PC
Phil Cowan
Technology architecture and engineering leadership
Twenty-five years across product, design and engineering. Phil leads architecture, tool choices and delivery so improvements hold up in daily use.
About
Experienced people. Personally involved.
InTheory is the AI practice of Innovation Theory, a Denver firm operating since 2011. We combine product judgment with technical leadership to help service businesses earn more and waste less.
MN
Martin Naithani
Product strategy, UX and business priorities
Martin connects customer needs, business priorities and the work that ships, so the first improvement is the one that matters most to revenue or margin.
Selected work
Shipping for brands and startups since 2011.
Before InTheory, our team led product, brand and engineering work for global brands and fast-moving startups. A few of those projects, written up.
Our team has worked with
“For over ten years, Innovation Theory has been part of the ShapeShift journey. They’ve helped shape the brand, the product, and the tech behind it. If you want a team that knows crypto inside and out, you won’t find better.”
“These guys understood the vision from day one. They built the product that created the category.”
“They know how to take an idea, sharpen it, and actually make it happen. Worked with them on everything from Wall Street Bets to Stabull, and every time, they delivered. Smart, fast, and no BS.”
Product · 2024–2026Arkeo
Twenty-two months building and running a decentralized data marketplace, with every finding from an outside security audit resolved.
Read the case study →Product · 2017–2018WISE and College Board
Machine learning that scored SAT practice answer sheets from a phone photo, built in 2017 and shipped through point releases.
Read the case study →
Product · 2013–2020ShapeShift
An account-free crypto exchange we designed and helped build, which peaked at more than a million transactions a day.
Read the case study →
Product · 2016–2018SALT Lending
We held the fractional CTO seat at SALT Lending through launch, from a value proposition to a team of nearly a hundred.
Read the case study →
Brand · 2016–2019CoinDesk
Masthead, style guide, site, app and newsletter design, plus the Consensus event brand for its first New York shows.
Read the case study →
Product · 2022–2024Notable.art
A fifty-year physical catalog became a 991-work digital edition, each piece paired with an archival print and a certificate.
Read the case study →Since 2011
Every wave of new tech. The same job.
The resource changed three times. The job did not: decide what gets built, hand it out, and be the one accountable for what comes back.
In 2011, every business wanted an app.
Apple and Android, and nobody had a bench deep enough for the work coming in. So we assembled one a job at a time, out of people who were not ours, and we answered for what they shipped. The Denver studio grew into data-driven products and a run of startups; two of them launched out of our own office.
Then the bench stopped being in the room.
Overseas contract teams and partner companies, working across time zones on longer engagements. The fund rails for WallStreetBets ran with teams in the US, Europe, India and Australia. Same job as before: decide what gets built, hand it out, and be the one accountable for what comes back.
Now the resource is AI.
AI writes the first pass of everything, and it is quietly filling companies with running systems nobody will put a name on. That is the same management problem we have had for fifteen years, with a faster worker that never says it is unsure. InTheory takes the draft the rest of the way, from in theory to in production, and puts an owner on systems already running.
What we believe
Technology has to earn its place.
We would rather cancel a subscription than add one, fix a process than automate a bad one, and measure a result than claim one.
Business result first
Every engagement is tied to revenue, retention or margin, with a number we agree to track.
People approve what matters
AI and automation prepare the work. Your team approves prices, advice and anything a client sees.
Honest about not building
Sometimes the right answer is a setting change, a cancelled tool or nothing at all. We will say so.
Learn more about our parent firm at Innovation Theory. Based in Denver, Colorado, working across the Front Range and with service businesses throughout the US.
Next step
Bring one expensive workflow. Leave with a clear next step.
In 30 minutes we look at one recurring workflow, what it costs you today and whether there is a credible case to improve it. If there is not, we will say so.
Book a 30-minute workflow review
Not ready to talk? Take the 3-minute check
30 minutes with Phil or Martin. No technical brief, no pitch deck. Phil or Martin replies personally, usually within one business day.