# Anyway Ventures

> Anyway Ventures Ltd is an AI operating partner for private-equity-backed and mid-market businesses in the UK. It does technology, product and AI due diligence before a deal, acts as a retained AI operating partner that a fund deploys into the deal or portfolio company with the strongest AI value case, and embeds inside companies to put internal tooling, automation and AI agents into production with their teams. It is led by Brannan Coady, an exited founder (co-founder and CEO of Netsells, which merged with hedgehog lab backed by BGF), former CEO of YourParkingSpace (sold as part of Flowbird Group to EasyPark, now Arrive), co-founder of Railguard (sold to Trainline), investor and non-executive director, with a small senior bench. Based in York, working UK-wide.

Who it is for: PE deal teams, fund partners and portfolio directors at lower-mid-market funds; CEOs, COOs and owner-managers of mid-market businesses.

How engagements work: every enquiry starts with a free 30-minute call. Work is fixed price against an outcome, done by senior people only (Brannan leads every engagement), and built in the client's own systems so it can be handed over. The one metric reported on every engagement is hours returned to the business per month, and what is still running unattended six months later.

## Services

- [Tech, product & AI due diligence](https://anywayventures.com/ai-due-diligence): Tech, product and AI due diligence for PE deal teams. Fixed quote in 48 hours, IC session inside 4 weeks, and a costed AI value-creation plan in the IC pack.
- [Fractional AI operating partner](https://anywayventures.com/ai-operating-partner): A retained AI operating partner for lower mid-market PE funds, deployed into the deal or portfolio company with the strongest AI value case.
- [Embedded AI delivery](https://anywayventures.com/embedded-ai-delivery): Four-to-eight-week engagements inside your business: internal tooling, automation and agents in production, built with your team and handed over.
- [Hands-on AI training](https://anywayventures.com/ai-training): In-person AI training for business teams: every employee builds a working tool on their own job. Build days at your offices in Yorkshire and UK-wide.
- [Fractional Chief AI Officer](https://anywayventures.com/fractional-chief-ai-officer): A fractional Chief AI Officer for UK mid-market businesses: owns AI on your leadership team two to four days a month, and puts working systems live.
- [Board & NED](https://anywayventures.com/board-and-ned): A small number of NED and board seats where technology, product and AI decide the outcome.
- [For private equity & investors](https://anywayventures.com/private-equity): A senior AI operator retained by the fund and deployed into the deal or portfolio company with the best value case: diligence, delivery and board seats.

## Indicative pricing

- Tech, product & AI due diligence: £15–40k. Fixed, by strands commissioned and target size. Quoted the same week.
- Embedded sprint, 2–3 weeks: £20–35k. Paid discovery week can be commissioned first at £8–12k and credited.
- Tooling, automation & agents: £30–120k. Fixed against the agreed outcome; 4–8 weeks.
- Retained AI operating partner: £8–15k/mo. 2–4 days a month, deployed where the fund chooses. Annual term; delivery priced separately.
- Board & NED roles: From £5k/mo. Non-executive and board advisory seats where technology, product and AI decide the outcome. Annual term.
- Hands-on AI build training: £5–18k. In person at your offices, up to 12 people per cohort. A one-day build day from £5k; a four-session build programme up to £18k.
- Fractional Chief AI Officer: £6–12k/mo. 2–4 days a month on your leadership team, first builds included. Six-month minimum, then one month's notice; larger builds priced separately.

## About

- [Brannan Coady](https://anywayventures.com/brannan-coady): Co-founder and CEO of Netsells (merged with hedgehog lab, BGF), former CEO of YourParkingSpace, investor and NED. Now building AI in PE-backed businesses.
- [Track record](https://anywayventures.com/track-record): Companies founded and sold, investments and board positions held, recent client work.
- [Case studies](https://anywayventures.com/case-studies): Anonymised recent engagements with the numbers: hours returned per month, time to production, what still runs at six months.
- [How we work & pricing](https://anywayventures.com/how-we-work): Fixed price against an outcome, senior hands only, built to be handed over. Indicative price bands for diligence, sprints, builds and retained roles.
- [Questions we get asked](https://anywayventures.com/questions): Straight answers on who does the work, tools, confidentiality, speed, geography and fit.

