Cold Lava. AI systems for owner-run businesses. Based in UK
All that AI stuff,sorted.
Keeping up with ChatGPT, Claude and the rest isn't your job. It's ours.
We take the repetitive work that eats your week and build it out of your business until everything runs on one system. From £1,200 a month.
No pitch decks, no pressure.
Built for owner-run, operations-heavy businesses. If you have repetitive admin and a phone that rings, you qualify.
Specialising in
Some of the businesses we've built for
You're the bottleneck.
And you know it.
The problem
You've watched the videos. Opened ChatGPT a few times. Maybe paid for a tool that's still sitting there. And the quotes still go out at midnight.
The business has come this far because of you, but right now you don't have you. You have the routing layer. The approval. The inbox. The version of you that built the company is buried under work the system should be running.
And if you've hired your way out of it, you know where it went: the bottleneck doesn't leave, it moves down the org chart and multiplies.
We replace the system underneath. You get the time back. That's how you go again.
Your options to scale
Hire and manage
Recruit. Onboard. Train. Review. Manage.
Months to value. Cost forever.
More tools
Another integration. Another login.
Same scattered operation, more places to look.
Do it yourself
You could learn it yourself. AI changes weekly.
Keeping up is a full-time job, and it's ours, not yours.
Build a BOS
Build it out of the business. Month by month.
Trained on your operation. Your team gains a system. You get your time back.
You're not behind. You're just where every owner gets to on their own.
The work that's eating your week up isn't your work.
It's the cost of running without a system built around you.
One system. At least one named improvement, every month.
The order matters: first we map how your business actually runs, then everything lands on one system, and the AI goes in last, on a foundation that works.
Step 01
Pick your pace.
Foundation to Scale, same team either way: builders, strategy and automation consulting in every tier.
Step 02
One named improvement, every month.
Promised in writing at the start of the month. Shown working, live, at the end. You always know what you are paying for and you can always see it running.
Step 03
Watch the system grow.
A live dashboard shows what shipped, what is next and where the hours went. The backlog is yours to reorder any time.
Not configured. Not templated. Built bespoke.
The safety net
Every engagement starts with the Three-Month Trial
Our recommended structure is a three-month trial. It gives us enough time to deliver, enough time to understand how we work together, and it works both ways: at the end, either of us can walk away. No lock-in. Everything we built is yours from day one.
Your side of it: one half-hour call a month. We do the rest.
And before you commit to anything at all, we build a working demonstration around your business: your workflows, your numbers. You judge the actual system, not a slide deck.
Your first month
What month one actually looks like.
Three real builds, for three real clients, each delivered inside a first month. Named in writing at the start, shown running at the end.
One screen
A sales command centre
Live figures pulled out of a retail CRM, a custom outdated system and a stack of spreadsheets, onto one screen the owner checks every morning.
Shipped inside month oneAutomation
The end of spreadsheets
The weekly retyping, the version confusion and the formula nobody trusts, replaced by one system that keeps itself up to date.
Shipped inside month oneAI employee
Hiring on autopilot
The job ad written, posted and managed, candidates interviewed and chased, documents filed, before a recruiter picks up the phone.
Shipped inside month oneAt least one named improvement a month. In practice it compounds faster than you'd expect.
"Fine in theory. But would it work for a business like mine?"
Shipped and running
AI employees we've builtfor businesses like yours.
Nine agents from live client systems, each one designed around how that business runs.
This is a glimpse, not a catalogue: yours get built around you.
Tap any agent belowClick any agent below to see it workingEach agent is marked Runs alone or Asks first. The line where a human decides is yours to set, and yours to move.
Recruitment IntakeRuns alone
Candidates onboard themselves before a recruiter touches them.
The problem
Recruiters spend their first hour with every candidate gathering the same five fields and chasing the same documents. Most of those candidates don't even meet basic eligibility. Hours wasted before a real conversation happens.
