Intentional AI for established companies
You've heard AI delivers. We make it deliver.
We close the gap between the most advanced AI out there and what actually happens in your operation. We build agents and data applications that deliver real ROI, let your operation scale, and bring your cost down.
Specialists in business, product, and artificial intelligence, in one place.
Free X-Ray for companies above $2M in revenue with 20+ employees. No pitch.
We apply what we learned at some of the best places in the world:
- Stanford — business and innovation
- Berkeley — data strategy
- Techstars — companies investors love
- Rockstart — technology that works in Latin America
business and innovation
data strategy
companies investors love
technology that works in Latin America
01 /The gap
Grow without leaning on more people.
Growing does not have to mean hiring. Your company moves while you push and stops the day you let go. They promised extra productivity with AI and it never arrived. We see the same scene every month, in traditional companies and in technology companies alike. Good operation, good team, everything stuck in manual work that an AI agent solves.
The software limits you
The system should adapt to your operation, not the other way around. You pay a lot for features you never use and go without the ones that actually matter.
The same task, every day
Copying data from one system to another. Resending the same email. Filling in the same spreadsheet. Tasks that take no thinking and still steal hours from your team every week. AI could do it in seconds, without errors and without complaining.
Outsourcing stopped working
Call center, contract review, data entry, chasing payments. You try to outsource the non-core work and end up paying a lot for little quality from people who do not understand your business.
Endless AI pilots
You tried a tool, ran a PoC, put the team on ChatGPT. They promised transformation. The number never showed up. What stayed was the feeling that AI is not for your business.
The problems change from company to company. The diagnosis almost never does. What is missing is process, and people who have done this before. You do not need to work out on your own what works. You need someone who has been through it and knows which path gets to the result faster.
02 /The game changed
Your business no longer has to fit inside a piece of software.
Until recently there were only two ways out. Buy off-the-shelf software and squeeze your operation until it fits the limits of the tool. Or spend millions building your own system and wait years, at a pace that never keeps up with your growth. AI opened a third path: a solution shaped around your problem, ready in weeks and at a fraction of the cost. The question stops being "which system do I buy?" and becomes "what do I want to happen?".
03 /Intentional AI
We start with the outcome. Always.
Intentional AI is the opposite of buying a tool and hoping it works. Every project starts from a business objective and an estimated ROI. We go into your operation with the same rigor as a strategy consultancy and come out with the biggest opportunities mapped and priced. Only then do we write the first line of code.
X-Ray
A straight conversation about your operation, no pitch and no filler. You leave with a one-pager covering the opportunities we found, references from companies that solved similar problems, and the paths we recommend. If there is no clear opportunity, we say so on the spot. You leave knowing where not to invest.
Diagnosis
We go deep into your operation and turn every opportunity into a number. What it's worth, how long it takes to pay for itself, and the real effort to make it a viable project. All of it before the first line of code.
Build
We build inside your real operation, with your team and your data. The price is agreed upfront and you understand where it comes from. The base is open source, which keeps one more license contract off your desk. In the end, what we deliver is yours, no lock-in and no hostage contract.
Operations
We put it in production, monitor it, and improve it as it gets used. We train your team and leave the project ready for them to maintain. And nothing ships without your sign-off. You approve what the system does.
04 /Two paths
Built for you, or by you.
Built for you
For companies with real revenue already coming in. We diagnose, build, and deploy agents and workflows that pay for themselves. You focus on the business, AI takes the repetitive work.
The X-Ray is
On us for companies that meet two conditions:
- 01Revenue above $2 million
- 0220+ employees
We do it at no cost because we believe we can find, inside your operation, an opportunity worth hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions.
If that's not your case, the X-Ray costs $100, a small investment for what it delivers.
What you take from the X-Ray
- A straight conversation with people who build AI agents at scale, not with a salesperson
- A one-pager with the opportunities we found in your operation
- References from companies that faced the same challenge
- Recommended paths: where to start and what to postpone
No clear opportunity? We tell you on the spot. You leave knowing where not to invest, and that is savings too.
Book a free X-RayMentoring
To lead AI internally without becoming a technologist. We teach you and your team to spot opportunities, pick tools, and run AI projects. What we learned getting it wrong and getting it right in real operations.
For those who want to learn how to do it
What we deliver
- Hands-on workshops with your team
- Live webinars
- 1:1 training sessions for leaders
- In-depth exclusive content we don't publish anywhere else
- Training materials for your company
In the end, you and your team stop depending on a vendor to decide what works in AI and start leading the topic internally.
