We expected the AI to be a demo. It is in Front today, drafting every ticket. The team stopped editing most of them by week four.
Next Level Sports hired RidgeHQ for live ops work
A managed AI hire.
Works where the role already lives. Drafts the work. Flags the edge cases. Your team approves. We improve it weekly.
- No card on intake
- Human approval
- SOC 2 not certified yet
Proof from production: 5 live agents1,942 drafts59% by month three
helpdesk Next Level Sports · Front queue
Alfred active
Can we refund a late weather cancellation for the spring season?
Drafted a reply based on the weather cancellation policy. Policy source: NLS Refund Policy §4.2. The draft is review-ready in Front.
Drafted reply
Hi Sara — So sorry about the weather washout. Per our spring season policy, a full refund is available for cancellations made within 48 hours of the program start. I've processed that for order #NLS-4821. You should see it on your original card within 3–5 business days. Let us know if anything else comes up. — Next Level Sports
Looks good, approve and send.
Sent. Tagged as refund-approved in Front.
Live production · updated monthly Read the Next Level Sports story
1,942
Drafts shipped · 8 months
59%
Approved as-sent · month 3
35%
Lightly rewritten · 8 months
5
Live agents
141
Knowledge-base articles
Scope
These five numbers are from the first eight months of helpdesk drafting in production at Next Level Sports — a youth sports operator running 80+ programs across 11 states. Approval rate climbed from ~30% in week one to 59% by month three. The broader agent team now runs named roles across finance reporting, back-office reporting, and marketing operations, which carry their own in-rollout timelines rather than these helpdesk metrics.
One role at a time. Each one earns the next.
RidgeHQ is strongest when the first job has real inputs, visible output, and a manager who can approve or edit the work. Add the next role when this one has earned it.
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Helpdesk drafting
ProvenCustomer replies drafted in Front from KB articles, order context, and team rules. Proven at Next Level Sports over the first 8 months in production.
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Finance reporting
In rolloutScheduled reports and drafts pulled from QuickBooks, Bill.com, and BigQuery. In rollout now at our production customer.
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Marketing operations
In rolloutEnrollment segmentation into Constant Contact, scheduled sends, and list hygiene. In rollout.
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Program operations
In rolloutFollow-up and exception tracking across program rosters, with escalation rules and a review loop.
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Transfer & cancel reporting
ProvenDaily deposit and cancellation reports posted to Slack on a schedule, with the sources and totals logged.
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Runtime-editable skills
CoreThe role definition, guardrails, and escalation rules update through the weekly review, not a release cycle.
- Human approval before send
- Weekly review with RidgeHQ
- Audit log on every action
- SOC 2 not certified yet
How it works
Get Started → Hire it like a teammate. Manage it with us.
- 01
Write the job description.
We define the role, inputs, decisions, guardrails, and escalations. The agent starts with a job, not a blank chat box.
- 02
Shadow the team.
The agent reads real context, drafts against real cases, and stays behind human approval while the role earns trust.
- 03
Put it on the clock.
Drafts shipped, approval rate, rewrites, tool calls, saved skills, escalations, and missed context drive the weekly review. Add the next role when this one has earned it.
The role earns trust. Then the review loop compounds.
The weekly review is the part we did not know we needed. The guardrails tighten every week, and the drafts keep getting closer to send.
A hire is not always a service. Choose the operating model.
RidgeHQ is for teams that want one operational role owned end-to-end. Self-serve AI hires are better when your team wants breadth, low software cost, and direct control.
Comparing us to a self-serve AI employee? RidgeHQ vs Viktor →| RidgeHQ Agent Managed AI agent on retainer | Self-serve AI hires AI coworkers your team operates | Adding headcount New full-time hire or contractor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost / month | $19/mo Individual · $50/mo Team · Custom for managed roles | Low software cost + your review time | $6,000–10,000 fully loaded |
| Hours covered | Async; runs on schedule or trigger | When your team prompts, schedules, or maintains it | 40 hrs/wk, your time zone |
| Onboarding | Days | You add it, connect tools, and teach the work | Weeks-to-months (recruit / interview / train) |
| Holds a role | Yes — owns defined work and learns over time | Can hold context if your team manages it | Yes |
| Compounds | Yes — we own the iteration loop | Compounds if you keep managing it | Yes — over months / years |
| You manage | Outputs (we manage the agent) | The AI hire, the prompts, the checks | The person + the work + the career |
| Expands beyond the first role | Add more agents anytime | Add more tasks and connections | Hire more people |
| Best for | Digital work with clear inputs, tool access, and audit logs | Broad ad-hoc work and low-cost experimentation | Human judgment, ambiguous work, real-time presence |
| Where it loses | Ambiguous human work, real-time presence, in-the-moment judgment | Work that needs an accountable outside operator | Cost, throughput cap, onboarding lag |
Paid from day one. No sales call.