What we build
A messaging-channel intake agent. The candidate gets a custom link, opens it, answers a short conversational set of questions, uploads a passport or right-to-work doc, and the agent verifies it. By the time a recruiter sees them, they're already in the system with everything attached.
Result
Recruiter time only spent on candidates who pass first-pass eligibility, with documents already verified. Time-to-shortlist drops from days to hours.
Plugs into
INTAKE TIME
COMPLIANCE CAPTURE
RECRUITER TOUCHES BEFORE INTERVIEW
Recruitment Intake
online
Key responsibilities
- →Custom intake link issued per candidate
- →Conversational eligibility intake
- →Document upload + automated verification
- →Structured candidate record created in the BOS
What you get
- ✓First-pass eligibility complete before recruiter time spent
- ✓Compliance fields captured upfront, not chased
Availability
24/7. Candidates can start the moment they apply.
"But we're not tech people. And I'm not ripping out what already works."
The tools you already use
We integrate with the systems your team already runs on.
We replace, augment, or add around what you already run. Nothing you trust gets ripped out.
And whatever else your operation runs on. We'll wire it in.
"You'd say all this though, wouldn't you?"
The proof
You are not buying a promise. You are buying systems that already work.
"We have an AI assistant who answers the phone, grabs details and books jobs. We capture every client possible. Incredibly affordable compared to a full time member of staff."
Austin Eszcori/ Detail Dynamics
"Things have completely changed for the better. They helped us automate our whole sales process and built us a website that represents the business brilliantly."
Jack Whybrow/ Director, Greenstar Solar
Twelve more systems like these, browsed by the problem they solved.
See the full proof wallWhy now
The biggest bet in AI isn't models. It's implementation.
In July 2026, Anthropic, Blackstone and Goldman Sachs put $1.5 billion into a firm that does one thing: embed engineers inside businesses, map how they actually run, and build AI systems on top. It was built for enterprises and private equity portfolios. It will serve a few hundred companies.
We run the same model for the businesses it will never call.
"So who actually does the work?"
"The people who do the audit are the people who build it. Oliver [CTO] writes the code. Jacob [MD] talks to you."
"Custom solutions for how you work, not how Silicon Valley thinks you should."
- Oliver/ Chief Technology Officer
"We diagnose your business with the same hands that build it."
- Jacob/ Managing Director
Oliver
Co-founder
Chief Technology Officer
"I architect the systems."
Oliver designs and writes every system Cold Lava ships: the dashboards, the agents, the integrations. If it runs in your business, he built it, and he is the one who keeps making it better.
Donna
Director
Strategic Consultant
"I shape the strategy."
Thirty years running recruitment operations before Cold Lava. Donna maps how your business actually works, and she has already seen every process mistake you are about to make.
Jacob
Co-founder
Managing Director
"I run the business."
Jacob runs your account and the company: he diagnoses your operation with Oliver, translates it into plain English, and is the person you actually talk to, from first call to year three.
We're wrong for some businesses. Read who shouldn't hire us.
Why us, not them
Things that don't move.
Plain English, against the kind of agency this market is full of.
/ The typical "AI agency"
/ Cold Lava
Reskinned GHL, an n8n flow in a wrapper, or a Make.com template
Custom code, written for your business, owned by you
Marketers who hire developers, then hand you off
The founders do the work: Oliver writes the code, Jacob runs your account
"Support" means a paragraph in the contract
Same engineers, year three and beyond
AI replaces your people
AI multiplies what your best people already do
You are the experiment
We solved our own problems first
A strategy deck, an invoice, and good luck
Working software, shown running every month on a live dashboard
Betting your operation on this year's hot AI tool
One system that outlasts the tools: new models slot in as they arrive, and keeping up is our job
No pitch decks, no pressure.
"And what happens if you lot disappear?"
Who owns it
It's your system. Not ours.
Every password, every login, every line of code: yours from day one. If we vanished tomorrow, it all keeps running.
Your data is part of the deal: never pooled with other businesses, never sold, never used to train anyone else's AI.
