for your team

    The full breakdown per track is on the pricing page.

    CATEGORY 4

    Is this for us?

    Not for everyone, here are some honest filters.

    Indicatively from €1M revenue. Below that the business case is usually too thin: the time you save through automation needs to pay back. Above it there's almost always a strong case.
    No. We build, you use. With larger clients there's sometimes an internal tech lead who thinks along on architecture, nice but not required. We connect to the tools you already use.
    Almost always. We integrate with Shopify, HubSpot, Mollie, Klaviyo, bol.com, Stripe, OpenAI and 30+ other tools. No migrations, no new platforms, we build on top of what already runs. Full list on the integrations page.
    No problem. We often work alongside existing partners. Our focus is operations automation with AI as a lever, if your current partner does something else, there's usually no overlap.
    Honest answer: probably not the right fit. We build for clients who know where the bottleneck sits. If you first want to explore what AI could mean for you, we don't have a fitting track right now, but we're happy to think along in a short conversation.

    Sometimes people are surprised Focus is enough. Sometimes more turns out to be hiding underneath. So we don't choose for you. We think it through together before you decide.

    Send us your biggest bottleneck via /start, then we'll honestly say which track fits. Does it feel like one clear pain? Then Focus fits. Multiple fronts where things break? Then you're probably in Scale. Already scaling and the operation needs to grow with you? Then Embed makes more sense.

    We have no interest in pushing you into a tier that's too big. A mismatch works for nobody.

    CATEGORY 5

    Privacy & data

    How we handle your data and who owns what.

    Your data stays yours. We process only what's needed to build and run the systems. No training of public models on your data, no resale, no external sharing without explicit consent. We work GDPR-compliant and sign a data processing agreement on every track.
    You do. All systems, prompts, configurations and code we build for you are your property. Stop after 12 months? You get a full handover: documentation, access, everything. No hostage.
    We use enterprise-grade providers (Anthropic, OpenAI) with SOC 2 compliance. For customer data we use encryption in transit and at rest. For sensitive operations (financial, medical) we add extra verification layers. We're not here to bluff about this, if you have specific security requirements, we discuss them in the analysis.

    QUESTION NOT LISTED?

    Just ask.

    We respond fast, usually within half a workday. No tickets, no forms, just people replying.

    hello@optivateai.com

    Or first browse our approach and cases for more context.