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 $9,500 after 25 partners or 90 days
Claim a Founder seat — $5,000 Or pay in 2 — $2,500 today + $2,500 in 30 days
60-day audit-pass refund · if your firm hasn’t signed its first vCAIR engagement, we refund the services portion of your fee.
Book a 20-min discovery call See the math first — 22.9× ROI
Anchored by
Mastermind Lead Auditor ISO/IEC 42001:2023 SSRN n=185 · p<0.01
Guillaume Kaldjob, founder of Cognita GRC
90s Why I built vCAIR — in plain English, from Guillaume
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 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.
The category bet

vCISO had a fifteen-year head start. vCAIR is unclaimed.

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 "vCAIR" currently unindexed on Google, LinkedIn, IAPP — own the keyword before anyone else
Open
02
Brand halo from Mastermind
First Certification Body accredited for ISO 42001 — co-marketing edge narrows as peers accredit 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.
What you're buying · in two layers

You don’t buy training. You buy the practice.

The funnel you’re reading is one half of the system. The other half is the business each Founder partner runs for the next five years — same brand, same software, different buyer. Both are designed before you sign.

Layer A · right now

Partner lifecycle 15 days

  • CustomerYou — MSSP / GRC / fractional CISO firm
  • SellerCognita GRC
  • ProductV-CAIR Founder Edition · $5,000
  • Cycle15-day Founder Cohort window
  • Toolchainvcair.pages.dev + Stripe + Calendly + Cognita
  • Target10 paid partners in 15 days
Layer B · Day 30 onward

End-customer lifecycle 5 years

  • CustomerMid-market firm (100–2,000 FTE) with AI deployed
  • SellerYou — V-CAIR Certified Partner
  • ProductV-CAIR fractional service · $3,000–$8,000/mo retainer
  • Cycle12-month retainer, renewable annually
  • ToolchainDubsado (commercial) + Cognita (delivery)
  • Target3 end-customers placed within 90 days of certification
Layer A — how a partner is acquired
1AwarenessLinkedIn, podcast, share → 2Interestvcair.pages.dev → 3ConsiderationLoom + math + DIY → 4DecisionStripe or Calendly → 5Purchase$5,000 cleared → 6OnboardDay 0–14, certified → 7First engagementDay 14–30 → 8Active partnerSaaS attach, rev-share
Layer B — how each end-customer flows through your book
1ProspectDubsado lead → 2DiscoveryAI Risk Diagnostic → 3ProposalFrom master template → 4Contract$4,500/mo retainer + Cognita tenant → 5OnboardingDay 0–7, first AIIA → 6DeliveryMonthly brief + auto-invoice → 7RenewalMonth 11 upsell
Business in a box · how the two layers talk

Four integrations between Stripe, Cognita, Dubsado — so the partner doesn’t log into two systems.

01 Stripe payment clears Stripe → Cognita → Dubsado Cognita login, Dubsado workspace pre-loaded, training URL emailed. ≤ 60 sec.
02 End-customer signs your proposal Dubsado → Cognita Isolated Cognita tenant provisioned, first AIIA scheduled, deployment checklist posted to client portal. ≤ 60 sec.
03 You produce a deliverable in Cognita Cognita → Dubsado portal PDF co-branded + Lead-Auditor counter-signed, posted to the end-customer’s client portal. They see your brand; Cognita is silent.
04 First of every month, 03:00 UTC Cognita cron → Dubsado Monthly retainer auto-invoiced + auto-charged. Rev-share reconciled by the 5th. Zero clicks from you.
Operational trust, not marketing trust. Software that does what it says, when it says it.
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 the 25 partners who name the category have signed, whichever comes first. After cohort close, the bundle transitions to Standard Partner Edition at $9,500.

vCAIR engagements are platform subscriptions prepaid as fixed-price projects with counter-signed deliverables and audit-pass guarantees. Founder Edition is the channel-partner entry — see also all engagement tiers (Bundle $24K, Certification $72K) or the end-customer self-serve assessment (Compass $497) if you're not a service provider.

Pilot-equivalent platform access for 12 months — 1 governed model, 1 framework, 5 client-tenant slots for partner-delivered engagements. The 5 components below are layered on top of that base entitlement.