Every role, every integration. When you need more, it starts at $19/month.
- $19 /mo Individual One operator, 5,000 monthly credits
- $50 /mo Team One workspace, 20,000 monthly credits
- Custom for managed roles Enterprise Scoped, run, and reviewed by RidgeHQ
Start at $19/month. Paid from day one. No sales call.
Individual operators can start small, then move to a team workspace or managed production role when the work proves it is ready.
Individual operator
$19 / month
5,000 credits every month for one operator testing a focused workflow.
- 5,000 credits each month
- One operator workspace
- Connect the tools you already use
- Run focused recurring work
- Upgrade when the role earns more
Start individual → 5,000 monthly credits
Most teams start here
$50 / month
20,000 credits every month. Your whole team, one workspace.
- 20,000 credits each month
- Connect the tools you already use
- Integrations into your stack
- Shared workspace for the team
- Audit log + monthly outcome report
Get started → 20,000 monthly credits
Enterprise
Custom for managed roles
Production roles RidgeHQ scopes, runs, and reviews with you weekly.
- Scoped onboarding + role definition
- Weekly review + iteration loop
- Guardrails, escalation, approval before send
- Volume credits + priority support
Talk to us → Limited cohort · 2026
Credits cover the work agents do for you. Individual and Team are paid self-serve starts. Heavier production roles — scoped, run, and reviewed by RidgeHQ — are priced as custom Enterprise.
Your data, systems, privacy, and peace of mind are protected.
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Scoped access
Agents receive the narrow tool permissions required for the role, not blanket access to your stack.
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Credential and data protection
Credentials live in a vault. Foundation models receive only the task inputs they need to draft or reason.
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Audit-ready operations
Every draft, tool call, edit, approval, skill change, scheduler run, and escalation is logged so review has a reliable trail.
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Operational support
Your agent is not left alone. RidgeHQ owns prompt updates, evals, weekly review, and guardrail changes.
We're not SOC 2 certified yet. If that's a hard requirement, we're not the right fit at this stage. We'll tell you before kickoff rather than pretend.
Frequently asked
01 What is a RidgeHQ agent?
A RidgeHQ agent is a managed AI hire with a scoped role inside your stack. It reads from the right tools, drafts or reports against your rules, escalates when it should, and improves through weekly review.
02 How is this different from a self-serve AI hire?
Self-serve AI gives your team a worker to prompt and manage. RidgeHQ gives you a role we run with you: scoped job description, tool access, guardrails, human approval, and a weekly iteration loop.
03 Why managed instead of self-serve?
Because the review loop is the work. Operators usually do not need one more surface to supervise. They need a role owner who watches output quality, catches drift, updates guardrails, and earns the next responsibility.
04 What's R.I.D.G.E.?
Our delegation framework. Role, Inputs, Decisions, Guardrails, Escalations. Every agent ships with all five filled in, then the weekly review tightens the role.
05 Who runs my agent partnership?
A two-person team at RidgeHQ — full-stack builders, hands on. No layers, no offshore pool, no BPO. The partnership is direct: you, your agent, us.
06 How long until the agent is producing?
The first role starts in shadow mode after scoping and setup. Humans approve sends while the agent earns trust. Published helpdesk proof at Next Level Sports moved from roughly 30% approved as-sent in week one to 59% by month three.
07 Pause? Cancel?
Pause anytime. Unused days carry forward. Cancel anytime. We archive the agent so you can pick up where you left off if you come back.
08 What about SOC 2?
We're not SOC 2 certified yet. If that's a hard requirement, we're not the right fit at this stage — we'd rather tell you on the intake call than pretend.
09 Limited cohort — what does that mean?
We onboard a small number of customers per cycle so we can do the iteration loop properly. Intake is reviewed within 48 hours. If we're full, we'll tell you the next cohort window.
10 What if we use a tool you haven't integrated before?
Describe it on intake. If it has an API, we can usually wire it up. If it doesn't, the agent can often work it through a browser, the way a person would. If neither, we'll tell you honestly.
Hire the first role. Then earn the next.
Start with one recurring operational job. We scope it, run it, review it, and expand only when the work proves it is ready.