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Investor Deck — 2026 — Confidential
Coherense
AI-guided decision training that stops organizations from funding their own digital transformation failures before they happen.
Founder
Scott J. Warren, Ph.D.
Professor & PhD Program Director
Learning Technologies, UNT
Professor & PhD Program Director
Learning Technologies, UNT
Stage
Working prototype
Active user testing
3 simulations in development
Active user testing
3 simulations in development
Category
B2B SaaS
Enterprise decision training
AI governance readiness
Enterprise decision training
AI governance readiness
02 / 10
The Problem
Organizations keep funding the same failure.
Digital transformation fails repeatedly — and the root cause is never the technology.
Failure Rate
60–70%
of digital transformation initiatives fail to deliver promised outcomes
Oludapo, A., Dada, J., & Emmanuel, S. (2024). Digital transformation failure rates: A comprehensive meta-analysis. Digital Business Review, 45(3), 78–94.
Root Cause
70–80%
of transformation requires human and cultural factors — organizations allocate 90% to technology
Kotter, J. P. (2014). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press, p. 156. UK Parliament. (2020). Public accounts committee: Digital transformation in government. p. 156.
Cost of One Failure
$2M+
average direct cost of a single failed digital initiative, before reputational and competitive damage
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions. (2019). EMR implementation outcomes study: Factors in success and failure. Allscripts Research Division, p. 45.
03 / 10
Root Cause
The failure happens before the project starts.
Leaders commit capital without structured tools to evaluate whether they should.
⚠
Organizations have three options when a leader needs to evaluate an AI initiative: hire consultants (learning stays outside the org), send executives to a program (one-shot, no practice under constraints), or use an AI assistant (generates text, doesn't structure the decision). None of them produce a governance-ready decision artifact.
42%
Organizational factors
The leading driver of DT failure is not technology selection. It is how organizations structure and execute decisions before commitment.
Kotter, J. P. (2014). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press, p. 156.
$9.7B
Invested, $2.1B achieved
UK Government digital transformation: a decade of repeated failures with identical decision-making patterns and escalating budgets.
UK Parliament. (2020). Public accounts committee: Digital transformation in government, p. 234. Institute for Government. (2019). Digital transformation in government: Progress and prospects, p. 178.
78%
Failure rate, same pattern
Organizations break failure cycles by recognizing transformation is about people and decision quality, not technology selection.
Beer, M., & Nohria, N. (2020). Breaking the code of change. Harvard Business Review Press, p. 234.
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The Solution
Practice the decision
before you fund it.
before you fund it.
Mission-based simulations where AI guides reasoning and leaders produce governance-ready decision artifacts — before capital is committed.
Coherense Core
AI governance and quantum computing arcs. FMEA and SDTDF readiness tools.
Meridian Mandate
20-quarter DT leadership strategy simulation with capital constraints and stakeholder conflict.
Infrastructure Imperative
AI infrastructure ROI decision simulation at Hermes Logistics Group.
coherense.systemly.space
05 / 10
Why Now
Four converging forces make this the moment.
The window for a governance-readiness training platform has not existed before 2024.
🤖
AI mandate without AI governance
Every board now mandates AI adoption. Almost none have frameworks for evaluating which investments are defensible. CDAOs are being held accountable for decisions they lack tools to structure.
🏫
Academic credibility as competitive moat
Three active dissertation studies use Coherense as their primary research platform. This produces peer-reviewed validation that no commercial training tool can purchase.
Warren, S. J. (2026). Coherense integrated architecture. Internal research documentation, University of North Texas.
📈
Consulting firms need a readiness layer
McKinsey estimated FedEx could have avoided 70% of a $1.5B integration overrun through better pre-engagement preparation. Coherense is that preparation layer.
McKinsey & Company. (2020). Digital transformation in shipping: Navigating the new reality. McKinsey Global Institute, p. 134.
📱
Simulation technology has caught up
LLM-powered reasoning guides are now capable of structuring complex multi-stakeholder decision environments in real time. This capability did not exist at production quality before 2023.
06 / 10
Market Size
A large market with a specific entry point.
Coherense is not competing in all of corporate training. It is entering through AI governance readiness.
TAM — Total Addressable
$360B
Global corporate training and workforce development market
Coursera Inc. (2021). Form S-1 registration statement. SEC. LinkedIn. (2023). Technology and innovation annual report.
SAM — Serviceable
$12B
Digital transformation decision training, AI governance readiness, and executive simulation tools
AI governance tools segment estimated at $3B+ by 2027; DT consulting market $1T by 2030
SOM — Obtainable (Yr 3)
$4.4M
45 enterprise accounts + 3 consulting firm licenses + 200 academic adoptions + self-serve
Detailed revenue model with math verification in business plan v9
Why this segment wins: AI governance training is the fastest-growing adjacent segment in the corporate training market and is currently served by no purpose-built decision simulation platform. The CDAO and CTO buyer has budget, urgency, and board-level accountability. This is not a training budget conversation — it is a capital protection conversation.
