Founder Cohort · 10 of 25 seats · Closes in 12 days

The vCISO model, rebuilt for AI governance.

vCAIR productises the Virtual Chief AI Risk Officer service — a credentialed practice you can sell into your existing consulting book within fourteen days. Five client seats on the Cognita platform, a five-day Lead-Auditor curriculum, certification, and a co-branded go-to-market kit. $5,000.

Book a 20-min discovery call See the math · 22.9× year-1 ROI
Anchored by
Mastermind Lead Auditor ISO/IEC 42001:2023 SSRN n=185 · p<0.01
Built on accredited rails
Accredited by
M
Mastermind AssuranceFirst CB accredited for ISO 42001
CERT 2697gssmkw
Aligned with
42
ISO/IECInformation technology · AIMS
42001:2023
N
NIST AI RMFUS federal guidance
1.0
EU
EU AI ActRegulation 2024/1689
Art. 6
SR
Fed Reserve SR 11-7Model risk management
GenAI ext.
Distributed by
J
Jumpfactor~1,000 MSP / MSSP reach
Channel
i
IAPPAI Governance Professional
AIGP
The category bet

vCISO had a fifteen-year head start. vCAIRO is unowned.

Three windows close in 2026. Whoever names the category, certifies the practitioners, and operationalises the standard wins the cohort that defines the next decade of AI governance services.

Why now

Mid-market AI risk is a $2M/year practice line sitting on every MSSP's existing book.

A full-time Chief AI Risk Officer costs $250K+ in the US. Mid-market firms (100–2,000 FTE) cannot afford one, but their boards, regulators, and customers are already demanding ISO 42001 evidence. They will pay $4,500/month for a credentialed fractional officer — delivered by you, on Cognita.

01
SEO and mindshare
Term "vCAIRO" currently unindexed on Google, LinkedIn, IAPP
Open
02
Brand halo from Mastermind
First CB accredited for ISO 42001 · dilutes through 2027
Closing
03
Talent supply gap
4,000 qualified vs. 35,000 needed by 2027 in the US
Peak
The math

Three clients placed. 22.9× year-1 ROI.

This is the same chart we walk every partner through on a 20-minute discovery call. Conservative assumptions — three clients placed, retained nine months, ignoring SaaS attach.

Partner P&L · year 1 Boutique GRC · 3 clients placed
Founder Edition costone-time at signup −$5,000
3 clients · $4,500/mo · 9 monthsrecommended mid-market rate +$121,500
Cognita licence cost3 seats × 6mo × $158 post-Founder −$1,847
Net year-1 partner revenue $114,653
22.9× Return on the $5,000 Founder Edition
Excludes SaaS attach margin · breakeven on month 4 · verified on the public ROI calculator
How the model works

You already have the relationships. vCAIR is the offer.

Your existing cybersecurity, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 retainers attach this service with no new business-development pipeline. The board conversation you couldn't have three months ago is the one you lead with on Monday.

$158/seat/month post-Founder
Every seat you placed in the 90-day window converts to standard subscription. 35% partner margin baked into every renewal.
First placement in 14 days
Onboarding curriculum is engineered for it. Median time from Stripe payment to first paying client engagement is two weeks.
Bounded promise
Operational Certainty Theorem (SSRN · n=185 · p<0.01). The economics are the empirical backbone of how we underwrite this offer.
Founder Edition · what you get

Five components. $15,940 list value. One Stripe payment.

The Founder Edition is the first commercial release of vCAIR. Available for 90 days from launch — or until 25 partners sign — whichever comes first. After cohort close, the bundle transitions to Standard Partner Edition at $9,500.

01
5 Cognita Pilot client-deployment seats
90-day window at zero marginal cost. Each seat deploys at one end-customer.
value$4,740
02
5-day blended training curriculum
Live cohort workshop + 4 self-paced modules + 40-question certification exam.
value$5,000
03
vCAIR Certified Partner badge
Awarded on exam pass at 75%. License for website, LinkedIn, deliverables. Renewable annually.
value$500
04
Co-branded marketing kit
Sales deck, ROI calculator, one-pagers, 3 email sequences, 10 LinkedIn templates, discovery script.
value$3,000
05
Partner Directory listing + Cognita support
Public profile at cognitagrc.io/partners with inbound lead routing. Slack, founder office hours.
value$2,700
Founder Edition · 25 seats · 90 days
$15,940 list value → 3.2× value at the Founder price
$5,000USD · one-time
Claim a Founder seat 14-day refund · Stripe · DocuSign on receipt
Who buys this

If you serve three or more clients on a security or compliance retainer, vCAIR pays for itself.

The Founder cohort is sized for the four buyer profiles below. The first ten seats prioritise MSSP owners and boutique GRC consultancies — bigger book, faster placements.

Persona 01
MSSP Owner
Profile 50–500 enterprise clients · $5M–$50M revenue firm Logic AI governance attaches to existing managed-security retainers
Year-1 revenue from vCAIR
$120K – $480K
Persona 02
Boutique GRC Consultancy
Profile 3–50 consultants · ISO 27001 + SOC 2 specialist Logic Extends your existing ISMS practice into AI governance
Year-1 revenue from vCAIR
$72K – $240K
Persona 03
Fractional CISO Practitioner
Profile Solo or 2–3 person firm · 5–15 vCISO retainer clients Logic Adds AI Risk Officer to every existing vCISO engagement
Year-1 revenue from vCAIR
$60K – $144K
Persona 04
IT / Security MSP
Profile MSP-501 firm in fintech, healthcare, gov verticals Logic Closes the AI gap regulated clients are now asking about
Year-1 revenue from vCAIR
$96K – $300K
The curriculum

Five days. Operationally specific. Authored by a Lead Auditor.