## Insights

- [How to train staff on AI so the work actually changes](https://anywayventures.com/insights/how-to-train-staff-on-ai): Most AI training is a lecture or a prompt session, and on Monday the work looks the same. Here is the programme I would run instead: small cohorts, real tasks, a working build per person and a six-week check.
- [Vibe coding for non-developers: what to build, what not to](https://anywayventures.com/insights/vibe-coding-for-non-developers): AI coding assistants and no-code tools mean a finance analyst can build a working internal tool in an afternoon. Here is what that looks like, and the guardrails a delivery firm would put round it.
- [EU AI Act AI literacy: what UK businesses actually need to do](https://anywayventures.com/insights/eu-ai-act-ai-literacy-uk-businesses): Article 4 of the EU AI Act reaches more UK companies than most assume, and asks for less than most training vendors claim. Here is when it applies, what changed in July 2026, and a record you can keep.
- [Free AI training in the UK: the government courses, reviewed](https://anywayventures.com/insights/free-ai-training-uk-government-courses): The government's free AI courses are genuinely useful and cost nothing but time. They won't change how your team works on Monday. Here is what they're good for, what the levy can pay for, and where paid training earns its cost.
- [Copilot vs ChatGPT vs Claude for business: how to choose](https://anywayventures.com/insights/copilot-vs-chatgpt-vs-claude-for-business): Most tool decisions are made on a demo and a headline. Choose on the work your people actually do and where your data already lives, then train them to build on it.
- [AI policy template for UK businesses (free, copy and adapt)](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-policy-template-uk): A usable, ungated AI acceptable use policy you can copy into your own handbook this week, with a traffic-light data table, and the reason a policy only works once people are trained on it.
- [How much does an AI consultant cost in the UK?](https://anywayventures.com/insights/how-much-does-an-ai-consultant-cost-uk): Day rates, strategy reports, fixed-price builds, retainers and training days, side by side. What each costs, what you actually get, and how to tell whether it will pay back.
- [Fractional chief AI officer: do you need one, and what for?](https://anywayventures.com/insights/fractional-chief-ai-officer): A guide for CEOs and owners of £10m to £200m businesses: when a fractional CAIO makes sense, how it compares with a fractional CTO, a consultant or a full-time hire, and how to judge one in 90 days.
- [AI for finance teams: where it saves time and where it doesn't](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-for-finance-teams): A vendor-neutral, ranked list of where AI earns its place in a mid-market finance function, the controls your auditors will ask about, and a six-week plan.
- [How much does it cost to build an AI agent? A UK breakdown](https://anywayventures.com/insights/how-much-does-it-cost-to-build-an-ai-agent): The build quote is the number everyone asks about and the one that matters least. Here is the full cost of ownership, line by line, against the work it removes.
- [AI disruption risk assessment: will AI hollow out the target?](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-disruption-risk-assessment): AI washing covers targets that overclaim AI. This covers the other problem: targets that AI threatens. An eight-factor grid, the evidence to request, and what the score should do to the deal.
- [AI due diligence for private equity: what to test before you sign](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-due-diligence-private-equity): Most AI diligence reports check whether the target's AI is real and stop there. That is one job of three, and it is rarely the one that moves the price.
- [Technology due diligence checklist for private equity deals](https://anywayventures.com/insights/technology-due-diligence-checklist): Every tech DD checklist covers the same ground. The useful ones say which answers should change the price, the structure or the first 100 days.
- [AI washing: how to test a target's AI claims in due diligence](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-washing-due-diligence): When the equity story leans on AI, the diligence question is simple. Take the AI away: what's left, and what does it cost to keep it running?
- [How to build an AI value creation plan for a portfolio company](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-value-creation-plan): A working method, step by step: where the hours go, what to rank first, how to size it in pounds, and how to report it so the exit story is evidenced rather than asserted.
- [What does an AI operating partner do in private equity?](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-operating-partner-private-equity): Plenty of funds now say they want one. Far fewer can describe the job. Here is what it contains, how a fund should deploy it, and how to tell in year one whether it's working.
- [Board questions about AI: what to ask every quarter](https://anywayventures.com/insights/board-questions-about-ai): Boards tend to ignore AI or demand a strategy deck about it. Both are mistakes. A short list of questions, asked every quarter and answered with evidence, does far more.
- [Why AI pilots fail, and what the survivors do differently](https://anywayventures.com/insights/why-ai-pilots-fail): The failure statistics are real. The usual reading of them is lazy. Most pilots are lost in the first fortnight, on decisions that have nothing to do with the model.
- [How to measure AI ROI: hours returned, not licences bought](https://anywayventures.com/insights/measuring-ai-roi): Most AI ROI numbers are either never measured or quietly made up. Here is a method a CFO can sign, from baseline to payback to the six-month test.
- [AI agents for business: where they work and where they don't](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-agents-for-business-operations): Most of what gets sold as an agent is a workflow with a model call in the middle. That's usually the right answer. Here is how to tell when it isn't.
- [How to implement AI in a mid-sized UK business: a 90-day plan](https://anywayventures.com/insights/how-to-implement-ai-mid-market-business): UK AI adoption has tripled and barely gone deeper. Here is the 90-day plan I would run in a £10m to £200m business with no data science team.
- [AI due diligence is a value-creation plan, not a risk register](https://anywayventures.com/insights/ai-due-diligence-value-creation-plan): Most funds now ask 'what's the AI risk?' in diligence. The better question is what AI makes this business worth, how fast, and what the IC paper should say about it.
- [Why mid-market funds can't hire an AI operating partner](https://anywayventures.com/insights/why-mid-market-funds-cant-hire-an-ai-operating-partner): The people who can do the job are scarce, expensive, and mostly don't want a full-time seat at a £300m fund. There's a better structure, and it costs far less per portfolio company.
- [You bought the licences and nothing changed](https://anywayventures.com/insights/you-bought-the-licences-and-nothing-changed): The most common AI failure in mid-market businesses isn't technical. The tools arrived, a few people loved them, and the work didn't move.