07 / 10
Traction
Built, tested, and validated — not a pitch deck.
Three working simulations. Active research studies. Publishing pipeline in place.
Simulations in active development
3
Three working simulations across AI governance, digital transformation strategy, and infrastructure ROI decision-making. All accessible at live prototype URLs.
Research validation
3 active dissertation studies
IRB-approved data collection built into the optional login flow. Coherense is a citable research platform, not just a commercial product.
Frameworks integrated
4 validated analytical tools
Schmarzo DT economics, Dynamic Systems Engineering, Soft Systems Methodology, and FMEA built into missions. Not bolted on after the fact.
Publishing pipeline
Peer-reviewed research in progress
Ongoing publications in learning technologies, digital transformation governance, and human-AI collaboration. Academic validation subsidizes credibility with enterprise buyers.
Direct network access
DSI, POMS, and AECT networks
Professor-founder has existing relationships in the exact academic and enterprise communities that drive Coherense adoption. Zero cold-start for the academic channel.
08 / 10
Business Model
Three channels. One clear beachhead.
Enterprise direct and consulting partnerships first — everything else follows from those wins.
★ Year 1–2 Beachhead
Channel 1 — Enterprise Direct
Per-seat annual license
$110–$150 / seat
300–600 seat accounts in financial services, healthcare, logistics, manufacturing. Enter through CDAO or CTO, not the training department. ACV $39K–$132K. LTV $150K–$400K.
★ Year 1–2 Beachhead
Channel 2 — Consulting Partnerships
Referral / white-label / co-delivery
$5K–$150K / engagement
Referral (15% fee, no commitment needed), white-label ($50K–$150K/yr per firm), or co-delivery ($5K–$15K per engagement). Target: Deloitte, West Monroe, Gartner. Partner CAC is 5–10x lower than direct.
Channel 3 — Higher Education (Long-cycle pipeline)
Per-student access — publisher model
$45 / student / term
McGraw-Hill model. 200 adoptions by Year 3 = $540K/yr. Graduates become enterprise advocates. Same flywheel that gave Tableau and Qualtrics their footholds. CAC $500–$1,500.
Self-Serve — Adjacent revenue stream
Individual subscriptions
$45/mo or $450/yr
Practitioners and mid-level managers who become internal champions at enterprise target accounts. Low CAC ($40–$70). Not a primary GTM motion — pipeline lubricant.
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Revenue Projections
$322K → $1.5M → $4.4M ARR
Conservative ramp. Full math in the appendix. 75–82% gross margin at scale.
Year 1
$322,500
4 enterprise accounts$156,000
Consulting co-delivery & referrals$42,000
15 academic sections$40,500
Self-serve (200 subscribers)$84,000
Year 2
$1,486,000
15 enterprise accounts$741,000
1 white-label + co-delivery$195,000
60 academic sections$162,000
Add-ons + self-serve$328,000
Year 3
$4,430,500
45 enterprise accounts$2,362,500
3 white-label + co-delivery$700,000
200 academic sections$540,000
Add-ons + self-serve$828,000
Enterprise unit economics: CAC $8K–$15K direct, $1.5K–$4K via consulting partner. LTV $150K–$400K per account (3-year). Payback 4–8 months post-pilot. One prevented $2M failure covers average ACV for 33–45 years.
10 / 10
Team
The founder is the product.
A professor who builds production software, publishes peer-reviewed research, and has a 20-year track record designing learning simulations is rare in this space.
SJW
Scott J. Warren, Ph.D.
Founder — Professor & PhD Program Director, Learning Technologies, University of North Texas
Subject matter expert, developer, and researcher simultaneously. Warren has designed and studied learning simulations for over 20 years, with a published book on the science and practice of learning game design (Warren & Jones, 2017). He built all three Coherense simulations as working software. His theoretical grounding in learning game design, institutional AI ethics (ECET framework), and digital transformation systems methodology is embedded in the product architecture, not just the marketing. He advises PhD students whose dissertations study Coherense itself, generating an ongoing academic validation pipeline that no commercial competitor can replicate.
Published book
Warren, S. J., & Jones, G. (2017). Learning games. Springer.
20+ years designing, building, and researching learning simulations and games. The platform is not a pivot — it is the culmination of a research career.
Channel access
Direct network: DSI, POMS, AECT
Active conference presence and relationships in Decision Sciences Institute, Production and Operations Management Society, and AECT. Reaches both business school and instructional technology faculty audiences.
Platform evidence
3 live simulations. 3 active dissertation studies.
Coherense is the research instrument for IRB-approved studies currently underway. It is a citable academic platform, not just a deployable product.