Proposal · April 2026
DNA Behavior,
as software
that scales.

What BraceYourself Solutions builds when twenty years of behavioral science meets AI-native platform development.

From Ethan Brace, BraceYourself Solutions

01Where this started.

Leon asked me to identify one or two proof-of-concept projects. Something small enough to ship fast, real enough to show what the partnership produces. I landed on three. The thinking is simple: DNA Behavior has spent twenty years proving that personalization should start from how a person is actually wired, not their demographics. BraceYourself has spent the last year learning that AI collapses what used to be a ten-person platform build into a one-person six-week ship. Those two things fit together in ways worth exploring on the ground before talking about the bigger picture.

I'm writing this the way Hugh asked for it on the call: the work itself up front, the logic behind the pricing where it matters, and the Atlanta conversation sketched clearly enough that Hugh can bring it into his next meeting with the firm.

Leon, this is the answer to your ask. A week later than I said. One sentence on that, then onward: the delay was judgment, not avoidance. I wanted to bring a complete picture rather than a rough one.

"You can't say that two people living in the same cul-de-sac with a million dollars, two kids, and a wife are exactly the same person. But that's how a lot of models today are driven."

Hugh Massie · April 3, 2026

Anchor project

02Before the three POCs:
one sprint, one deliverable.

The three POC projects each take five to six weeks and cost real money. A one-week build at $12K lets the working relationship prove itself first. Pick any slice from the capability menu. Here's what gets built in that week.

i.
Scope lock with Hugh and Leon Day one: agree on the slice. One clear deliverable from the capability menu, scoped to what's shippable in five days. No ambiguity going in.
ii.
Live API integration Build against DNA Behavior's real assessment and behavioral data API. Not a mock. The sprint runs on your actual data layer from day one.
iii.
Working software, end of week A functional system, not a prototype. Delivered Friday. Hugh and Leon own the output outright, whether the partnership continues or not.
iv.
Debrief and next decision End-of-week review: what it showed, what the POC path looks like from here, and whether the working relationship is worth extending.

"One concrete thing in your hands before any larger commitment. The compression is genuine: one focused operator with modern AI tooling moves at a pace a staffed project team cannot match."

$12,000 fixed  ·  1 week start to delivery  ·  you own the output

03What I'd build first.

Three projects. Each small enough to ship inside six weeks, each designed to prove what the partnership is rather than describe it.

POC 01
Digitize a DNA Behavior Training Program

Take one existing in-person training program and convert it into a complete digital experience. Participants move through the material at their own pace, but the material moves with them based on how they're wired.

  • Participant onboarding via the Natural Behavior Discovery assessment
  • AI-guided, profile-adaptive content: an Engager, a Reflective Thinker, and an Influencer receive meaningfully different prompts and reflections at the same point in the curriculum
  • Embedded behavioral coaching checkpoints drawn from DNA Behavior's existing content library
  • Completion tracking and a certification artifact
  • Admin dashboard for DNA Behavior to monitor cohort progress

Why this is a real proof: it shows the API integration with your existing assessment engine, the AI layer that personalizes from behavioral data rather than persona segments, and the platform-layer UX. It also becomes the first reference for every future training digitization conversation.

$48K
Fixed fee
One advisor who completes this program and retains one client at a $10K fee covers it. Twice over if they scale it across a cohort.
6 wks
Start to delivery
POC 02
SDK Client Demo Build

Pick one DNA Behavior client, or a composite built from patterns Leon and Hugh see repeatedly, and build the platform they'd want on top of the DNA Behavior API. White-labeled, fully functional: a financial advisor's client-facing tool, a leadership development cohort, an onboarding journey.

  • Full white-label build using DNA Behavior's API as the behavioral data layer
  • Client's coaching, advisory, or onboarding process rendered on top
  • Works as a live demonstration and as a reference architecture simultaneously

Why this is a real proof: it becomes a sales asset for DNA Behavior before it becomes anything else. Any future client who wants their own branded platform gets shown this first. It is the demo, the template, and the reference architecture in one deliverable.

$38K
Fixed fee
A single enterprise SaaS seat at $150/user/month across 200 advisors runs $360K per year. This replaces a slice of that permanently, owned once.
5 wks
Start to delivery
POC 03
Behavioral-First Advisor Cockpit

A unified dashboard for a financial advisor managing multiple client relationships. Each client's DNA Behavior profile, financial behavior score, and market-mood signal appears alongside the advisor's next-best actions, surfaced by the system, not assembled by hand.

  • Advisor opens Monday morning: "Three clients whose market-mood score spiked this week. One of them you haven't contacted in 45 days. His profile shows poor tolerance for silence during volatility."
  • Every insight is driven by the DNA Behavior data layer, not a static CRM field
  • Real-time signal monitoring with behavioral context, not just activity logs

Why this is a real proof: it is directly demonstrable to the 200-advisor Atlanta firm before the enterprise consolidation conversation. It shows what the consolidated platform feels like for one advisor, and scales the proof without requiring a full enterprise build first.

$52K
Fixed fee
For a 200-advisor firm, Salesforce Financial Services Cloud runs $300+/user/month. The cockpit routes that spend directly into DNA Behavior's platform instead.
6 wks
Start to delivery

05Priced against the problem.