And after the X-Ray?
If it makes sense, the diagnosis comes next. We go deep into the operation and turn every opportunity into a number. Only then does the build start, with the price agreed upfront, no surprises.
Every build includes
- Training for the team involved in the project
- A project your team is ready to maintain
- Support throughout the project
- ROI estimated before, measured after
- Your AI case study: what to tell, how, and where
- AI security review
05 /What sets us apart
Why 21xlabs
We start with the number
We only build what pays for itself. ROI estimated before and proven after.
You own everything
Open source, no lock-in, no vendor charging you forever. What we deliver is yours.
Engineers who talk P&L
We don't sell technology, we sell outcomes. We understand a board meeting because we've sat on both sides of the table.
Built for the operation you actually have
The channels, the people, and the day-to-day work as they really are. No imported blueprint that assumes an operation you don't run.
06 /Who builds it
People who understand technology and business.
We understand business and we understand technology. And we work with a network of collaborators: PhDs who know the real limits of AI and how it works under the hood; executives who have held senior leadership seats at companies like iFood; analysts who came from McKinsey and other strategy firms and know how to turn an operation into a number. For every project, we bring in whoever has the right experience.
Over these years we watched the same scene repeat: pilots dying in a drawer, tools nobody uses, an entire market selling magic that doesn't survive its first day in production. And a pattern impossible to ignore: the projects that worked were never the ones with the newest technology. They were the ones that started with the number.
We are selective. When we don't see a clear path to ROI, we say so openly and we don't take the project.
Executives at billion-dollar companies
Entrepreneurs · businesses in the millions
Network · PhDs and master's degrees
Selective: no ROI, no project
How we operate
We bring this experience into the X-Ray and the diagnosis, and when the project calls for it we assemble a dedicated squad to execute, with the right specialist for each problem.
// quem lidera
Lucas Rolim
Founder and Principal Partner
Director of Data & AI at major startups, and today leads the build of AI agents at one of the region's largest technology companies. Master's from UFRJ, with training in business and innovation at Stanford and data strategy at Berkeley.
View on LinkedIn07 /Stack
No extra vendor on your desk.
We know you do not want another vendor, and you do not want another license contract.
Anthropic
Google Cloud
LangChain
Agno
Pydantic AI
BigQuery
Databricks
AWS
Kubernetes
Apache Airflow
Postgres08 /From the lab
What we're thinking about
Why most AI projects fail before they even start
The space between the promise and the operation is where ROI gets lost. A guide for anyone who doesn't want to fund another proof of concept.
Your business no longer has to fit inside a piece of software
For 30 years the company shaped itself around the system. The game changed, and here's what that means in practice.
The number filter: how we decide what to build
Not every problem calls for AI. Here's how we pick the ones that pay for themselves.
Newsletter
AI that pays for itself, straight to your inbox
What we learn building AI agents in real operations. No hype, no spam.
09 /Questions
What every owner asks
What if there's no ROI?
That's exactly what the X-Ray and the diagnosis are for. You see the number before investing in the build. If there is no clear opportunity, we tell you on the spot. We only build what pays for itself.
What's the difference between the X-Ray and the diagnosis?
The X-Ray is a conversation to map opportunities, and you leave with a one-pager. The diagnosis is the deep dive. We get inside the operation and turn every opportunity into a number. What it's worth, how long it takes to pay for itself, and what it takes to get off the ground.
My data is a mess and everything lives in chat and spreadsheets.
That's the rule, not the exception. We build for real operations, not for slides.
Will I be locked into you?
No. The base is open source and you own what we deliver. We also train your team and leave the project ready for them to maintain. No lock-in, no hostage contract.
How much does it cost?
The X-Ray costs $100, free for companies above $2M in revenue with 20+ employees. Diagnosis and build are quoted per project and agreed upfront, no surprises.
Do I need a technical team?
No. We deliver it working. If you want your team to learn how to run it, that's what the mentoring is for.
10 /Contact
Let's find where AI pays for itself in your company.
Book your Opportunity X-Ray. Free for companies above $2M in revenue with 20+ employees. No pitch, no runaround. You leave with a one-pager showing where AI actually returns.
How it works
- 01Tell us about your operation in the form
- 02Within 48 hours we reply with a first read
- 03If it makes sense, we book the X-Ray
Prefer to learn how to do it with your team? See the mentoring.