Everyone is paddling. Fewer are in position.
In surfing, the outside set breaks further out. Most people miss it because they are sitting inside, taking whatever comes through.
AI is the same. The frontier throws off a new model every week, and almost none of it will move your business this quarter. The work is choosing which wave you want, then being in the right place when it arrives. That is the whole job, and it is where the name comes from.
Why we exist.
Startups moved fast but rarely understood the industries they were trying to change. Enterprises had the ambition but couldn't turn it into results. Someone needed to bridge the two.
Hans Yang, FounderConsulting judgment and hands-on build, in the same people. That is the firm in one sentence.
We are less interested in the newest thing than in the thing that works: in production, on your data, run by your people. That usually means proven technology pointed at a problem worth solving, and leaving the rest alone until it is ready. The expertise that matters most already exists inside your walls, and our job is to combine it with AI rather than replace it.
The gap is between the boardroom and the management team.
One of the harder problems here is not technical.
BCG found that 61% of CEOs believe their boards are rushing AI transformation, and 35% say their board overestimates the human capabilities AI can replace. BCG attributes part of the divide to gaps in AI understanding and to plain fear of missing out.
Boards are not wrong to push. They are being asked to judge a technology that changes monthly. The pattern that tends to follow is urgency without a grounded view of what is actually buildable, which is where most stalled pilots start.
Both sides want the same outcome. Boards want business cases and ambition. CEOs want an honest read on what the technology can deliver today. What closes that gap is usually a single plan: ambitious enough for the board to back, grounded enough for management to deliver. Producing that plan, quickly and on evidence, is what we sell.
Board and CEO figures from BCG, Split Decisions: The BCG CEOs and Boards Survey, published May 4, 2026: a global survey of 625 leaders, including 351 CEOs and 274 board members, at companies with at least $100 million in annual revenue across public and private sectors. Self-reported executive survey data.
The firm.
Outside Set, Inc. is a California corporation based in Manhattan Beach, California, founded in 2026 by Hans Yang and led with partner Bill Allred. We work across industries with mid-market companies and their sponsors.