RAND's 2024 root-cause study cites prior industry estimates of >80% AI project failure — failure modes are organizational, not model-quality. Frontier token prices fell 10–50× per year (a16z, Epoch AI), but reasoning-tier pricing is 10–30× higher and the suppliers admit they're losing money. The window for cheap AI experimentation is closing. We get you AI-native — strategy + platform — before it does.
RAND 2024 (Ryseff et al.) studied 65 practitioners — AI failure modes are misaligned goals, weak data foundations, infrastructure gaps. Cite-cap and audit-by-design fix exactly these.
Token prices fell 10–50×/yr (a16z LLMflation, Epoch AI). Reasoning-tier now 10–30× pricier; cheap legacy models retiring on schedule; OpenAI publicly losing money on Pro. Cheap experiments end ≤24 mo.
EO 14028, NIST AI RMF, FCRA expansion, CMMC 2.0 — all require AI decision-level auditability. ARKONA was multi-tenant + cite-cap + US-only-AI from commit zero.
Intrepid sells exactly two things. Strategic consulting that maps your AI and cyber posture to the regulations that govern you, and the AI-native platform that operates the strategy after we leave. No hands-on assessment, no hourly advisory, no firmware work — we refer that out.
Cognitive Operations & Mission Effectiveness Taxonomy
Five-rung fixed-price ladder, scored across five governance domains (Conceptual · Operational · Mission · Engineering · Transition). Operationalized through Voyager — our governance dashboard that scores your posture, aligns it to NIST AI RMF, and exports Capella/Arcadia MBSE artifacts your architecture team can keep.
| Briefing | Half-day workshop. 1-page heat-map of your posture vs. your regulators. |
| Discovery | Two-week inventory + framework scoring (CMMC, NIST 800-53, FCRA). |
| Assessment | Six-week deep evaluation in Voyager. Prioritized remediation roadmap + current/future-state model. |
| Implementation | Build phase. Deploy ARKONA + integrate with your stack. |
| Retainer | Ongoing fractional governance + platform operations. |
Multi-tenant, audit-by-design, US-only models.
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Intrepid is a Maryland-based innovation firm founded by two brothers, hungry to add tangible value to the businesses we partner with and the operators we serve. Together we bring 35+ years of combined experience across Government, GovCon, and corporate infrastructure. We don't sell hours. We sell outcomes that hold up under regulator scrutiny, plus the AI-native platform (ARKONA) that operates the strategy between engagements.
Cybersecurity engineer. Built the platform stack. PhD in AI/ML beginning September 2026. Deep federal-contracting background. Holds the Maryland LLC. The ARKONA platform itself runs at arkonaresearch.com — that's where you can see what we ship.
[email protected]Operations and business leadership across COMET engagements + ARKONA platform commercialization. Corporate-infrastructure background brings the operator's lens to every assessment.
[email protected]One email. One sentence about what your auditor is asking for — or where your AI initiative stalled. We respond inside two business days with a Briefing scope and a calendar window. The Briefing is a half-day workshop; output is a 1-page heat-map of your posture vs. your regulators plus a comprehensive report on AI implementation. The heat-map and report are yours; no commitment to climb the COMET ladder. Contact us for full pricing and scoping.