"Go on then. What does it cost?"
What it costs
Simple pricing. No discounts, no games.
Same team in every tier. The dial is how fast your business transforms.
Stop buying tools. Start getting work done.
The speed dial
Foundation
Momentum
Resident
Scale
Foundation
from £1,200 a month +VAT
The entry point. Your operation mapped, the first system live, one named improvement a month.
Every tier: Experienced dev team. Strategy calls. Automation consulting. One named improvement a month.
The transformation
Months · Illustrative
M1Month 1
M3Month 3
M6Month 6
M9Month 9
M12Month 12
Illustrative journey. Your backlog is yours to reorder.
The same journey, arriving sooner.
Want the exact number for your business?
Enterprise · The fifth option
Need it faster? You set the deadlines. We tell you the price.
The compressed build carries the Enterprise guarantee: 10 hours a week back and £40,000 a year recovered, or you don't pay. Full terms on the call.
How to justify this to your accountant
A three-month test with a defined exit. The deliverable is named before you pay. Everything built is yours from day one. And the £1,200 a month entry costs less than half a junior admin, except it comes with a whole team.
You and your business.
Six quick questions. Submit and we'll be in touch - or skip straight to a call when you've finished.
What you're probably thinking
The questions everyone asks.
Worth asking these of anyone who offers to build AI for you. Including us.
- How long is this actually going to take?
- As long as you want it to. Most clients take the retainer: one named improvement every month, and the first useful thing usually ships inside the first month. In a hurry? The Enterprise route compresses the whole build into your timeline: you set the deadline, we tell you the price.
- We tried AI before and it didn't stick. Why would this be different?
- Every improvement is named in writing before the month starts and shown working live at the end, so you always know exactly what you paid for. The three-month trial is the safety net: at the end, either of us can walk away, and everything we built is yours. Enterprise builds carry a recovery guarantee on top. Ask us about it on the call.
- Is this going to replace my team?
- Not necessarily. The BOS multiplies what your best people already do. They handle more work at better margin, without you hiring. Most clients use it as a force multiplier for their existing team, not a replacement.
- How much of this runs without a human?
- The repetitive work runs on its own: chasing, logging, filing, formatting. Anything judgement-shaped asks first, and a human clicks approve. You decide where that line sits, and you can move it as trust builds.
- And when the three months are up, then what?
- If we are both happy, we agree the ongoing retainer and keep building: same engineers who built everything so far, the backlog keeps moving, and the system gets smarter the longer it runs. And when something breaks, those same engineers fix it, usually before you would have noticed. No ticket queue, no third-party support desk.
- Is this really for a business like mine?
- Owner-run, operations-heavy UK businesses, typically 3 to 50 staff: construction, trades, renewables, recruitment and adjacent. If you spend your day running the team and the team spends its day chasing things, we fit. Bigger operations are welcome too; the system scales with you.
- Do I still own everything if you disappear?
- You do. Source on your GitHub, infra on your accounts, no licence we can claw back. Your data lives in your database too: never pooled with other businesses, never sold, never used to train anything outside your walls. We support it, we evolve it, but it is all yours from day one.
- What's it going to cost me?
- Foundation starts from £1,200 a month plus VAT, with strategy and automation consulting included. Above that, the tiers buy speed, not a different team: Momentum, Resident and Scale get the same people, more often. We price those on the call, quickly and without games.
/ Timeline
How long is this actually going to take?
As long as you want it to. Most clients take the retainer: one named improvement every month, and the first useful thing usually ships inside the first month. In a hurry? The Enterprise route compresses the whole build into your timeline: you set the deadline, we tell you the price.
Next step
Most owners will watch this wave from the beach. A few will put it to work. We build for those few.
Twenty minutes. No pitch deck.
You tell us how the business actually runs. We show you a system like yours running live, and name the first thing we would build. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you somewhere useful.
No pitch decks, no pressure.
Graft
The newsletter
One useful email a week on where trades and AI are heading. Written by Jacob. No pitch.
