Revenue First: Building Lean, Profitable B2B Companies in the Age of AI
In a world of commoditised technology and AI, the only defensibility left is tacit knowledge & Domain expertise.
The venture playbook of the last decade is broken. Raise big, hire fast, burn through cash, hope for a unicorn. 60% of European VCs return 1x after ten years. 75% of startups never return cash. The incentives are misaligned and the founders pay the price.
In the age of AI, there is a different way to build.
AI is not replacing founders. It is letting a small team run lean, do the work of twenty, and reach revenue on a fraction of the capital. The founders winning right now are pairing deep domain expertise with AI-native operations, sharp brand and communications, and a relentless focus on revenue from day one.
Tramlines invests in domain experts. People with 10 to 30 years inside an industry who are building B2B AI companies through our 24-month accelerator. £250k cheques. Liquidity in three years, not ten. £100m+ enterprise value built across the portfolio in under two years. 80% success rate.
The people who have spent 10, 20, sometimes 30 years inside an industry, who know how it actually works, where value is created, and how to capture it.
You are not the typical founders
$186 billion was deployed into vertical AI in 2025. Everyone is racing to turn structured expertise into AI systems.
The technology is the easy part. The bottleneck is structured domain expertise, the tacit knowledge locked in the heads of senior operators across industries. AI cannot industrialise what is not already cleanly organised. The industrialisation of AI begins with domain expertise, not technology.
We'll also be discussing the increased importance of the role of brand, marketing, comms and personal brand in B2B sectors
This event will have a (optional) co-founder match component. A form will be emailed out closer to the event
Hosted By:
Ashleigh Gardner: Chief of Staff
Panel:
Albert Azis-Clauson: CEO @ TRAMLINES | Multi-Exited Founder | Angel investor | HMRC Advisory Board Member | (Gen)AI Expert
Liz Barclay: Co-founder Business111.com. Ex BBC.
Josie Flight: Product Consultant @ Mindbeat | Board Director @ Flight & Partners Ltd. | VC Advisor @ Tramlines
Nella Goodarzi: Founder & Principal at Venture Psychology Lab | Partner to Family Offices, VCs, PEs & Accelerators | ex. Investment Banker, Barclays
This panel is on how senior B2B operators are making the leap from industry expert to AI-native company owner.
From the panel we will then go into your choice of 2 of the 6 available small group workshops for 30 mins each.
The workshop component will be hosted by the speakers plus:
Leo Tyson. Networks & Distribution @ TRAMLINES.
Who is this event for?
Senior B2B operators with 10+ years in their industry who have turned founder and are building revenue-first B2B AI companies
Or for those who are curious about AI and considering founding your own company
Location:
120 Moorgate - Barclays high street branch. London.
Timings:
4:30pm-5pm. Networking & Arrivals
5pm-5.45pm. Panel discussion
5.45pm-6.20pm. Workshop 1
6.20pm-7pm. Workshop 2
7-7.20pm. Networking
How Do The Workshops Run?
A few days before the event the complete list of group workshops options will be sent out for you to opt into the 2x that are best for you.
Each workshop will run for around 30 minutes in small groups of 4-8 so you have plenty of time to ask your questions, before switching to your 2nd choice
This formatt serves as a significantly better option than a traditional Q&A where only a few people get to ask their questions and you don't get to connect with a hyper relevant group to your stage and barriers.
Any questions email me: [email protected]