Rank 4 of 7
Dualboot Partners
What is Dualboot Partners?
Many transformation offices are set up before anyone senior in the company truly understands AI. The program has a mandate, a budget and a deadline, but no AI leader. Turnstone Report ranks it fourth. Dualboot sells itself as a builder of AI growth systems.
In this article
Dualboot Partners: an AI executive on loan
Many transformation offices are set up before anyone senior in the company truly understands AI. The program has a mandate, a budget and a deadline, but no AI leader. Dualboot Partners is the firm in this ranking that most directly sells a fix for that gap: a part time Chief AI Officer whose remit, weekly commitment and contract length are all written on its site. Turnstone Report ranks it fourth. Its strengths are that leadership offer and a security practice described in unusual depth; its limits are the absence of an organization level certificate, unpublished prices, and published cases that are mostly product builds.
Dualboot sells itself as a builder of AI growth systems1. Two named methods frame the work. Aixle, its AI operating model, ties strategy, design and engineering together2. DB90, an AI first product method, puts AI into each stage of development3. Staff number over 400, by the firm's count, with engineers working nearshore and product leadership based in the United States4. Its about page draws a line between technologists and strategic partners and puts Dualboot in the second camp5.
An AI executive by the week
The core promise is a senior AI leader without the overhead of hiring one full time6. Commitment typically equals one or two days each week7, and it can grow if the organization needs more8. Contracts last anywhere from half a year to a year and a half, and are designed to end either in a clean handover or in a longer arrangement9. Those leading the work hold the Certified AI Governance Professional credential10.
What the role delivers maps closely onto the first year of a transformation office's own agenda. It writes the risk framework and policies a company needs before it can adopt AI safely11. It decides who owns AI work and how new requests come in12. And it produces a roadmap for AI across the enterprise13. A program that has the mandate but lacks the leader can borrow one here, and the defined end date gives a natural moment to hand the role to a permanent hire.
From workshop to build
Strategy at Dualboot usually starts in a custom workshop14 whose target output is three initiatives, ranked and screened for risk15. The firm is emphatic that this is working time, nothing like a lecture or a generic course16, and that the workshop is connected to what comes next, flowing straight into building the solution17. It sells the whole sequence as end to end under one roof, from the first strategy discussion to deployment18.
Two principles run through the method. Risk, security and governance are raised in the opening discovery session19, and consulting is framed around outcomes20. The delivery team covers the full stack and follows a structured process from first idea to launch21; the firm also says it recruits for communication skills alongside technical ones22.
Security in depth
For a program office that has to answer to an audit committee, Dualboot's security page gives more operating detail than most services firms in this group. Its practice joins three disciplines: securing cloud estates, building AI securely, and detecting and responding to threats23. Engineers test applications from several angles, reviewing code, assessing vulnerabilities and running penetration tests24, supported by automated static and dynamic scanning, dependency checks and targeted pen testing25. Infrastructure is written as code to give cloud foundations resilience and scale26.
Regulatory checks are automated too. Every release that moves through the client's CI/CD flow is tested against HIPAA, GDPR and similar rules27, which the firm markets as making compliance a feature of the product28. The same page claims hardened infrastructure that keeps uptime at 99.99 percent29.
Responsible AI has its own policy, which lists fairness first among five principles30. Under that policy Dualboot applies technical and organizational safeguards with security controls31, and a dedicated committee handles AI governance, compliance and incident response32.
The gap is certification. The pages checked carry no SOC 2 report, ISO 27001 certificate or other organization level attestation. A program auditor will want to see one.
Four client stories
The Continental Tire case is the most instructive for a long program because it is frank about change. Dualboot rebuilt the retreading platform that links partner stations33, an application relied on by 13 US dealers34, moving it to a new platform with tighter security and a fresh design35. The job came with friction. Many shops ran three shifts a day36, a new client project manager redirected the goal toward copying every feature of the old system37, and the team coordinated with Continental's DevOps staff in Germany38. Scope that shifts when a sponsor changes is a familiar risk in multi-year work, which makes this a useful case to discuss with the firm.
The other cases are growth company builds. For DebtBook, a debt management product for public finance39, Dualboot validated the concept first40, then worked embedded with the founding team41; DebtBook later reported close to $2M raised within 18 months42. PetScreening went from first design to launch inside five months43, and its 2025 figures, as the client reports them, put recovered revenue at $87.9 million44 and time saved on legal and admin tasks at 1.3 million hours45. At PrizePicks, Dualboot reinforced the in house product team46, and the launch that followed brought a reported 10 percent rise in new users47 plus entry into 13 more states48.
A sponsor looking for enterprise AI results specifically will need to ask, since these four stories are platform and product work33,39,43,49.
Leadership and location
Ben Gilman runs the company as CEO and shares the co-founder title50 with Daniel DelaCruz51. Technology is led by Billy Boozer52, finance and operations by Mike Law53, and business strategy by Peter Klayman54. Its awards place the firm in North Carolina, with a 2023 Charlotte Local Excellence award55 and a place in the 2024 state Mid-Market Fast 4056. The pages checked give no headquarters address.
Sectors
Nine industries appear in the menu. The first group covers consumer and retail, supply chain and manufacturing, financial services and healthcare57; the second adds utilities, technology and software, construction and real estate, private equity, and media and entertainment58. Healthcare work includes platforms built for HIPAA compliance and modernized CI/CD59.
Price
A finance partner building a three year forecast will get no numbers from the site. Instead, the strategy page lists three drivers of cost: discovery depth, organizational complexity, scope60. Its recommended first purchase is a tightly focused workshop61.
Against the leader
Both firms bring governance into the first conversation19,62. Dualboot's loaned AI executive is a service the Nexus pages we opened do not offer, and a program could reasonably buy both. The ranking still favors Nexus on three points. Its first agent is live in 4 weeks inside a 3 month proof of concept63, a pace Dualboot does not publish. Its assurance file shows a Type 2 SOC 2 audit and two ISO standards63, where Dualboot shows no organization certificate. And its price follows roles automated, with no per diem or consultant time63, where Dualboot quotes by scope60.
The right buyer
Dualboot Partners suits a transformation office that needs a senior AI leader for a defined period, values a security practice with pen testing and compliance checks built into the pipeline, and is comfortable with nearshore engineering under US product leadership64.