Reporter, Phoenix Business Journal
A Phoenix-based software development company is broadening its services and executive team to better support entrepreneurs in starting or growing their businesses.
Founders Workshop recently announced its transformation into a full-service innovation app builder and artificial intelligence studio, catering to small- to medium-sized businesses. The company’s expanded offerings now include market validation research, value proposition development, go-to-market strategies, and branding packages. Additionally, it provides robotic process automation, as well as generative and conversational AI services.
Furthermore, Founders Workshop has welcomed three new executives, all of whom are entrepreneurs with previous leadership roles at startups. Wayne Neale has joined as Chief Product Officer, Ana Tomboulian has been named Chief Technology Officer, and Michael Vanderslice is the new Chief Operating Officer.
Vincent Serpico, CEO of Founders Workshop, told AZ Inno that the company’s expansion was partly driven by client requests for assistance with marketing strategies, pitch deck creation, and customer validation.
“Based on my availability, I helped out here and there,” Serpico said. “I met Wayne about a year and a half ago. He has been providing customer validation and business strategy services for our clients at Founders Workshop on occasion. So I said to Wayne, ‘Let’s formalize this. Come on board, and let’s offer the full suite of services that our clients have been asking for.’”
Wayne Neale: Turning ideas into prototypes
Neale is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in more than 10 startups as a
founder or part of their early-stage executive teams. He is looking forward to bringing his wealth of experience to Founders Workshop to help other entrepreneurs.
“We put all these services together to help clients — whether it be a startup or a small-tomedium-sized enterprise — to expand on their ideas and do market validation research
to understand, ‘Is the idea going to achieve product-market fit?’ Do we have any
traction? Because that’s what a lot of investors or internal budgeting teams look
for,” Neale said. “Then, we take ideas, prototype them, test them and take those into
the market.”
Wayne Neale, chief product officer at Phoenix-based Founders Workshop.
Entrepreneurs don’t need a deep background in technology to benefit from Founders Workshop’s services, Serpico explained.
“All you need to know is what app you want to build. You see a solution to a problem, but you don’t know anything about tech. We’ll take care of that 100%, and we can help you from beginning to end,” he said.
Serpico launched Founders Workshop in 2009. Since its inception, the company has built web and mobile apps, along with other software, for more than 200 clients. Currently, Founders Workshop works with over a dozen clients and is preparing to launch a new platform, DreamBuild, which will integrate AI into all company processes.
“We’re implementing AI across the board, which is speeding up product development at Founders Workshop by 30%, 40%, and even 50% at times,” Serpico said.
DreamBuild features smart AI integration, plug-and-play code libraries, feature scope suggestions, and custom code generation to reduce app development time for entrepreneurs. The platform will be available in a private beta during the third quarter of this year, Serpico added.
“We’re really excited about the DreamBuild AI platform. We’ve already seen huge gains internally,” he said. “Once we’ve refined it, I’m looking forward to launching the private beta, getting feedback, and allowing others to use it.”
