Why Kinetic ML keeps Common Ground close

Where we started

Kinetic ML began as a sports-science idea. In November 2023 we wanted a pitch for a venture that would measure the body, assess the mind and feed both into predictive models. We came to Common Ground with an idea and a short deck request. Jimmy Khounlavong built the deck in Keynote across four versions, from a 16-page version called "Transforming Golf" to a 24-page all-sports version in April 2024 under the line "supercharging the future of sports." The team page named Nick Scavio for legal, Jesse Fowler for operations and Khounlavong for brand and marketing.

The deck opened on the precedent that every major sport is moving from analytics to prediction. It set out a three-step plan: set elite standards with specialists, gather data through gamification, enter key markets. The investment page stayed marked "tbd." That venture never went to market, and we do not pretend otherwise.

Why we kept them

We could have walked away when the sports idea stalled. We checked who else we could ask. We weighed a few options. We stayed with Common Ground because of how it handled a stalled concept: it did not push us to fill in the investment page with numbers we could not support.

Then the product changed. In 2025 Common Ground began advising us, and Kinetic ML became a different thing: a business-intelligence platform with one working line, "See everything about any business. In seconds." A visitor picks a business and watches the system read its website, find its owner, discover an email address and write a personalized message.

How we judged the fit

We judged the group by its record. It keeps its work, its dates and its results in public on a wiki. Three entries mattered to us.

The first is an estimating engine for builders that publishes only the accuracy it earns on bids it priced blind. The second is a reference site for peptides that will not change a grade when the news changes. The third is a move of the group's own relationship records onto a new system in one day. Different industries, one habit: show how you got the answer. That is our product too, so showing the work was our idea, and their habit.

It also helped that the group runs an AI agency, APEXX AI, that sells automation to small businesses. Our demo ends with an offer to book a call with that agency, and the email writer inside it is labeled the APEXX Template Engine. Common Ground is credited as the site's creator.

What we trust them for

We trust an advisor who tells us we are still a concept. The Common Ground record says so in print: concept stage, not a shipped product with customers. It also says the page about us will be updated as the venture matures. There is no accuracy figure on our site, because we do not have one we can defend, and our advisor has not asked us to make one up.

The site is public at kineticml.com. It carries a live demo that gives a visitor two free searches.

What they did for us

Common Ground filled the gap so the founders could keep doing what we do best. We were never lost. We had a concept and needed help getting over the hump from a deck to a working demo. They also kept the public site current and searchable the way people look for things now: in search engines and in the answers AI assistants give.

Where this leaves us

• The sports-science pitch exists as a deck and stays a deck.
• The business-intelligence concept has a working public demo.
• Common Ground has advised us since 2025.
• We will tell you when it is more than a concept.

If you are early, find the advisors who describe your stage accurately in public. It costs you some pride and saves you a great deal of trouble.

Credits

• Common Ground VenturesCreated by Common Ground Ventures. Advisor to Kinetic ML since 2025, and creator of the public site.
• Jimmy KhounlavongBuilt the 2023 to 2024 pitch deck across four versions; brand and marketing on the deck's team page
• Jesse FowlerOperations on the deck's team page; named as the builder in the site's context file
• Nick ScavioLegal, on the deck's team page

Related Common Ground Ventures work

Kinetic ML's problem is a data product that has to show how it reached its answer. Common Ground works the same problem elsewhere: an estimating engine that publishes only the accuracy it earns blind, a graded reference that will not move a grade on news, a relationship book moved onto a new system in a day, and a docuseries still looking for a platform.

On the record

• Kinetic ML on the Common Ground wiki
• Kinetic ML: a pitch deck for sports science, not yet in market
• APEXX AI