One of us built a company that runs itself. The other helped build Kane.
Grounded Intelligence teaches leadership teams how to build AI into their own work. Most of the firms we work with are in commercial real estate. We started in Raleigh in January 2026, and both of us are part of every engagement.
We didn't plan this. We discovered it.
Bonner was leaving Kane after 21 years, and David had been rebuilding Offline around AI since 2022, when we sat down for lunch: two free agents with complementary obsessions. Bonner was sure AI was about to reshape how every commercial real estate firm runs. David had spent years proving what that actually looks like inside a real company.
What we didn't have yet was the idea for the company, and the market handed it to us: every firm we talked to could see what AI made possible, but nobody had the time, the know-how or the mandate to make it real. So we started out building AI for them. The tools worked, but as outsiders we had to keep maintaining them, and because they started at the bottom of the org chart, the leaders running the firm changed slowest of all.
At the same time, we were teaching one firm's leaders to build their own, and that whole firm changed. Division managers who had never opened the tool were sending proposals in minutes and asking us what to build next.
So now we teach first, and we build alongside the leaders who are ready for it.
He spent 21 years in real estate, and then he learned to build.
Bonner joined Kane Realty when it was 12 people and spent 21 years helping grow it to 330.
When he left, people asked him to consult, and he told them he couldn't do real estate consulting unless it was AI first, so he learned to build. His background was operations, not code, and he's since built a ton of tools for his own work.
At Kane, he watched AI stall as one person's side project, and that's a big part of why we start with the leaders.
He rebuilt his own company on AI first.
David built Offline into a company with $8M raised, 35 employees and 700 restaurant partners across 10 cities. In 2022 he started rebuilding how the company ran around AI, and he has put more than 10,000 hours into building with it since.
He taught Bonner to build, which is the same investment we now make in your leaders. David leads the technical side of every engagement.
Our AI residents are ambitious students who build real tools inside our client engagements, and we review everything before it ships.
If this sounds right to you, we should talk.
AI is a new medium, not a new tool.
Most firms treat AI like software: buy a license, roll it out, check the box. But AI is not software. It requires companies to metamorphose, not just adopt. The caterpillar does not become a butterfly by adding wings to a caterpillar.
The human layer of a firm is irreplaceable.
Relationships, taste, judgment, local knowledge: these are where the value lives. AI should serve that layer, not replace it. The best brokers, operators, and advisors will always be human. We are not here to change that.
The process layer is holding your people back.
Data entry, reporting, document processing, copy-paste workflows: your best people spend too much of their time on work that does not require their brain. They deserve better. And now, for the first time, better is possible.
This is existential for independent firms.
Institutional players are investing heavily in AI. If they get meaningfully better at this than the local firms, they will eat your lunch. The window to build these capabilities is open now. It will not stay open forever.
Curiosity is the prerequisite.
We work best with firms where someone already feels the urgency, where there is excitement about what is possible, not just anxiety about falling behind. AI rewards curiosity and initiative. So do we.
Start with a 30-minute conversation.
Tell us how your firm runs and where your leaders' hours are going, and we'll be straight with you about whether this is a fit.