Why We Invested: Blank Metal
AI-Native Engineering Services
Blank Metal was founded to help companies navigate the most profound technological shift in decades. AI is transforming how businesses operate, but most consulting firms still follow outdated models built for a time when shipping software required large teams, long timelines and rigid roadmaps. That approach no longer works.
Blank Metal offers a fundamentally different model. Their “anti-consultancy” is built for the speed and demands of AI, delivering production-ready enterprise solutions in 90 days or less without the overhead of traditional consulting.
Rally Ventures co-led Blank Metal’s $3M seed round, along with Pure Play Partners and Traction Capital. Rally Managing Director Justin Kaufenberg recently spoke with Blank Metal Co-Founder and CEO Matt Johnson (MJ) about the vision behind the company, what it takes to lead through a time of rapid change and how to be successful in the AI era. Below are edited excerpts from their conversation.
Justin Kaufenberg, Managing Director at Rally Ventures: Welcome to the Rally family, MJ! We’re excited to co-lead Blank Metal’s seed round and even more excited to get to work with you. Before I start peppering you with questions about Blank Metal, let’s start with you: tell us a bit about your background and what you’ve been up to over the past few years.
Matt Johnson (MJ), Co-Founder and CEO at Blank Metal: Thanks, Justin, we’re just as excited to launch Blank Metal. On the personal side, I’m a recovering musician, avid fisherman and proud girl dad. That’s the way I like to define myself, and I think those three identities converge in a deep passion for building things that matter—especially things that contribute to a future where my daughter can thrive, both in nature and in the digital world.
Professionally, I’ve spent the past 20 years working at the intersection of emerging technology and real-world impact, focusing on how to apply tech meaningfully in regulated industries like financial services, education and healthcare. I’ve always gravitated toward the front edge of change, from the rise of social and mobile to the cloud computing era.
I’ve had the privilege of working alongside some incredible people, including Matt Meents, a Rally Tech Partner and investor in Blank Metal, during the early days of Reside, which became Magnet 360. That experience showed me the power of a platform-aligned services company, especially during the rise of Salesforce and cloud computing.
I later was a longtime partner and leader at GoKart Labs, a Minneapolis-based product and venture studio launched during the great recession. On the venture side, we created and built six startups (three acquired), and that startup experience and reputation helped us in partnering with organizations like Mayo Clinic, Target and National Geographic (among many others) to help them design and build many of their digital products/experiences. We didn’t have a big-name reputation, but our startup credibility opened doors with enterprise clients eager to move faster and think and act more like entrepreneurs.
In 2019, we sold GoKart to West Monroe, where our team became the foundation of their Product, Experience and Engineering Lab (PXEL). Over the next three years, we scaled that team from 65 to over 500 people and helped drive a more product- and innovation-focused culture across the entire firm.
Justin: Blank Metal exists to help companies navigate the AI revolution, much like we’ve seen them respond to earlier shifts like social, mobile and cloud. At West Monroe, you helped build their entire digital product and innovation practice, giving you a front-row seat to how large organizations were approaching this next wave of technology.
What did you observe in those conversations with customers that made you feel now was the right time, and that Blank Metal was the right way to build something new?
MJ: West Monroe was a more traditional management consultancy focused on high-level advisory work with large enterprises and private equity. After our acquisition, our team added product, experience and engineering capabilities to combine strategy with execution, helping clients move faster from planning to delivery.
We started seeing major shifts about a decade ago—signals like Google’s acquisition of DeepMind pointed to AI as a serious, long-term bet. At West Monroe, I led analyst relations with firms like Forrester and Gartner, and we heard clear signals from both analysts and clients: they wanted outcomes, not just billable hours. They wanted to go faster, do more with their money and realize the impact to their bottom line. Outcome-based contracts were on the rise, and some of their predictions indicated that by 2030, as much of half of consulting fees would be at risk (outcomes aligned), with proprietary accelerators or tools making up another large share of revenue.
At the same time that clients were getting more outcomes obsessed, OpenAI evolved from a small nonprofit into an industry game-changer. These shifts were converging and it was really clear to me that AI would fundamentally transform the entire consulting industry. The future of work would be delivered via smaller teams, with faster delivery and entirely new ways of working. That tectonic shift is what ultimately inspired us to build Blank Metal.
Future talks with Rally really crystallized this vision: we needed to start from scratch with an AI-native company, rethinking the entire business model, operations, hiring and client delivery. Big companies with legacy models can’t change enough to meet this moment – which is why we’re so focused on building Blank Metal to move fast with zero legacy constraints.
Justin: I love that; it’s exactly what excites us too: reimagining the entire services business in an AI-driven world. I’d love to hear more about the team that you’ve got around you.