## Common questions

- Is it really you doing the work? Yes. Brannan leads and does the work on every engagement. Where more hands are needed, senior engineers, designers and security specialists he has worked with for years join — and he stays in the room. No juniors, no hand-off after the pitch.
- How is this different from a consultancy or an agency? Fixed price against an outcome rather than day rates; one senior person accountable end to end; and everything built in your stack so nothing depends on us afterwards. The one number we report on every engagement is hours returned to the business per month — and what's still running, unattended, six months after we've left.
- Which AI tools and models do you use? Whatever fits the job and your existing vendors, with a bias towards what's boring and reliable in production. We're not tied to any provider and will tell you plainly where a simpler non-AI fix is the better answer.
- How do you handle our data and confidentiality? NDA before any code or data is seen. Work is done in your accounts and environments so data doesn't leave your control. Client work is described anonymously unless you choose otherwise.
- How fast can you start? Diligence is quoted within 48 hours and starts within a week, built around your exclusivity window. Embedded and build work is booked in blocks; ask about the next available window.
- Do you work outside the UK? Based in York, working across the UK on site, and remotely with European portfolios where the fund is UK-based.
- Do you invest as well as advise? Yes, small personal cheques into early UK software and consumer businesses — usually with time attached. It's a separate conversation from advisory work and we're careful about conflicts.
- What if you're not the right fit? We'll say so on the first call and point you to someone who is. The first conversation is free precisely so that's cheap for both sides.

## Contact

- Email: brannan@anywayventures.com
- [Enquire](https://anywayventures.com/contact): Every enquiry starts with the same free 30-minute call. Tech and AI due diligence, AI operating partner roles, embedded AI delivery, board seats and investment.
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brannancoady

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