Sam Henry, Working Theory, and SalesSmyth all run on AILK.
Building the foundation first forced the architecture — a typed schema registry, CI-enforced parity, agent-ready surfaces — before it was a product for anyone else.
Apache 2.0. The architecture is observable in the repo, not on a slide deck — the parity test runs in CI and `.well-known/mcp.json` is live at every deployed URL, including this one.
Why does AILK exist?
AILK exists because the page — not the site — is the unit of citation in AI search. Most of the web wasn't built for the audience now reading it on a buyer's behalf. When ChatGPT recommends a business, it assembles that recommendation from pages it has read, attributed to a source, and judged trustworthy enough to quote. WordPress was built when Google was the only entry point. SaaS starters shipped for dashboards and auth — not marketing pages. Closed builders locked customers in by design; that was always the business model. None of them were built for a model to read a page, recognize the brand behind it, and trust the structure enough to cite it. We needed that foundation ourselves, first. Sam Henry needed it for his own site. Working Theory needed it to publish a growth-marketing system. SalesSmyth, for GTM consulting. None of the existing options cleared the bar, so the foundation got built — and then opened, Apache 2.0, for anyone building the same kind of site.
What does a foundation have to do in the agent-first internet?
Five requirements. None of them are AILK features — they're what any site needs to publish into a world where AI systems read pages and recommend brands.
Be read correctly
A model should know what the page is about and which business it belongs to without guessing. If it has to guess, it cites someone else.
Work for non-human visitors
Agents now research on behalf of buyers. The foundation exposes itself to them as a first-class audience, not a degraded API.
Surface its own gaps
AEO problems are silent — the site doesn't crash, it just doesn't get cited. A foundation should catch structural gaps the way a linter catches type errors.
Belong to the people running on it
Foundations that lock customers in shape their roadmap around lock-in. Apache 2.0 keeps that pressure off the roadmap.
Fit inside the engagement
An SMB site engagement runs weeks, not quarters. A foundation that requires a multi-month custom build breaks the economics.
Who built AILK?
AILK is built by the Working Theory Labs team, led by Sam Henry, with two agent team members contributing directly to the codebase. Full bios live where they belong — Sam Henry's at samhenry.org, the wider Working Theory Labs team at workingtheory.ai.
Sam Henry
Creator, AI Launch Kit · Founder, SalesSmyth LLC
Working Theory Labs team
Product and engineering — the team behind AILK
Claudio Planck
Agent team member — architecture, code review, and implementation
Anders Stewart
Agent team member — implementation strategy
How does AILK relate to Working Theory and SalesSmyth?
AILK is made by SalesSmyth LLC, the company behind the Working Theory product line. It's published under the Working Theory brand. That's why you'll see "AI Launch Kit by Working Theory" across the site. Sam Henry created AILK and founded SalesSmyth LLC. Working Theory Platform is a sister product — growth marketing as a system — and publishes into AILK with the deepest integration of any tool in the portfolio. AILK works fully standalone for developers and agencies who never touch Working Theory Platform. Neither product requires the other.
Does the team actually run on AILK?
Publishes on AILK — the reason the schema registry and the peer-surfaces architecture exist in their current shape. We hit the problem first.
Sam Henry
Runs its growth-marketing product line on AILK, publishing into the substrate with the deepest integration in the portfolio.
Working Theory
The GTM-consulting brand behind AILK runs its own site on the same foundation it ships to customers.
SalesSmyth
Common questions about AILK and the team behind it
Is AILK the same company as Working Theory?
No. SalesSmyth LLC is the company that makes AILK. Working Theory is the product line — the brand AILK is published under, not a separate company. "AI Launch Kit by Working Theory" names the relationship: one maker, one brand, one product.
Who is Sam Henry and what's his role in AILK?
Sam Henry created AILK and founded SalesSmyth LLC, the company behind it. He built the foundation for his own site first, then opened it under Apache 2.0. His full background is at samhenry.org; this page covers his role in AILK, not his biography.
Does the AILK team actually use the product?
Yes. Sam Henry, Working Theory, and SalesSmyth all publish on AILK today. The schema registry and the peer-surfaces architecture exist in their current shape because the team hit these problems first — not because of a marketing claim.
Do I have to use Working Theory Platform to use AILK?
No. AILK works fully standalone for developers and agencies. Working Theory Platform is a separate product — growth marketing as a system — that publishes into AILK with the deepest integration available. It's the recommended substrate for Platform customers who need a website, not a requirement for anyone else.
See the substrate AILK runs on.
The same architecture Sam Henry, Working Theory, and SalesSmyth publish on — schema registry, peer surfaces, audit CLI, all Apache 2.0.