This is the credibility anchor. Day 1 is a live cohort workshop. Days 2–5 are self-paced and complete within 30 days. Pass the exam at 75% to earn the vCAIR Certified Partner badge.

Day1
● Live cohort
Foundations
ISO 42001, NIST AI RMF, EU AI Act, SR 11-7 — the regulatory stack and how the standards relate.
Day2
Async
28 activities · 16 documents
Walk the ISO 42001 audit map clause by clause. Cognita compendium as your textbook.
Day3
Async
AIIA · risk · SoA
Run an AI Impact Assessment in Cognita. Build a risk register. Author a Statement of Applicability.
Day4
Async
The platform
Deploy clients. Model registry, evidence collection, auditor portal, branded export bundles.
Day5
Async + exam
Service model + exam
Pricing. Engagement structure. 90-day deployment. 40-question proctored exam — two free re-attempts.
The trust system

Three pillars you point at when a $10M client asks "who's behind this?"

Brand and trust are not decorative in this category. A consultant buying vCAIR is staking their reputation on the platform and the credential they re-sell. Every pillar below is engineered to make that re-sale defensible.

Pillar 01 · Credential

Mastermind Lead Auditor — the first CB accredited for ISO/IEC 42001:2023.

Founder credential Cert 2697gssmkw, issued May 2026. A credential held by fewer than 200 practitioners worldwide today. Every audit-grade deliverable a partner produces is counter-signed by a Cognita Lead Auditor.
Pillar 02 · Platform

Cognita — the only AI Management System built clause-by-clause for ISO 42001.

Real telemetry integrations (W&B, MLflow, Arize). Cryptographic Merkle-anchored audit ledger, scoped auditor portal, branded export bundles. Live evidence is your defence against regulator scrutiny.
Pillar 03 · Research

Operational Certainty — peer-reviewed empirical backbone, n=185, p<0.01.

SSRN-published study by the founder covering 185 PE transactions. The empirical backbone of Cognita's governance-as-evidence thesis. Partners cite it in PE, credit and regulated-finance pitches.
Guillaume Emmanuel Kaldjob — Founder & Lead Auditor, Cognita GRC Cert · 2697gssmkw
KALDJOB Guillaume Emmanuel
Founder, Cognita GRC · Toronto, Canada
Mastermind Cert · 2697gssmkw · May 2026
ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor CISSP CISA 11 yrs · GRC architecture
The founder

I am the Lead Auditor who counter-signs your first ten engagements.

I built vCAIR because I watched the same scene play out in fifty boardrooms. The CEO asks "what's our AI governance posture?" and a generic consultant produces a policy PDF, three months late, that nobody can defend in front of a regulator.

The standard exists. The platform exists. The credential exists. What was missing was the operator who could hand all three to a consulting firm in a single Stripe payment. That is what Founder Edition is. It is also why every customer deliverable a partner produces in the first cohort goes across my desk first.

"Evidence over assertion. The math closes the partner; the cert keeps them in market." — Guillaume Kaldjob, May 2026
Common questions

Five we hear on every discovery call.

If yours isn't here, raise it on the 20-minute call. We answer plainly.

01 How is vCAIR different from a vCISO program?
Same operating model, different scope. vCISO covers the cybersecurity function. vCAIR covers the AI risk function, which is its own discipline under SR 11-7 and ISO 42001. You can sell both, or just vCAIR. You keep the client relationships either way.
02 $5,000 feels expensive for a training program. What am I actually buying?
It is not a training program. It is five Cognita client seats worth $4,740, a Lead-Auditor-curated curriculum, the vCAIR Certified Partner credential, a co-branded marketing kit, and a Partner Directory listing. The training is included; the product is a business in a box.
03 My clients aren't asking about AI governance yet.
Most aren't, today. The question is who you want to be when they start. The Founder cohort is the inexpensive way to be the consultant who answered first, not the one who scrambled. EU AI Act high-risk obligations are live and NYDFS Part 500 examinations begin Q3 2026 — the inbound starts then.
04 What happens to the seats after the 90-day Founder window?
Each seat you have placed at a client renews at $158/month. You re-bill the client at whatever rate you set — typical mid-market rate is $4,500/month — with a 35% partner margin baked into the licence. Most partners are net-positive on Cognita licensing alone by month four.
05 What is the next step if we want in?
Book a 20-minute discovery call with Guillaume. Three questions, three minutes each. If we are a fit, you can sign the agreement and pay via Stripe live on the call. Time from "yes" to "in the cohort" is under ten minutes. Welcome email and Slack invite go out within five minutes of payment.
Get started

The first ten US partners name the category.

Book a 20-minute call. Three qualifying questions, the math walkthrough, and — if it is a fit — Stripe checkout while we are still on the line.

14-day refund Stripe + DocuSign Lead-Auditor counter-sign on all deliverables
vCAIR Founder Edition $5,000 · one-time
●No card now·●2-page MSA·●Founder responds within 24h