Minimum Viable Automation - Get Your First Compounding Wins
May 27, 2025
The real power of AI in venture building isn’t speed. It’s leverage.
At first, it’s small: You take a task you do every day, write a half-decent prompt, save 10–15 minutes. -> Nice. But basic.
Then you realize what AI can do with the non-repetitive, high-impact work—the kind that used to take days or weeks. Building a studio thesis. Validating a niche. Writing a founder brief. Synthesize a sprint review.
It’s not one magic prompt. It’s a workflow upgrade. That’s where the real leverage kicks in. But to get there, you need one simple rule:
Don’t try to automate everything. Start with one flywheel.
That’s what the Minimum Viable Automation (MVA) Canvas is for. It helps you pick a task, test an AI-powered version, and build momentum. Without overbuilding or stalling.
Let’s break it down.
Stop Waiting for Perfect
AI adoption stalls when leaders wait for the perfect tool, stack, or use case. But momentum doesn’t come from plans. It comes from wins. In practice, you learn AI by doing. You don’t need to think like a systems architect. You need to act like an operator. The path to an AI-native studio doesn’t start with a roadmap. It starts with one prompt that works.
Let’s get practical. You don’t need to deploy agents or integrate half a dozen tools to get started. You need to pick one business-relevant task, and apply structured progression. Prompt → Repeat → Automate → Scale.
Zero to Prompt: Learn to Talk to AI
Prompting is now a core leadership skill. It’s not about using fancy syntax or knowing every prompt engineering guide. It’s about giving clear, complete instructions. Just like you would to a new team member. Including only five elements is already good enout. Clear intent (what you want), context (what it needs to know), format (what kind of output you expect), constraints (any limits or requirements), and tone (how it should sound). When in doubt, ask the AI to improve your prompt:
“Improve this prompt using current prompting best practices: [insert your draft]”
You’ll get a better version, and learn from the edits. Bonus tip: If you have the option to change between models, ask: “For this improved prompt I want to execute, which model should I choose for best results?"
You don’t need a stack to get started. If you’re using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, Deepseek or Perplexity, you’re already holding the tool. The key is to apply it to real, wasteful tasks in your current work.
- Turn notes into an investor memo. Structure it as a compelling 1-pager.
- Generate customer discovery questions that avoid bias.
- Create agendas and materials for founder workshops or internal AI onboarding.
The goal here isn’t volume, but reducing friction. These are small, self-contained wins. Each one gives you small but immediate returns on your time investment. And once you get comfortable with prompting, you can move into heavier lifting. Still using a single AI assistant: Every one of these tasks was manual before. Now each one becomes a repeatable win.
Minimum Viable Automation: Your First Real System
The next leap is to turn isolated wins into repeatable systems. That’s where MVA comes in. With Minimum Viable Automation you automate one specific business task. This isn’t about replacing humans. It’s about freeing up time so you can focus on higher value tasks.
(Download a free, printer-friendly version of the MVA Canvas at venturespeed.ai/mvacanvas )
Here’s the process:
Step 1: Identify the Right Task
Use a simple 2x2 matrix. On one axis: how often the task occurs. On the other: how resource-heavy it is. The top right quadrant is where you find high frequency + high effort tasks. That’s your goldmine. Think of recurring investor updates, screening startup applications, or summarizing idea validation documents.
Step 2: Visualize the Workflow
Don’t write code. Sketch the process from input to output. Make it as detailed as possible. Who triggers it? What data comes in? What’s the desired result? Can a single prompt handle it, or do you need a series?
Step 3: Make a Reality Check
Ask yourself: Can this run on ChatGPT alone? Does it need a workflow tool like Zapier or Make? Do you need structured data, or just text input? Start simple, focus on what’s possible with your current AI skill level. If you are a beginner, then choose a task with a simple linear process flow that doesn’t need integrations.
Step 4: Build and Test
Spend 2–3 focused hours creating your first version. Write the prompt stack. Run manual tests. If you are already an AI power user, hook it into a basic workflow tool. Ask AI to help you debug. If the results are inconsistent, revise. If they’re good enough, move on.
Step 5: Measure ROI
Look at your before and after: time saved, accuracy improved, or decisions made faster. Track the business impact, not just technical success.
Step 6: Repeat MVA with Another Task
If it works, document it and delegate it to AI or a junior team member. Then repeat the cycle. This is how your studio builds AI muscle—one workflow at a time.
Step 7: Inspire your Team
If you could do it, then your team members can do it too. Share your experiment, your learnings, your success with others. Let them find their first repeatable wins.
Mini Case Study: ProdOps – An MVA That Outgrew the Studio
Revelry is a New Orleans-based software development firm with its internal startup studio arm. Within this studio, they developed ProdOps, an AI-powered platform designed to automate their routine product management tasks.
“User story creation, a once arduous task of pure tedium, now flickers by in a swift 10 seconds.”
The implementation led to significant productivity gains within the company. By automating a few high-frequency tasks, teams could focus more on strategic work. The success of ProdOps within Revelry turned into a spin-out. They are now a standalone product and company.
This case perfectly demonstrates the potential of Minimum Viable Automation principle. By automating specific, high-impact tasks, they achieved substantial efficiency gains without blowing up their entire organization.
One Small Step You Can Take Now
Look at your weekly agenda. Pick one recurring task you hate doing. Then ask:
“How could I automate this task using MVA and AI? ”
Slice it up into small work steps. Write the first prompt. Run the test. Celebrate every new MVA you create.
Download the MVA Canvas with a guided example here:
https://www.venturespeed.ai/mvacanvas
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