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
06
Founder Cohort badge ™
Permanent, non-renewable, members-only. Shows the world you named the category before it had a name.
Founder Edition · 25 seats · 90 days
$15,940 list value → 3.2× value at the Founder price
$5,000USD · one-time
12-month Certified Partner status
$9,500 after 25 partners
Claim a Founder seat Pay in 2 — $2,500 + $2,500 in 30 days 60-day audit-pass refund · Stripe · DocuSign on receipt · Read the Partner Agreement
Month-13 state: annual recertification at $9,500 (Cohort 2 list price), gated by audit-pass rate ≥80% across delivered engagements. Workspace downgrades to read-only if recertification lapses; all client tenants you provisioned remain accessible to those clients.
Your $5,000 Founder fee converts to a $5,000 credit on the Readiness Bundle ($24,000) when it launches in Q4 2026. Codified in Partner Agreement §2.4 so it survives any future pricing changes.
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.
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
Could I just build this myself?

The components, priced retail — and what you actually get for the $160 cash gap.

A sophisticated consultant can assemble most of vCAIR’s pieces independently. We did the math. The DIY total is $160 cheaper. Then there are the six structural reasons buyers stop trying.

Do-it-yourself
$4,840 cash · 140-180 unpaid hours
Mastermind Assurance Lead-Auditor cert~$100
Five Cognita Pilot seats (retail, no partner margin)$4,740
Self-built marketing kit (deck, ROI calc, email cadence)140-180 hrs
Self-positioning under vCAIR brandtrademark blocked
Cash total$4,840
Cash gap to Founder Edition: $160. Time gap: 140-180 unbilled hours, plus the brand cannot legally be called vCAIR.
vCAIR Founder Edition
$5,000 · ships in 5 days
V-CAIR Certified Partner badge TMtrademark-protected
Lead-Auditor counter-sign on every deliverableexclusive
Partner SaaS margin (35% on placed clients, ~$158/mo per seat)~$7,920 / 24 mo
Partner Directory inbound-lead routingincluded
Licensed marketing-kit IP (deck, calc, cadence)work-product license
Cohort brand co-marketing (Mastermind + Cognita)closes after 25
Year-1 net (3 placed clients)+$2,920 vs DIY
Trademark + counter-sign are the two pieces DIY cannot replicate. The SaaS margin and Partner Directory inbound make the $160 gap pay back inside month four.
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.

vCISO vCAIR Both, combined
Regulatory anchor NIST CSF · SOC 2 · ISO 27001 ISO/IEC 42001 · EU AI Act · NIST AI RMF · SR 11-7 Both layers — cyber + AI
Credential CISSP · CISM · ISO 27001 LA ISO/IEC 42001 Lead Auditor · Mastermind cert Stack both — same operator
Platform Drata · Vanta · ad-hoc spreadsheets Cognita GRC (AI-native ledger, model registry) One client account, both modules
Fractional model 5-15 hrs/wk · 6-12 month engagements 5-15 hrs/wk · 6-12 month engagements Same operator across both functions
Pricing band $3,500-$8,000 / mo $4,000-$9,000 / mo (AI premium) $6,500-$14,000 / mo combined
Who delivers You (the consultant) You — credentialed via Founder Edition You — adds AI risk to your existing book

Most Founder partners run both — vCAIR attaches to every existing vCISO engagement, lifting average MRR 30-45% without acquiring new clients.

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.
Founding partner spotlight Announcing this week
MSSP Owner · Northeast US Founding partner #1 · signing this week
Boutique GRC Consultancy · Toronto Founding partner #2 · LOI signed
Fractional CISO · Pacific Northwest Founding partner #3 · in discussion
IT-Security MSP · Texas Founding partner #4 · in discussion
Identities held until each partner consents to public mention. The first three signatures convert these placeholders into real logos, real names, and real LinkedIn links.
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.

60-day audit-pass refund Stripe + DocuSign Lead-Auditor counter-sign on all deliverables
vCAIR Founder Edition $5,000 · one-time
Guillaume is online Toronto · last active just now · responds in 24h
●No card now·●2-page MSA·●Founder responds within 24h