SaaS you overpay for
SaaS and technology
Six-figure subscriptions for tools that don’t fit how you work. We rebuild what you actually use, around your process.
The average organization uses only 54% of its SaaS licenses. Source: Zylo.
[ For CFOs building the 2027 budget ]
Which line on your P&L is leaking your [bottom line]?
Answer one question
Yes or no. No calls.
Profit leakage occurs in [three places].
Each one renews every year until someone puts a number on it.
Work you throw people at
Rising cost of labor
Manual, repetitive operations that scale with headcount. We change how the work gets done, not just how fast.
US private-sector wages rose 3.1% in the year to June 2026. Source: BLS Employment Cost Index.
Bottlenecks you work around
Operational bottlenecks
Stalled approvals, handoffs between systems, rework, and data that isn’t ready to fix them. We fix the foundation that’s blocking the payoff.
Close to 70% of employees spend 20+ hours a week hunting for information across tools. Source: Quickbase, 2023.
[ How it works ]
From [cost] to proven result.
We identify a meaningful technology or labor cost already sitting on your P&L and determine whether we can permanently remove or materially reduce that cost.
See the problem
What the line costs today, what drives it and who owns it.
Expose the problem
How much can realistically come out, separated from what can’t.
Own the problem
Go or no-go, net of what it costs to remove it and run what replaces it.
Fix the problem
Read more, get the one-pager or book a time. Your call.
[01]
Solve
Solve an economically significant business problem.
[02]
Operate
Run, support and improve the capability after deployment.
[03]
Expand
Find and solve the next economic problem when it’s time.
Margin waterfall · professional services firm, resource-planning license replaced.
The margin you protect is the [only number] that matters.
The whole cost line is never the savings. What counts is what you keep after the change is paid for and running.
How it works: a one-time build, a small annual support tail, and the subscription fees retired.
Timing matters as much as size. We model when savings start and when costs land before anyone talks about payback.
If the case doesn’t hold, we say so before you spend on it.
[ Customer story · Professional services firm ]
A license replaced by a tool they own.
48%
Lower 3-year cost on resource planning
Context
The firm tracked its people, projects and rates in a commercial resource-planning tool. It cost $210K a year, priced per seat, so the bill grew with every hire.
Challenge
The tool couldn’t handle how the firm bills: some clients pay a fixed 160 hours a month, others actual hours. The team ran fake holidays as a workaround and kept timesheets in spreadsheets.
Solution
[up]start.13 built a custom replacement with AI-enabled engineering, shaped around how the firm bills and staffs. The old license retires at renewal.
Impact
$630K for the license over three years against $326K to build and support the replacement. No per-seat fees, so cost no longer grows with headcount.
[ Who we are ]
We pull spend out of your P&L. [Permanently].
[up]start.13 finds a meaningful technology or labor cost you already pay and replaces it with AI-enabled software you own. Economic discovery first, with data, software and AI engineering behind it.
The 2027 budget locks soon. [One line] is enough to start.
Answer one question
Fix the problem
No calls. You choose what happens next.