Marc Kleinmann
Marc Kleinmann laughing with a coffee in a studio full of architecture modelsAI-assisted. Human-directed.

Marc Kleinmann Founder of Praxis · New York

I build AI assistants for your business.

They answer leads, write proposals, deliver your morning briefing, chase follow-ups and run your social media marketing. Set up in days. Run by you.

5companies I started
$2.6Mseed raised
2020started working with AI
Work for
Charles SchwabTRGDark Hollow on NetflixConsole and AssociatesWyldBlueM Rental922 DragonNeurolimitsSkyship FilmsDarktower
Work with me

Four ways I help your business.

Most owners use more than one. Each link opens the details and prices.

praxisatwork.com

AI assistants that do real work.

An AI assistant answers new leads, writes your morning briefing and chases follow-ups. Set up in days, kept running by me.

Fits if you lose hours every week to the same task.

See the AI assistants →
praxisatwork.com

A website ChatGPT recommends.

When a customer asks ChatGPT or Google's AI for a recommendation, your business shows up in the answer, with the right facts.

Fits if you asked ChatGPT about your business and the answer was wrong.

See the website work →
praxisatwork.com

A business that runs on AI assistants.

Your files, tasks and tools set up so your AI assistants work across all of them.

Fits if your team uses five tools and none of them talk to each other.

Start a conversation →
praxisatwork.com/training

Your team, trained to run your AI assistants.

A free weekly newsletter with one new way to use AI. A live group class. Private training for your team.

Fits if you want your team running AI assistants without you.

See the training →
My work

Things I've built.

Film, effects, apps, and the AI assistants I run my own company on.

For construction and service business owners

Plan to takeoff.

Get your next job ready to price.

Construction plans become quantities and an estimating workbook. You check the scope, resolve the questions and apply your own rates before bidding.

Revenue opportunity: prepare more jobs for estimating.

See the estimating workflow →
Illustrative construction plan and estimating workbook. No client plans shown.
An example morning briefing email on a phoneMade-up example shown
AI assistant · My own business

Morning briefing

Six sources, one briefing. Catch-up went from up to 60 minutes to 3.

A still from Dark Hollow: a mine entrance in a forest
Feature film · Effects

Dark Hollow

Virtual production and AI effects. On Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon.

$2.6M
Construction-tech startup

VIRTUALhaus

A 3D marketplace for building products. My first work with AI, in 2020.

Marc laughing with two people at a table in a brick loft
AI-assisted. Human-directed.
About me

New tools, put to work.

My career in tech started in visual effects in Dallas in 1996, on TV commercials and broadcast graphics. From 1999 to 2002 I worked for Softimage in Montreal, showing its effects software to studios and on stages around the world.

Then I ran Bauhaus, a design-build firm, for over 15 years.

That's where my obsession with inefficiency started, and with finding better and faster ways.

Interior design, architecture and construction are ridiculously inefficient. Bauhaus became one of the first firms in Dallas to give every client a photorealistic 3D design, built in Unreal Engine. Bauhaus built custom modern homes from $1M to $10M, and won several ARC Awards and Best of Houzz awards.

The deep insight into those inefficiencies led to my next company, VIRTUALhaus, which I founded in 2018 and which raised a $2.6M seed round backed by Builders FirstSource, one of the nation's largest building materials distributors. VIRTUALhaus was a marketplace and estimating platform for building products. The goal was to make estimating, budgeting and buying for construction projects faster and more efficient.

My first work with AI came at VIRTUALhaus in 2020, two years before ChatGPT. I took an MIT course on AI, then went deep on AI image and video models. When ChatGPT launched, I watched it turn hours of project documents into a structured request for quote.

I realized then that AI would ignite a fundamental transformation of how businesses operate and sell products.

I applied the same tools to film and video work. I did virtual production and AI effects for the feature film Dark Hollow, now on Netflix, Apple TV and Amazon, and worked on commercial campaigns for Charles Schwab and TRG.

I started Praxis to help people and businesses change how they work with AI assistants, and to teach people to get fluent with AI, so they can rethink how they work and run their business.

I run Praxis on the same AI assistants I set up for clients. Every morning an AI assistant writes my briefing before I start. My catch-up went from 60 minutes to 3.

Awards
  • ARC Award · Best Conceptual Interior Design · 2012, 2013, 2015
  • ARC Award · Best Conceptual Architectural Design · 2013
  • Best of Houzz · 2013, 2014, 2015
Certifications
  • MIT Professional Education · Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy · 2021
  • Anthropic · Claude Academy: AI Fluency for small businesses · 2026
  • Anthropic · Claude Academy: AI Fluency for builders · 2026
Proof
  • $2.6M seed · Builders FirstSource
  • Dark Hollow · Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon

Marc

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