Frequently Asked Questions
How an engagement works, what it costs, who runs it afterwards, and where your data goes.
About AI Ascend
What we build, who it is for, and who is behind it.
GTM systems for B2B sales teams. Usually Clay for data and signals, and Claude for account research, connected to your Salesforce or HubSpot. Your reps get cleaner data, a ranked list with a reason to call, and context before the call. The CRM keeps itself up to date.
Directors of growth, and RevOps, sales ops and marketing ops leads, at B2B companies with a sales team of five or more and a leader who owns a number. They already know how to sell. The systems underneath are too slow, too manual or too spread out. If the owner still does most of the selling, or you are a founder who needs pipeline, our outbound systems may fit better.
Sort of. We build in Clay every day, and Tim is a graduate of AlphaForge, Clay’s GTM engineering bootcamp. But we work as an operator, not an agency. We do the strategy and the build, keep it small enough for your team to run, and hand it over.
Amsterdam. AI Ascend is a trade name of Burnham Consulting B.V., registered in the Netherlands. We work with sales teams in Europe and the US.
Working together
How an engagement runs, what it costs, and what happens after.
It is a loop. We understand what your reps do and where you are trying to go, build the lowest-hanging fruit, launch it for your team, then review and go around again. We build on your platform, you own everything, and we work with your IT team to keep it secure.
We work by the day. The rate and a rough size for the work come on the first call, once we know what you need.
The first version of a context layer, with your CRM data, signals and research in one place, can come together very quickly. The slower part is people: getting the team to start using it, and deciding what data they are comfortable giving an AI, and whether it should run locally. We plan for that from day one.
That is the part we plan for first. We watch how your reps work and build into the tools they already use, so there is no new app to log into. We show them what changed, and someone on your team learns to run it.
Yes. Most teams run Salesforce or HubSpot, plus Clay and a data tool like ZoomInfo or 6sense. We do not ask you to switch. If a tool you already pay for does the job, we tell you, and we do not build a second one.
No. We build with your RevOps person and train them to run it. Most teams have someone good who has no time. The goal is more getting done, not fewer people.
It is built on your platform and written down, and someone on your team knows how to run it, so it does not depend on us. If you want help later, we work by the day.
We agree the numbers at the start: how many accounts the team works, how stale the data is, how many meetings get booked. Deals take a full sales cycle to show up, sometimes months, so we watch the early signs too and tell you plainly if they are not moving.
Your data
Access, security and where your data goes.
Your call. We build on your platform and work with your IT team. We start with read-only access, and we can build around what your security team needs: a virtual machine, AI with zero data retention, or no customer data sent to an AI at all.
We are a Dutch company, and we build to your data rules. That can mean keeping data in EU regions where the tools allow it, and keeping personal data away from AI tools unless you approve it.
Compared with the alternatives
How this differs from an agency or a hire.
We work as an operator, not an agency. Tim does the strategy and the build himself, keeps it small enough for your team to run, and says so when something is not worth building. No handoff to a junior, and no 90-step workflow built to look clever.
A full-time hire makes sense when you have steady builds. If you need the first system running now, we build it and train the person who will run it, whether that is someone you have or someone you hire. Then you decide.
Outbound and custom apps
The smaller parts of what we do.
Yes. For founders and small teams selling higher-ticket B2B who need pipeline, we build signal-based outbound on LinkedIn and email. It is a smaller part of what we do now. See Outbound Systems.
Yes, when the tools you have cannot do the job. Usually that is a missing piece inside a GTM system, like an internal portal or a lead-processing tool. If a tool you already pay for does it, we point you to the tool.
Getting started
The first step.
Book a call at ai-ascend.com/contact, or email tim@ai-ascend.com. Thirty minutes. Tell us where your team loses time, and we will tell you what we would build, or that we would not.
Still have questions?
Book a free 30-minute consultation to discuss how AI and automation can help your business.
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