Consulting

Practical advice for your next AI product decision

I help teams assess an AI idea, review a product that is already underway, and work out what to do next. My advice comes from building and running public-facing systems in Barbados, alongside experience at IBM, Ripple, Protocol Labs, and the Arbitrum Foundation.

We agree the scope, the fee, and what you will receive before any work begins. For the wider picture of my AI consulting in Barbados, including the sectors I work with, start there.

Discuss a review See how I work
Who I Help

Organisations with real constraints and real stakes

  • Governments and public-sector teams improving services, access, or transparency
  • Founders and startups trying to make AI genuinely useful
  • Small teams that need senior product and technical guidance without hiring full-time
  • Developer-facing organisations that want better tooling, onboarding, or platform strategy
What I Help With

Clarity, prioritisation, and delivery

  • AI product strategy grounded in actual user needs
  • Civic-tech and digital public infrastructure thinking
  • Technical and product reviews for in-flight work
  • Scoping MVPs, prototypes, and roadmap tradeoffs
  • Untangling messy ideas into a plan a team can execute
How I Work

Two ways to work together

Both start with a short conversation about the decision in front of you. Scope, fee, and deliverables are agreed before any work begins.

AI product review

A focused review before your next commitment

Bring an idea, a prototype, or a proposed approach. I review the user problem, the technical choices, and the delivery risks, then work through the recommendations with you.

You leave with a clearer decision about what to build, change, investigate, or stop.

Discuss a product review
Best for
One product, use case, or significant decision
What happens
An initial conversation, a review of agreed materials, and a working session
What you receive
Written findings, prioritised recommendations, and next steps
Commercial arrangement
A fixed scope and fee, agreed in advance
Ongoing advisory

Experienced input as the work develops

For teams that need regular help with product priorities, architecture choices, and delivery trade-offs. We agree a monthly level of support, with scheduled sessions and a defined allowance for reviews and questions.

Support is bounded by agreement, so it stays advisory rather than becoming an open-ended engineering commitment.

Discuss ongoing advisory
Best for
A team already building, with recurring decisions to make
What happens
Scheduled sessions, plus a defined allowance for reviews and questions
What you receive
A short record of decisions and next steps after each session
Commercial arrangement
A monthly fee for an agreed level of support, with notice on either side to end

A focused review can stand on its own. If regular support would help afterwards, we can discuss an advisory arrangement. If you only need a single working session, that is available too.

Process

From enquiry to agreed scope

  1. Send some context

    Tell me what you are working on, the decision you need to make, and any deadline. A link to the product or a short description is enough to start.

  2. Discuss fit and scope

    A short conversation to check I am the right person for this, and to agree what the work covers.

  3. Receive a written scope and fee

    You get the deliverables, the timetable, and the fee in writing before anything begins.

  4. Begin once agreed

    Work starts when the scope and fee are settled, not before.

Proof

Built and run, not just advised

I am not coming at this as a generic consultant. I build and run public-facing systems with real users and real constraints. Each project below is live, and each one taught me something I now bring to client work.

Yuh Hear Dem

AI-powered parliamentary search with source-linked provenance across 200+ parliamentary videos and 105,000+ transcribed sentences.

Relevant when large volumes of recorded information need to be searchable, with every answer traceable to its source.

yuhheardem.com

Yuh Gettin' Tru?

Island-wide product search across 100+ retailers, 340,000+ products, and 1,000+ searches per day using vector search and LLM reranking.

Relevant when AI-assisted search has to work across fragmented catalogues and still serve real users every day.

yuhgettintru.com

BimOmni

A Barbados-adapted multimodal model, with a small LoRA tuned on 3,500 editions of the Barbados Advocate so it hears local names correctly.

Relevant when a general model is not good enough for local knowledge, and you need to evaluate and adapt it.

Read the full story

alpha.gov.bb

Part of the launch team for Barbados Government's alpha.gov.bb portal, helping bootstrap the programme and ship full-stack work on the forms system.

Relevant when the work has to land inside an existing government team, process, and delivery reality.

alpha.gov.bb

I also built Pulse, a source-backed discovery tool for Barbados, and spent earlier years at IBM, Ripple, Protocol Labs, and the Arbitrum Foundation helping builders ship better tools and products.

Pricing

Scope and fees agreed upfront

Product reviews are quoted as fixed-fee engagements. Ongoing advisory is agreed as a monthly fee for a defined level of support. In both cases you know the fee, the scope, and what you receive before work begins.

If you only need a single focused session, standalone sessions start at $300 USD per hour. Details are in the FAQ below.

Start by email
Fit

Good fit, not a fit

Good fit

  • You need clarity on what to build next
  • You want useful AI, not a buzzword strategy deck
  • You are working in public-interest, government, or complex product environments

Not a fit

  • You want theatre, hype, or copy-paste AI features
  • You need a large agency or a high-volume delivery shop
  • You are not serious about shipping or acting on the advice

FAQ

What kind of consulting do you take on?

Mostly AI product reviews, product and technical advisory for small teams, and civic-tech or digital public infrastructure work.

How much does a review cost?

Reviews are quoted as a fixed fee once we have agreed the scope. That ties the price to the work rather than to how long it takes, and it means there are no surprises afterwards.

Do you offer standalone sessions?

Yes. If you need one focused session rather than a full review or ongoing support, I charge $300 USD per hour as a standalone rate.

Do you only advise, or do you build too?

Mostly advise. Some engagements benefit from hands-on technical input or product direction, and that can be scoped separately where it makes sense.

Do you work remotely?

Yes. I am based in Barbados and work remotely with teams in other places.

How do we get started?

Email me with a short description of what you are working on, the decision you need to make, and any deadline. I will reply and let you know whether it makes sense to talk.

Have a decision you want a second opinion on?

Tell me what you are working on and what you need to decide. I will tell you quickly whether I am the right fit.

Email matt@dharach.com