The seven questions to ask, the four red flags to walk from, and what a real Claude implementation looks like in practice.
A Claude implementation partner is the firm that installs Claude as the operating system of your business — not as a tool you add, but as staff that runs.
The right partner ships working agents in week one. The wrong partner sells you a strategy deck and disappears. The difference is visible in 30 minutes if you know what to ask.
This page is the buyer's guide.
A real partner does three things — and only three things matter.
One, they write your context file with you. The single document Claude reads before every task. They do not hand you a template. They sit with you, extract your methodology, write the words, and verify the output sounds like the founder.
Two, they install agents that ship to a channel you check. Not a dashboard. Not a tool you have to remember to open. The output lands in your team channel — Discord — at a specific time every day.
Three, they build the loop that makes the system self-improving. A weekly review that scores what worked, kills what did not, and rebuilds the agents that are drifting.
Everything else — the strategy deck, the maturity model, the AI roadmap — is sales theater. Real implementation is measured in agents shipping work this week.
The right answer: a screenshot of the agent's daily output, the channel it posts to, and a number — hours saved, deals advanced, or pieces of content shipped per week. The wrong answer: a slide about possibilities.
The right answer is specific: methodology, offer ladder, customer language, hard rules, examples of good output. If the partner cannot describe the structure of a context file in 60 seconds, they have not built one.
Look for: a second Claude pass that scores output against a rubric and rewrites failing drafts before delivery. If the answer is "the founder reviews everything," the system will not scale.
Real partners ship weekly. They review last week's output, adjust the agent, and add one new capability. If the answer is "we deliver in 90 days at the end," there will be nothing to deliver.
Hours saved. Pipeline created. Deals advanced. Content shipped. If the answer is "AI maturity score" or "transformation index," the partner is selling consulting hours, not outcomes.
Look for: the principal who runs the engagement also writes the agents. If a junior team is doing the building while a senior is doing the calls, the agents will not match what was promised on the call.
The right answer: the founder owns every agent, every context file, every line of configuration. The wrong answer: vendor lock-in disguised as a managed service.
Red flag one: the partner cannot show a single agent running in production today. Claude has been generally available for two years. Anyone serious has shipped.
Red flag two: the proposal is heavy on strategy decks and light on agent specifications. Strategy without execution is a wish list.
Red flag three: the partner promises "AI transformation" without naming the first three agents and the week each one ships. Vague timelines mean nothing ships.
Red flag four: the partner cannot tell you which Claude Partner Network category they sit in (Services Partner vs Technology Partner) or what tier they hold (Authorized, Solution, Strategic). This is public information for verified partners. If they dodge the question, they are not in the network.
One of our Private clients, Alchemy, came in with a strong delivery team but a weak top-of-funnel. We installed three agents in 30 days: a daily prospecting agent, a discovery prep agent, and a follow-up loop. By day 90, revenue had grown 130% and the founder was spending more time on strategic work and less on sales operations.
The work was not a strategy deck. It was three agents that ship every morning. The agents are still running.
The Claude Partner Network has two categories: Services Partners and Technology Partners. Services Partners install Claude into operating businesses — they sit on the GTM side. Technology Partners build products on top of Claude. The category matters because the work is different.
If your need is to install Claude into your sales and marketing operations, your partner should be a Services Partner. If your need is to ship a product powered by Claude, your partner should be a Technology Partner. Asking the wrong category for the wrong work is the most common buying mistake in the network today.
A real Claude implementation engagement runs $9,000 to $30,000 per month for the first 90 days, depending on scope. After 90 days, ongoing partnership runs $900 to $9,000 per month.
Anyone offering "full AI implementation for $2,000" is selling templates, not implementation. Anyone quoting six figures for the first month without naming the agents shipping is selling a deck.
The price reflects the work: writing the context file, building the agents, installing the quality gates, running the weekly cadence, training the founder to own the system.
Book a coffee. Bring the seven questions above. We will answer each one with the live agent, the channel it posts to, and the metric it moves. No pitch.
Book Coffee with Simon