Project summary

For the past ~3 months I've been doing executive function coaching, and I've recently started AI uplift contracting, & am planning to do 1:1 AI use coaching soon

Re: AI uplift for orgs → Contractor engagements to help orgs clean up their operations w/ AI, working async. I've just finished my first 4-week engagement (w/ ARMoR, an AIM spinout), and I built https://eaaiuplift.com/ as a public-facing directory for the people doing this work.

Re: Executive function coaching: this has mostly been at 80,000 Hours, including ~5 hours a week with a team lead at 80,000 Hours for 10 weeks. Case study: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MwzcKwK41O0xfsjX2eDHtqsEX6UIozVR3Mg8744BTeo/edit

I currently have ~£3k of net worth. I am constantly hustling and making just enough to pay my living costs, which makes client acquisition (which typically involves 3-6 weeks from cold pitch to call to starting an engagement) particularly stressful.

I already have lots of good potential opportunities in the pipeline, especially since internally launching eaaiuplift.com (I haven't posted about this on the EA forum yet, I will do next week).

Due to the time from initial outreach to call to payment, I am constantly treading water. A few months of runway would buy me breathing room to focus on strategy rather than tactics.

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

1. More AI uplift engagements w/ EA orgs, possibly at subsidised cost (to increase conversion rate and impact). I charged my first client £2.3k for 4 weeks. I'd like to charge ~£1.5k going forwards and juggle more simultaneous clients for 2-3 month engagements. A main learning from the first engagement is that founders struggle to reply async due to being overwhelmed, so human capacity becomes a big bottleneck, so shorter, cheaper, more parallel engagements are less bottlenecked by human reply time.

2. EA AI Uplift fieldbuilding. I created https://eaaiuplift.com/ and DM'd ~70 people in the EA AI Uplift slack group to get their opt-in. It now has 19 public profiles plus individual and organisation assessment tools. The aim is a public-facing directory and a place for skill sharing, plus case studies to increase adoption with other orgs (e.g. Good Impressions, who have had an in-house uplift person for 6+ months). [I'm aiming to post this to the EA forum — update w/ date or link]

3.. Bootstrapping to financial security via SaaS MRR.

• 20% of the time in my coaching, I'd simply be doing body doubling: I have one client where all I do is body double whilst he replies to emails, and I check in every 5 minutes to keep his metacognition high. I've been building ughbusting.com to replace myself on these calls and serve far more people. It combines the "I am on a call w/ someone and am accountable" feeling of a coaching call or FocusMate with the financial stakes of Beeminder: you commit to n calls per week, pre-book them, and you're fined if you don't attend. Built, tested internally, inviting beta testers next. This is the one that lets coaching scale without me selling hours.

• I've also built Police Law Prep — https://policelawprep.co.uk/, an Anki-style revision app for police officers, inspired by my aunty doing an exam and lacking resources. Started 26 July. It now has 22 paid accounts and ~£165 MRR from 11 subscriptions, and the iOS app is with Apple for review. My aim is to reach £1,000 MRR within the next few months. SaaS MRR is how I bootstrap myself to a safety net where I'm not close to £0 and don't need to ask for runway again.

How will this funding be used?

I currently have ~£3k in the bank, total. So ~£10k would go straight into my bank, buying some more security.

My costs will remain the same (rent, food, £200/month Claude, £200/month Codex). I am currently bootstrapping myself and just about making ends meet, without enough slack to replenish runway, and a few delays or cancellations away from £0.

More concretely:

1. I'd be able to take on more AI uplift engagements at reduced cost (e.g. AIM orgs that are budget constrained).

2. I'd have the breathing room to reassess my current load, thinking more strategically rather than tactically.

3. I'd be able to rest at weekends, feel safe, and be in fight-or-flight less.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Just me! https://www.alexanderlarge.com/legible

👆 this link contains more on my track record, e.g. I worked at the EA biotech startup Alvea for 1 year as a process improvement specialist (relevant to AI uplift), was a finalist for the "executive assistant to the office of the CEO" role at Longview Philanthropy.

https://www.alexanderlarge.com/references

Track record, last ~3 months:

1. Executive function coaching: at least 50 completed calls with a team lead at 80,000 Hours, including a retrospective. His weekly self-ratings rose from 5.6 to 7.5/10 for productivity and from 5.2 to 6.75/10 for work enjoyment. He approved a case study with these results: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1MwzcKwK41O0xfsjX2eDHtqsEX6UIozVR3Mg8744BTeo/edit

2. AI uplift contracting: a 4-week, £2,300 engagement with an AIM spinout is complete. I delivered accounting automation, operational documentation and an AI knowledge-base prototype.

3. EA AI Uplift fieldbuilding: launched https://eaaiuplift.com/ on 1 September. 19 public profiles, 72 people contacted, four practitioner conversations including people doing this work at 80,000 Hours and Good Impressions.

4. Police Law Prep (see below): built and sold a SaaS product from scratch in ~6 weeks. 22 paid accounts.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Most likely failure: the runway gets eaten by the same treading-water pattern, because client acquisition for coaching and uplift work stays slow, and I'm back to ~£3k in 6 months w/ nothing structurally different.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

I've bootstrapped myself for the last ~3 months → no money raised from funders