Sage.is/Growing
March 17, 2026
The Team
Who We Are
| Alex | Product, architecture, editorial, content |
| Izzy | Curriculum, teaching methodology, stakeholders |
| Toby | Intern — process testing, installations, marketing |
You!!!
Startr LLC — 18 years profitable. Zero VC. Faial, Azores.
The Problem
No Control
- Data — AI platforms train on your conversations
- Vendor lock — one provider, their rules, their prices
- No guardrails — corporate policies, not institutional ones
If your AI runs on someone else's infrastructure, it exists at their sufferance.
What Is Sage?
AI You Own
- Any model — OpenAI, Claude, Ollama, llama.cpp
- Your servers — on-prem, your cloud, your rules
- Zero data retention — conversations stay with you
- Open source — AGPL-3.0, auditable, forkable
For educators, organizations, and teams. Self-hosted AI on your terms.
The Stack
What We've Built
| Sage.is AI-UI v1.1.1 | Self-hosted web interface | Live — v1.2.0 shipping |
| Sage.Education | Public site + articles | Live |
| Downes | Curriculum agent | Open source |
| Style Guide | Startr.style + 256-color | Phase 1-2 |
| Community Hub | Shared resources | In development |
| NLT Study | Replication study — 14 models | Publishing soon |
| Agent Sandboxes | Per-user Firecracker VMs | R&D |
Not a Chatbot. A Workflow.
- Plan — scope, sequence, objectives, assessments
- Build — aligned to Bloom's taxonomy + standards
- Validate — checks coherence, flags gaps
- Synthesize — complete curriculum document
A chatbot suggests. An agent ships.
Go-to-Market Messaging
Editorial longform. Named sources, narrative structure, quality-gated.
| The Walled Garden | 93/A |
| The Sycophant in the Room | 93/A |
| The Digital Divide, Revisited | 100/A+ |
Every article passes an 11-dimension quality audit before it ships.
Where We Are
March 2026
Done: Telegram notifications, cron automation, article pipeline, WhatsApp bridge, 34 articles, image tools
In Progress: AI-UI v1.2.0 release, Style Guide Phase 1-2, Detlef teaser, intern onboarding
Blocked: cx (path access), WhatsApp sync (API), Signal + Tutanota bridges
The Flywheel
Everything Feeds Everything
- Articles drive interest → people find Sage
- Downes + Sage-Agents prove the thesis → articles write about them
- AI-UI is what ships → Downes runs inside it
- Installations prove it works → friction reports improve the product
The editorial campaign isn't separate from the product.
It IS the go-to-market.
Key Dates
Coming Up
| Fri Mar 20 | Bootcamp checkpoint |
| Tue Mar 24 | Open Source Onboarding (Jose Simas) |
| Thu Mar 26 | Open Source Island Installs (workshop) + NLT Study publish |
| Fri Mar 27 | Bootcamp wrap-up, all docs handed off |
| Early April | Detlef follow-up call |
What's Next
What Next — April & May
- Ship Sage.is AI-UI v1.2.0
- Finalize Style Guide Phase 1-2
- Launch Community Hub
- Expand on article delivery, publish biweekly
- Deliver installation runbook v1
Quarter
Per-user sandboxes. Prompt supervisor. CX agents. Content distribution.
Questions?
sage.education | github.com/Sage-is | startr.cloud
Open source. Privacy first. Built to last.