About Mindstake
An Ōtautahi-based decision infrastructure company. Part methodology, part software, part consultancy - built for organisations where decisions involve more than money.
Our mission is to make decisions meaningful.
Mindstake Whakatau is an Ōtautahi-based decision infrastructure company. We build software that transforms complex, multi-stakeholder decisions into clear, defensible outcomes.
The platform and the people are inseparable. You are buying the method, the software, and the team who will set it up with you - then stay alongside, so the reporting is yours and the method stays sound.
The team
Dr Jay Whitehead
Economist (PhD) | Co-founder
Ōraka Aparima | Ngāi Tahu | Kāti Māmoe
Jay is an economist and decision scientist whose work focuses on revealing value that conventional analysis overlooks. His research in environmental and social economics has been used by multiple organisations to attract significant funding. He brings the methodological rigour - the rubric design, the scoring frameworks, and the arithmetic that turns scores into reporting in every Mindstake configuration.
Jeremy Gray
Data Scientist & Engineer | Co-founder
Jeremy is a data scientist and engineer with deep experience building large-scale data systems. He has built and grown several technology businesses, and his focus is on solving real human problems with well-engineered software. He builds the platform - the multi-tenant architecture, the AI-supported scoring layer, the security infrastructure, and the data pipelines that make each client's configuration work at scale.
How we work
Mindstake is a SaaS platform with a guided setup phase. We do not hand you software and walk away. We also do not create dependency - the rubric, the evidence, and the reporting are yours, and your team adds to them whenever it needs to.
Workshop
We work with your team to understand the decision context, define criteria, and build the rubric. This usually takes one or two sessions.
Calibration
We configure Mindstake for your specific needs - your rubric, the evidence you hold, your access controls. We set up how your documents, surveys, and recordings come in, and tune the AI reading to your rubric.
Pilot
You run a small-scale test to calibrate the rubric and build confidence in the scoring framework. We are alongside you for this.
Handover
The rubric, the evidence, and the reporting are handed over to you, in your own Mindstake space. Your team adds new material straight into the report, whenever it arrives. We keep the reading and the checks, so every new piece of evidence is handled with the same care.
What we stand for
Defensible Reasoning
Every score links back to the passage it came from. Every finding can be explained and reviewed. The philosophical core of Mindstake is that decisions should be traceable - not just defensible in the moment but reviewable over time.
Methodical Transparency
The process is visible. Criteria are explicit. Results are brought together by plain arithmetic, not by AI. Nothing happens in a black box. When AI is used, it works within the rubric you define - it does not invent criteria or decide what matters.
Mana Raraunga
Māori Data Sovereignty is not a compliance checkbox. It is a framework with real governance structures, data classification aligned to tikanga, and the principle of rangatiratanga - data owners retain ultimate authority over their data.
Read Te Anga Mana RaraungaCapability Transfer
Built for ownership, not dependency. Your rubric, your evidence, and your reporting belong to you, and your team works with them directly. We stay responsible for the reading and the checks, so the method holds as your evidence grows.
Practical Rigour
Academically grounded but obsessively practical. Complex methodology made usable by real people under real constraints. The rigour is in the method; the practice is in the implementation.
Working with some of Aotearoa's leading iwi and social good organisations
Mindstake gave us the structure we needed to have honest conversations about trade-offs. For the first time, everyone was looking at the same criteria.
- Client testimonial
Getting started
Most teams are up and running within a few weeks. We work alongside you to set up your first decision process - criteria, rubrics, and scoring - then hand it over so you can run it yourself.
An initial conversation to understand your decision context
We help you define criteria and build your rubric
Your team runs the process on your own Mindstake instance