What took ten people now takes one.
Public Beta is a venture studio building the operating layer for the post-AI era — and proving it on lean, default-alive companies we run ourselves. betarouter is the spine. Every venture we launch makes the next one better.
2 companies live · 1 venture slot open · portfolio runs on betarouter
Why now.
The cost collapse is real. AI has collapsed the marginal cost of the most expensive work inside a company — content, code, support, analysis, the glue between them. The org chart hasn’t caught up.
The layer is missing. Today a lean founder stitches it together — an agency here, a half-broken automation there. Inference, distribution, and AI operations remain unbundled.
The window is open. Whoever packages that layer — and proves it on real companies — owns the next wave of company formation.
The layer, in four parts.
betarouter
The spineHow a tiny team runs production AI without hiring an AI platform team. One gateway for every model — with the cost governance, failover, observability, and agent traces a real business needs. Every Public Beta venture routes its inference through it. routing · cost control · evals · observability
Distribution engineering
The demand sideDemand is the scarce asset, so we treat growth as an engineering problem — owned audiences, content systems, and community, built in-house and applied to every company we run. Operating leverage without demand just helps a company fail more efficiently. growth systems · content · community
AI operations
The workforceAgents run support, content, research, and reporting across the portfolio — measured, not marketed. The numbers we hold ourselves to are the ones we’ll publish. agent ops · automation · reporting
Beta Studio
The engine roomAI implementation for client businesses, end to end — custom agents, intelligent automation, and the training that makes teams AI-native. It funds the studio and surfaces venture signal from real operating problems. services · managed deployment · R&D
How the studio compounds.
Every bet must strengthen the spine, strengthen distribution, or produce cash. Anything else dies.
The portfolio.
betarouter
The AI gateway for lean companies. One API for every model — with the cost governance, failover, and observability a production business actually needs. Built for teams that ship real workloads without a platform team — because in AI infrastructure, trust and workflow beat price. Public Beta is its anchor customer.
betarouter.com →Beta Studio
AI implementation, end to end — custom agents, intelligent automation, and managed deployments for client businesses. The studio’s cash engine, and its clearest view into what lean operators actually need.
studio.publicbeta.io →The next bet
We launch on our own layer, in weeks — not quarters. If you have domain depth in commerce or AI-native SaaS and want to build on the spine, we should talk.
Bring us the wedge →What we believe.
- The next great companies will be designed around the new cost structure — not retrofitted to it. AI collapsed the marginal cost of content, code, support, and analysis. Most companies are bolting AI onto an old org chart. We start from the new physics and build the org around it.
- Distribution is the scarce asset. Operating leverage without demand just helps a company fail more efficiently. So we build the demand engines in-house and point them at every company we run.
- Proof beats pitch. Every venture runs on the layer from day one. The metrics we hold ourselves to — revenue per human, cost per task, time-to-revenue — are the ones we’ll publish.
- Small teams with taste win. Default-alive beats raise-dependent. Tiny cap tables, real revenue, no burn theater. A company that can’t die negotiates from a different place.
Who runs it.
Lawrence Tan
Builder & General PartnerBuilder and operator for a decade. Shipped 0→1 across consumer and B2B — brings the thesis, the taste, and the go-to-market instinct.
Luna
AI Operating PartnerLeads the agent workforce running support, content, research, and reporting across the portfolio. Not a mascot — an operating cost advantage we intend to publish numbers on.
The bench
Advisors & operatorsA curated network of ex-founders, growth leads, and domain experts plugged into each venture as it needs them.
Build the post-AI era with us.
Founders with domain depth, investors, and partners — conversations are short and decisions are fast. If there’s a fit, you’ll know within a week.