78th Street Ventures

CEO Leverage, not “AI Transformation.”

AI should give a CEO more leverage — not create another transformation project.

I work with CEOs to identify where better intelligence, faster analysis or better use of company knowledge could materially improve a decision, uncover an opportunity or increase the effectiveness of the people around them.

Start with one real problem. I build the first tool around it.

Bring Me a Problem See how CEO leverage works

CEO Leverage

Where could more leverage matter?

The technology comes second. Start with the question.

What am I not seeing?

Attention & Signal Intelligence

Identify changes, risks, patterns and opportunities buried inside company information or developing outside the business.

Where is the opportunity?

Growth Intelligence

Identify where additional revenue or enterprise value may be hiding across customers, markets, products, territories and transactions.

What should I do?

Decision Intelligence

Bring the relevant evidence, assumptions, alternatives, economics and risks together before committing people, money or time.

How do I extend my judgment?

Organizational Leverage

Turn what the CEO and the company’s best people know into intelligence other people can use.

What I Build

What could be built

There is no predetermined package. These are examples of where customized intelligence and decision tools can create leverage.

Leverage What could be built CEO benefit
Attention CEO Signal / Intelligence Brief Know what changed and what deserves attention.
Growth Opportunity / Growth Radar Find where the next revenue may come from.
Decisions Decision Map See the evidence, assumptions and risks before committing.
Sales Sales Intelligence Increase output, coaching and focus without relying only on headcount.
Knowledge Company Intelligence Make the knowledge of the best people usable across the organization.
Capital Opportunity / M&A Intelligence Make better choices about where money and management attention go.

Start with the CEO, not the technology.

In conversations with CEOs, I keep hearing a similar theme: there is plenty of talk about AI transformation, but far less clarity about where AI could actually help the CEO right now.

I take the opposite approach.

There is no predetermined AI roadmap and no requirement to transform the company.

Start with one important decision, growth problem, opportunity or information gap. I build the first tool around that actual issue. Then we determine whether it creates enough leverage to earn a place.

How It Works

Start with one.

  1. Give me one problem

    A decision, growth objective, opportunity or information gap that matters.

  2. I build around it

    Using relevant company context, data and outside intelligence, I build a working tool around the actual situation — not a generic AI demonstration.

  3. We use it together

    See what it finds, what it misses, and where human judgment belongs.

  4. Expand only if it earns a place

    Build another capability only when there is a clear business reason.

About

Business experience first. AI second.

Todd Lorbach Founder, 78th Street Ventures

My background spans operating growth, international business development, transactions and advising business owners.

Earlier in my career I spent eight years helping an industrial software company expand internationally, through an IPO and a series of acquisitions: opening offices abroad, building distributor relationships and working on the deals themselves.

For the last 14 years I have advised business owners on M&A.

Over the last four years I have focused on applying AI to practical business problems — particularly where better intelligence, faster analysis and better use of existing company knowledge can create revenue, improve decisions or increase enterprise value.

Start a Conversation

What would more leverage allow you to do?

Bring me one important problem, decision or opportunity. I’ll build the first tool around it.