DEEPGRAIN · AN OPERATING CONSULTANCY BUILT FOR THE AI ERA.
The grain is always there. Most have never looked for it.
I've spent two decades inside organisations. Building them, fixing them, watching what makes them hold and what makes them come apart.
After enough of that, you read an organisation before the introductory call is over. Pattern recognition built from real exposure, nothing more.
The method
Three levels. You work at all three at once.
A function only becomes resilient when the strategic, the functional and the individual are moving together. Most programmes touch one, lean on another, and ignore the third.
How I think about an organisation.
Where is this place actually trying to go, and what is in the way of it getting there?
Reading the strategy deck and believing it.
Reading the org from the inside, then deciding where to cut with the grain and where to cut against it.
How I work inside one.
Which workflows carry the function, which leak value, and which are theatre?
Recommending tools at role level. Pilots that never reach a Tuesday afternoon.
Mapping at the click level. Building agents where the friction actually is.
Who I build alongside.
Which three people in the function will hold this work after I leave?
Training everyone to the same shallow depth. No-one ships.
Three or four champions, air cover, time, and a small starting brief.
Who runs this
Matthew Bradburn - Founder, Operator, Builder
I've built and rebuilt people ops and operating approaches, across companies from fifty to six hundred. Defence, climate, fintech, transit, health, legal, e-commerce. Different sectors, same underlying craft.
I founded and exited People Collective, trained 1,000+ managers across 100+ cohorts, and have led PE and M&A advisory work through to exit-ready outcomes. The work that travels best is the work that survives the carpenter leaving the room.
Deepgrain is the consolidation of that practice. Strategy at the top, enablement and training across the team, agents and automations in the workflow; built function by function, top to bottom. We run the model on ourselves first, then bring it to clients who want something built to last.
- 20+
- Years inside operating teams
- 100+
- Manager cohorts trained
- 7
- Sectors of operating exposure
The belief
“Strategy at the top. Enablement and training across the team. Agents and automations in the workflow. Built function by function, top to bottom.”
We built the proof on ourselves.
Deepgrain runs on agents we built for this work. Things that used to need a team of consultants now happen faster, with less overhead, and with the kind of precision people rarely get from a deck.
We ran the model on our own operations first. Everything we recommend has been used in anger here before it reaches a client.
Workflows processed this month
Handled end to end by agents
From 7 days to resolve
Track record
1,000+ managers trained across 100+ cohorts.
Clients from 50 to 600 people.
Sectors include defence, climate, fintech, transit, health, legal, and e-commerce.
Previously founded and exited People Collective.
PE and M&A advisory including exit readiness engagements.
“Growing and scaling successfully rests on how you bring in and manage people. Matt provides the guidance every startup needs.”
“Matt has always been my go to advisor. At Multiverse they helped us accelerate hiring and introduce a progression framework that supported our team's development.”
The first move
If this sounds like the kind of thinking you need,
Thirty minutes is enough to know if there's something here for you.