Every number below is set against a specific cost that the Atlanta firm is already paying: 65+ tech stacks, manual assembly, and enterprise licensing that doesn’t know what a Financial DNA score is. The math should feel obvious.

Start small

Prove it in a week.
One sprint, one deliverable.

Pick any one capability from the menu in Section 03. I scope it to something shippable in five days, build it against DNA Behavior’s real API, and hand it over. Hugh and Leon own the deliverable outright, whether the partnership continues or not.

An agency would quote 8 to 12 weeks and $60K to $120K for work in the same category. The compression comes from one operator running modern AI tooling with no handoffs, no coordination overhead, no account manager layers. That’s not a promotional rate. It’s what one focused builder replaces a team with.

For DNA Behavior, the sprint means you can feel the working relationship and see shipped output before committing to a five-week POC. One week, one concrete thing in your hands, then you decide.

$12K
Fixed, all in
1 wk
Start to delivery
You own it.
No strings on the output

The 200-advisor Atlanta firm has already considered three paths to consolidation. This proposal exists because the fourth option, this one, puts more of the spend on the built thing itself and less on overhead, licensing, and consultants who leave after the pilot.

Option A
Hire an internal AI team
~$600K / yrfully loaded, 6+ mo to first ship
Senior AI engineer plus two supporting hires. Six months to staff, six more to ship anything production-grade. The behavioral IP stays separate from the platform the whole time.
Option B
Enterprise AI platform
$150–$400 / user / moSalesforce Einstein, Microsoft Copilot
Generic co-pilots that don’t know what an Engager is, what a Financial DNA score means, or how behavioral style should change the next-best-action. The platform doesn’t speak DNA Behavior.
Option C
Big consultancy
$400K–$800KDeloitte, Accenture · deck + pilot
Premium rates, bureaucratic delivery, no operator when the engagement ends. The pilot ships. The follow-through doesn’t. DNA Behavior’s IP gets abstracted into a framework the firm doesn’t own.
Option D
Me + DNA Behavior
Phase 1: $180Kbehavioral IP intact, ships in 90 days
Fixed price. Operator stays after delivery. DNA Behavior’s psychometric layer is built in from day one, not bolted on. The firm owns the platform. Phases 2 and 3 scoped after Phase 1 lands.

Reference ranges: Option A based on 2026 senior AI engineer fully loaded cost estimates. Option B: Salesforce Einstein and Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 published rates per user per month. Option C: Deloitte and Accenture AI transformation engagement benchmarks across mid-market and enterprise scopes.

Discovery sprint with Hugh and Leon
Lock the story. What the firm sees, what the pitch is, what Phase 1 looks like. One week of focused alignment before anything gets built. Less than one day of a Big Four consulting partner’s time.
$8,000
Interactive demo build
Live consolidated advisor cockpit, synthetic dataset, demonstrable in the meeting room. Three weeks. One month of a single Salesforce FSC seat at scale. The demo closes that spend permanently.
$22,000
Presentation-ready roadmap
Phase 1 / 2 / 3 breakdown with per-phase pricing the firm can say yes to directly. A deliverable that does the selling between the meeting and the signed contract.
$5,000
Total Atlanta prep
Fixed-price to win the room. Three deliverables, five weeks of work. If the firm signs Phase 1, the prep cost becomes a line item in a much larger number.
$35,000
Phase 1 if the firm says yes
Advisor cockpit, DNA Behavior integration, and the first AI co-pilot. Behavioral IP built in from day one. Fixed price. Four months. A single enterprise SaaS contract the firm avoids buying covers Phase 1 in year one: at $300/user/month across 200 advisors, that’s $720K annually.
$180,000
Ongoing operation and tuning
Per system, monthly. The thing that kills most enterprise AI is the absence of an operator after launch. This is me keeping your systems working, tuned, and adapted as the behavioral data and the firm’s needs evolve.
from $4K / mo

Partnership economics (revenue share, fixed-fee, or equity) are a separate conversation once the Atlanta firm is signed.

06How I build.

Week 1
I sit in your seats. Understand the training material, the advisors, the behavioral data model, the existing friction. No code in week one. The work in week one is learning what the work actually is.
Weeks 2–5 or 2–12
Working software, weekly. Demos every Friday. Course corrections in real time. You see what’s being built while it’s being built. No reveal at week six, no surprises at delivery.
Ongoing
Per-project operation and tuning. Priced monthly from $4,000. Nothing stays theoretical. If the system needs to change as the data changes, I’m the one who changes it.

Every POC above is fixed-price, fully scoped, and ships a working system. Not a deck and a plan.

One small thing I owe you: I completed the Work Talent assessment after the call. Result: Engager, which tracks. I haven’t finished the full DNA Natural Behavior Discovery. That’s a gap I’m aware of, and one worth naming directly in a proposal built on the premise that behavioral foundation matters. I’ll have it done before our next call. Not because it changes what I’d build, but because the whole premise of this partnership is that starting from how someone is actually wired produces better work. That includes mine.

07A 45-minute call to pick one.

No commitment today. The call costs nothing and produces the first concrete move: sprint or POC, when kickoff happens, and how to pre-wire the Atlanta timeline if the timing is right.

Ethan Brace
BraceYourself Solutions