Built by operators, for businesses ready to grow.
We started OpenGate because we kept seeing the same thing: businesses with real problems to solve, and consultancies that wanted to sell them a deck. We're the team that ships instead — operational software chosen by the problem, not pulled from a menu.
Our Mission
We don't sell AI. We don't sell software. We sell outcomes — and we ship the software to deliver them.
Every business has work that should already be done: a workflow that should be automated, an app that should exist, a platform that would let the team finally scale. Hiring an engineering team takes months you don't have. The big consultancies want a retainer. The freelancers can't ship at scale. We're the team in the middle that actually finishes the job — with delivery discipline, real engineering, and AI baked in where it makes sense.
Meet the Managing Partners
Two managing partners on every engagement. No BDR queue, no handoff to a junior team — you talk to the people building the thing.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Jason Rice
Technology and growth operator with 20+ years bridging engineering and business outcomes. Wharton-educated strategist who turns software and AI investment into ROI — not slides.
View on LinkedInCo-Founder & Managing Partner
Stephen Ternes
Hands-on builder and enterprise infrastructure operator. Architects the systems that turn AI and custom software into measurable business outcomes — with delivery discipline baked in from day one.
View on LinkedInThe team behind us
Two managing partners. A full bench behind them.
Founder-led on every engagement — backed by a credentialed team and a national contractor bench. We have the manpower for any engagement size. We just need the opportunity.
Certified architects & engineers
NVIDIA- and Anthropic-certified core team. Full-stack engineers, ML practitioners, and infrastructure architects shipping in production.
Vetted contractors on the bench
A network of vetted specialists across every U.S. state and major metro. Spun up when engagements scale, spun down when they don't.
Managing partners on every engagement
Jason and Stephen are accountable on every project. No BDR queue, no handoff to a junior team. The founders stay in the room.
Our DNA
Three influences shape everything we build
We Ship What We Sell
We don't deliver decks. We deliver software in production — platforms, apps, workflows, AI agents. The work is the product.
Your Environment, Your Rules
We build inside your stack — your cloud, your VPC, or on-prem when sovereignty matters. We design around your security posture, not ours.
AI Baked In Where It Belongs
We don't bolt AI onto every project. When AI helps, we use it — with evals, guardrails, observability. When it doesn't, we ship the right software without it.
Our Values
How we work and who we are
Outcome-Obsessed
We measure success by what your business does differently after we ship. Features shipped and hours billed are the wrong scoreboard.
Delivery-First
Real engineering discipline — evals before deploy, integration tests, observability, security baked in. We ship the way enterprise software is supposed to ship.
Observability-Driven
You can't improve what you can't see. We instrument every build so the system tells you when something needs attention — before your customers do.
Partner-Led
Two managing partners on every engagement. No BDR queue, no handoff to a junior team. You talk to the people building the thing.
Partner ecosystem
The vendors we build with.
Official partners across the AI, infrastructure, and operational software stacks our clients run on. We bring the certifications, the discounts, and the direct engineering relationships.
NVIDIA
Inception Partner
Anthropic
Partner
AWS
Partner
HubSpot
Solutions Partner
Cisco
Partner
HP
Partner
Plus established relationships across the Cloudflare, Microsoft, Stripe, Twilio, ServiceNow, and Salesforce ecosystems.
Compliance & certifications
NVIDIA Inception Partner
Access to NVIDIA's enterprise AI ecosystem and DGX hardware — for the workloads where on-prem AI infrastructure is the right call.
Compliance-Aware by Architecture
HIPAA, SOC 2, FERPA-aligned patterns baked into the build. We design around your security posture, not the other way around.
Tell us what you're building.
A managing partner reads every inbound — usually within 4 business hours. No sales pitch, no discovery script.