MJ: I feel like I really have wind at my sails as CEO, especially with Rally’s support and network, which benefits not just me but the entire Blank Metal team. Four of our six founding members come from GoKart, where we worked together for over a decade. We know each other’s strengths, weaknesses and working styles inside out, so we hit the ground running immediately
Mark Hines, our COO, is a great counterpart to me. He’s strategic and visionary but ruthlessly focused on efficient execution (hard to find that balance). Elli Rader leads growth and revenue for us, bringing exceptional relationship- and culture-building skills which are crucial for our partner ecosystem. Our CTO, Eric Johnson (EJ), led technology at GoKart and was West Monroe’s AI Center of Excellence technical leader. He’s a deep technical expert and an innovative thinker that engineers love and want to work for.
We’ve also brought in two new leaders. Teresa Marchek, our head of product, has a strong track record building product teams inside organizations like the Bone Marrow Donor Program (NMDP, formerly Be The Match) and Capella Education. Missy Bemm, our head of client success, started her career in tech (was the Chief of Staff for Apple’s CMO, Dan Eilers). She also built an industry-leading experiential learning program in Minnetonka high schools, which aligns perfectly with our focus on upskilling and reskilling—topics every client asks us about today.
Justin: Blank Metal is pretty unique for Rally in that we believe every one of our portfolio companies should be working with you. They all need to be building AI capabilities: rethinking operations, products and rapidly scaling AI both internally and externally.
Startups often struggle to hire AI talent quickly, so partnering with a team like yours with deep expertise and strong platform connections such as OpenAI is a huge asset. This opportunity also extends beyond startups. Our tech partners include executives from Fortune 500 companies, and I want them working with you as well.
Given the likely demand from both startups and large enterprises, how do you prioritize? Where do you do your best work? And how is the surge of AI investment shaping your approach?
MJ: I think about it in three main categories. First, we help clients quickly build meaningful AI products and services: things that don’t take months or cost millions, but can be prototyped in a few weeks and brought to production shortly after. Many Rally portfolio companies are here, needing talent or processes to test ideas and decide whether to invest further. We want to support as many of those types of clients as possible – helping us stay on the cutting edge of AI platforms and tech, working with incredibly agile and responsive teams.
Second, on the other end of the spectrum, we work with large, multi-billion dollar corporations that want guidance on building and hiring AI teams. Recruiting top talent is incredibly competitive right now, much like the early mobile era when engineers wanted to explore many technologies before specializing. We want Blank Metal to be a place where top talent can explore broadly, whether they stay a few years or a decade, and then help guide them to the right long-term path, even if that means connecting them with our clients.
Finally, in the middle, we support mid-sized companies with $500 million to $1 billion in revenue that can’t staff large AI teams or invest heavily but need technology and strategy support. We serve as their outsourced AI partner, helping build, maintain and scale AI products and tools as needed
So yes, we face the challenge of serving diverse clients, but we’re not limiting ourselves to only Fortune 500, mid-market or small businesses. At this stage of AI, we believe we can add value to any size client.
Justin: That all makes sense. On the people front, your reputation as a great culture builder truly precedes you. This is something I saw firsthand at GoKart and now again at Blank Metal. Years ago at SportsEngine, we used to say: This will not be your last job, but we hope it’s your best job. That mindset clears the way for people to do epic work, and it’s especially true in AI, where the pace and potential are unmatched.
I’ve been so impressed with you and your team. And, I think you’re officially the fastest growing Rally company ever—from inception to hundreds of thousands in revenue in just a few months. Now the race is on to millions.
Your clients and others will turn to you to help future-proof their businesses. As you look into your crystal ball, what advice would you give to anyone navigating this new AI era?
MJ: The first step is moving past the fear. Whether it’s societal, organizational or personal, I’ve felt it too. This is the most profound technological shift I’ve seen in my lifetime. But to move forward, you have to shift from fear to curiosity. Step out of fear mode, figure out what’s working and then scale to drive real value.
We’ve had a simple philosophy for years: keep the work hard and the job fun. That feels more relevant now than ever. The work ahead will be harder than anything we’ve seen, but it can also be incredibly energizing if we approach it with curiosity and optimism. I’ll admit I’m a bit of a techno-optimist, but I think you have to be right now. Change is happening daily at a mind-blowing pace, and leaders need to create a sense of vision and momentum—not let their teams sit in fear, waiting for the robots to take over.
Justin: Totally agree. I think we’re entering a phase of rapid prototyping unlike anything we’ve seen in software. I’d love to see more companies placing small bets faster, and working with teams like yours that can take ideas from concept to production quickly. That speed will be a huge advantage. We’re thrilled to be on the Blank Metal team. You and your founding team have been incredible to work with, and we’re so excited for what’s ahead.
