Pioneer Square Labs has launched more than 40 tech startups and vetted 500-plus ideas since creating its studio a decade ago in Seattle.
Now it’s testing whether its company-building expertise and data on successful startup formulas can be codified into software — with help from the latest AI models.
PSL just unveiled Lev, a new project that aims to be an “AI co-founder” for early stage entrepreneurs.
Developed inside PSL and now rolling out publicly, Lev can evaluate ideas, score their potential, and help founders develop them into companies.
Lev grew out of an internal PSL tool that used PSL’s proprietary rubric to score startup ideas. The studio decided to turn it into a product after outside founders who tested early versions wanted access for themselves.
Here’s how it works:
- Users start by entering an idea (along with any associated information/background) and selecting “venture” or “bootstrap.”
- Lev walks founders through milestones from solution to customer discovery, go-to-market, and product build.
- It can generate “assets” like interview scripts, outreach templates, competitive maps, pricing models, brand palettes, customer personas, landing pages, potential leads, and even product specs.
“We’re mapping a lot of the PSL process into it,” said T.A. McCann, managing director at PSL.
Lev’s structured workflow sets it apart from generic chatbots, said Shilpa Kannan, principal at PSL.
“The sequencing of these components as you go through the process is one of the biggest value-adds,” she said.
Lev joins a growing number of startups leveraging AI to act as an idea validation tool for early-stage founders, though its precise approach makes it stand out.
Upcoming features will add team-building and fundraising modules and let users trigger actions — such as sending emails or buying domains — directly from within the platform.
McCann envisions Lev eventually connecting to tools like Notion and HubSpot to serve as a “command center” for running a company — integrating tools, drafting investor updates, tracking competitors, and suggesting priorities. There are several competitors in this space offering different versions of “AI chief of staff” products.
On a broader level, Lev raises an existential question for PSL: what happens when a startup studio teaches an AI to do the things that make a startup studio valuable?
“In some ways, this is ‘Innovators Dilemma,’ and you have to cannibalize yourself before someone else does it,” McCann said, referencing Clayton Christensen’s concept of technology disruption.
PSL also sees Lev as a potential funnel for entrepreneurs it could work with in the future. And it’s a way to expand the studio’s reach beyond its focus on the Pacific Northwest.
“It’s scaling our knowledge in a way that we wouldn’t be able to do otherwise,” McCann said.
Kannan and Kevin Leneway, principal at PSL, wrote a blog post describing how PSL designed the backbone of Lev and how the firm used it to generate its own high quality startup ideas at higher volumes with lower cost.
“As we see more and more individuals become founders with the support of AI, we are incredibly excited for the potential increase in velocity and successful outcomes from methodologies like ours that focus on upfront ideation and validation,” they wrote.
For now, PSL is targeting venture-scale founders — people in tech companies or accelerators with ambitions to build fast-growing startups. But McCann believes Lev could eventually empower solo operators running multiple micro-businesses.
Lev currently offers its product for free for one idea, and charges $20/month for five ideas, and $100/month for 10 ideas and additional features. It’s available on a waitlist basis.
Lev also offers a couple fun tools to help boost its own marketing, including a founder “personality test” and an “idea matcher” that produces startup concepts based on your interests and experience.
