Continuous Engineering Press
Rented Intelligence
A Founder's Guide to Building a Business When the Model Isn't Yours
Publishing October 2026
Read a sampleSold on Amazon. The Amazon link appears here when the book is published.
“Start with nothing. Build on a model you do not own.”
About the book
Two founders have 3.2 months of runway. Their product runs on an AI model they do not own.
They are On-the-Line, a two-person company with no funding and an AI agent that answers the phone for local service businesses. Their first customer pays $149 a month, and after the phone and AI bills $50 of it is theirs. Then the provider changes its prices, and the $50 is $14.
Each chapter gives you the next thing a founder needs: a runway number, five customer interviews, a contract, a forecast, a hiring brief. It is shown filled in for On-the-Line, so you can fill in yours.
Inside the book
What it covers
Each chapter gives you the next thing a founder needs, and shows it filled in for On-the-Line so you can fill in yours.
Your runway
Your runway in months, and the date you stop.
One-page reports
One-page reports you can use tomorrow.
Blank templates
41 blank templates, each one shown filled in.
Read a sample
In Year 1, Month 9, an email says the model provider of On-the-Line (OtL) is changing its prices in six days. The model fee for an average customer goes from $61 to $97 a month, and OtL's margin from $50 to $14. There is no price lock. The company had not planned for it. It rented, and the landlord raised the rent.
From Chapter 3, Rented Intelligence
In Year 1, Month 0, two people with $11,400 between them add up their costs: $3,600 a month. $11,400 divided by $3,600 is 3.2 months. That number is their runway: the months they can pay their costs with no income. Nobody had said it aloud. This chapter gives you your own runway, one move to borrow credibility this week, and the date and numbers at which you stop and take a job.
From Chapter 1, Starting From Zero
In Year 1, Month 4, On-the-Line (OtL) has one paying customer at $149 a month. The customer's calls cost $99 to serve, so each customer leaves $50, and fixed costs, the bills that stay the same however many customers you have, are $600. At today's margin, twelve customers stop the losing. This chapter gives you your own number, and a 13-week forecast that shows the next bill coming.
From Chapter 9, Money
Contents
Part I. Before You Build (3)
- 1. Starting From Zero: No Capital, No Network, No Track Record
- 2. Customer and Market Reality: Five Conversations Before You Build
- 3. Rented Intelligence: Building a Business on a Model You Do Not Own
Part II. Build and Sell the First Version (5)
- 4. AI Leverage for the Solo Founder: Vibe Coding, Prospecting and Social Media, and What Breaks
- 5. Selling: From First Call to Yes
- 6. Pipeline and Forecast: The Weekly Review That Replaces a Sales Manager
- 7. Accounts and Customers: Keep Them, Grow Them, Learn From Them
- 8. Operating an AI Product: Quality, Incidents and the Bad-Output Playbook
Part III. Make the Numbers and the Paper Work (2)
- 9. Money: Unit Economics, Cash and the Day the Price Changes
- 10. Legal and Structural Foundations: The Mistakes That Cost Most to Undo
Part IV. Raise, Negotiate, Decide (3)
- 11. Fundraising and Capital Strategy: Whether to Raise at All
- 12. Negotiation and Deal-Making: The Five Negotiations You Will Actually Have
- 13. Strategic Decision-Making Under Uncertainty: Deciding Well Without the Data
Part V. Build the Team (1)
- 14. Operations, Hiring and Team: Your First Hire and Everything Around It
Part VI. Stay Standing and Grow (3)
- 15. Leadership and Personal Resilience: Staying Functional When It Is Hard
- 16. Growth, Scaling and Exit: Raise, Stay Small, Sell or Close
- Capstone: Four Pages, One Decision
Back matter (5)
- Glossary
- Appendix A: Templates
- Appendix B: Role-Play Drills
- Appendix C: The On-the-Line Year
- Appendix D: Sources and Notes
What you can do after Monday
- Take each chapter at the pace of one real week: read it, then do its exercise on your own venture, which ends in a one-page report.
- Write down your runway in months, and the date you stop.
- Fill in the template for each report. Every report has one in the appendix, and you may copy and use it.
Free to read and use
All 41 blank templates, T0 to T40, and six worked examples for the book's running company. Free to copy and use. Credit the source.
Who it is for
The young, first-time founder with little money, no network and no track record.
Each chapter ends in a one-page report, short enough to read in thirty seconds.
Start with nothing. Build on a model you do not own.
About the author
Shree Mandadi is a serial entrepreneur and mentor, and Founder and Principal at Continuous Engineering, with thirty years in engineering, twenty of them in healthcare-adjacent work. He leads a small San Diego-based practice that audits, advises and implements AI adoption for organizations moving from pilot to production.
Parts of this book were written with Anthropic's Claude, and its images were generated with AI image tools.
Continuous Engineering works with founders and small teams on AI roadmaps, adoption and builds. Work with us.