Justin Massa & Jason Rubinstein - Remix Partners | How to Operationalize AI: 32 Kickstarts, One Consistent Pattern

Justin Massa and Jason Rubinstein are the co-founders of Remix Partners, an AI strategy consultancy that has now run 32+ kickstarts with small and medium-sized businesses across sectors and geographies. Their perspective is grounded in what actually works — not what looks good in a slide deck — and this conversation is full of practical frameworks for PE investors and operators trying to move AI from an experiment into the business.You'll Learn:Why executive engagement is the single non-negotiable success factor in any AI rollout, and what it actually looks like in practiceThe difference between augment and automate — and why 95% of consulting firms stop at automation when the real leverage is in augmentationHow to use a three-tier deployment framework (Experiment / Pilot / Implement) to prioritize where AI goes next, and why you need to revisit it every quarterWhat "agent-legible" means — restructuring business information so agents can navigate it efficiently — and a simple mental model for where to startA detailed manufacturing case study: how a 70-year-old custom parts company cut its RFQ turnaround time nearly in half using a Claude Code workbench built in 3.5 weeksChapters: 00:00 – Intro00:33 – Welcome & what Justin and Jason hope listeners take away01:41 – Who are Justin & Jason / Remix Partners origin03:19 – Jason's background and why they're doing this together04:36 – Reflecting on the past year: what changed in the market07:21 – What's driving the shift in appetite for AI11:50 – Going wide vs. going deep on AI opportunities12:55 – Data on AI adoption: where companies actually are14:42 – Why small businesses are now advantaged over enterprise15:39 – Operationalizing AI: the Remix kickstart approach18:21 – Executive engagement as the #1 success factor19:13 – Show and tell culture: banning secret cyborgs21:33 – How the approach scales from SMBs to Fortune 2523:56 – The leader's mandate: making time for AI25:03 – What went wrong with other consultants26:48 – The augment vs. automate framework28:07 – Getting from automation to augmentation30:33 – The jagged frontier and workforce implications31:55 – How to navigate capabilities without a static view33:35 – Deployment zones: Experiment / Pilot / Implement35:29 – How zones shift quarterly / software stack decisions37:50 – Manufacturing case study: the setup40:26 – What they built (workbench in Claude Code, RFQ automation)42:54 – Who was involved across the organization44:27 – Impact: clock speed and capacity nearly halved46:00 – Engineers' time reallocation; divorcing revenue from headcount47:33 – Agent legibility: what it means and why it matters49:38 – Making your business agent-legible: the practical how52:54 – This year we edit documents, we don't create them53:32 – Where to start for a 50-person company56:16 – Plug into your core work application and play58:07 – What happens to companies that don't experiment now59:11 – Playing to Win in an AI era: differentiation AND low cost01:02:33 – ClosingWatch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwMibqytKFAConnect with Justin Massa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmassa/Connect with Jason Rubinstein: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-rubinstein-94815/ Explore more interviews: https://checkpluris.com/expert-interviewsProof of Work is the podcast of Pluris, a platform connecting investors and operators with the world's leading applied AI experts. Each episode features the builders, operators, and investors who've actually put AI into production, turning it from buzzword to bottom line through sharp case studies and practical conversations. We explore how AI is used to grow revenue, expand margins, improve operations, and create measurable value inside real businesses.Learn more at checkpluris.comExplore more interviews and connect with experts at https://www.checkpluris.com Subscribe to our newsletter at https://proof-of-work-ai.beehiiv.com/