Systems · Software · Strategy

J. I. Ashley Consulting

A San Francisco consulting practice for companies that want strategy, software, and AI pulling in the same direction. Our recommendations come from systems we build and run ourselves, in production, with results we publish.

Veteran-Owned  ·  PMP-Certified Leadership  ·  Founded 2022


Client showcase.

Flagship engagement  ·  founded & operated

SMTRY  ·  Software company

SMTRY is a San Francisco software company building for data sovereignty, and it is the firm's deepest engagement. We designed the company, built its brand, and ship and operate its products in production. Most consultancies show slides about work like this. Ours is public, and you can visit it.

Product engineering

Anamnesis  ·  Memory for AI assistants

A persistent, encrypted memory that follows you across the AI tools you already use. Taken from architecture to paying customers: per-user encryption, a published benchmark protocol, a SOC 2 aligned readiness program, and production monitoring. The benchmarks are public because evidence beats promises.

Advisory & delivery  ·  2022–2024

Pacific Northwest engagements

Before its San Francisco chapter, the firm served Oregon organizations: go-to-market research, brand guidelines and marketing strategy, and a membership sustainment program built on recurring giving, each carried from assessment through implementation.

Outside the Frame The Father's Group

Selectively available.

J. I. Ashley Consulting takes a small number of engagements where the fit is right. If your problem lives at the intersection of systems, software, and strategy, start a conversation.

Software solutions

Custom systems designed and built end to end: AI integration, memory and knowledge infrastructure, and the unglamorous plumbing that makes it dependable.

Websites & web operations

Design and build, then the labyrinth nobody warns you about: domains, DNS, email routing, hosting, security, and the search and business consoles that decide whether you get found. We run this stack daily for our own properties. This site is the working sample.

AI strategy

What to build, what to buy, and what to ignore. Grounded in running production AI systems daily, not in slideware.

Business consulting

Program delivery, analytical process design, and decision frameworks from someone who has run them at enterprise scale and under pressure.

Marketing & brand

Positioning, brand guidelines, and go-to-market strategy, carried into execution: campaigns, content, and social channels planned and managed day to day, with results measured against goals set up front.

AI search visibility

Buyers now ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude who to hire before they ever open Google. We audit where you stand in those answers, fix the entity and structured-data gaps that keep you out of them, and track your share of voice so results are measured instead of promised. The measuring is done by Phaneia, the visibility agent we built for the job. Engagements start with a fixed-price audit, not a retainer.

The $2,500 audit

Small scope first. Then earn the rest.

1. A conversation

Thirty minutes on your problem, no charge and no deck. If the fit is wrong, we say so and point you somewhere better.

2. A fixed-scope proposal

Most engagements start with a fixed-price assessment rather than a retainer. You see the deliverable, the price, and how results will be measured before you commit.

3. Delivery you own

Everything we build belongs to you: the code, the documentation, the decision record. No lock-in, no dependencies on us that you did not choose.


Start a conversation.

For engagements, partnership inquiries, or anything else: