Park City, Utah  ·  40.6461° N, 111.498° W

Fill the pipeline. Get found by AI.

Switchback works with two kinds of clients: small and midsize sales teams who need prospecting and pipeline to actually work, and local businesses that need to show up when customers ask AI for a recommendation.

12 years in tech sales
Wharton AI Strategy & Governance
Six years advising via GLG & Pro Sapient
Based in Park City, UT
Who I work with

Two problems. Both worth solving properly.

I don't do general-purpose AI consulting. I go deep on two things I've spent my career close to.

For sales leaders

Small & midsize sales teams

Your reps spend more time on admin than selling. Outbound is inconsistent. CRM data is a mess, so forecasting is guesswork. I rebuild the process with AI handling the work that never needed a human in the first place.

  • Outbound prospecting systems
  • CRM hygiene & automation
  • Sales process optimization
  • Rep enablement & playbooks
See the sales work →
For business owners

Small & local businesses

Customers ask AI for a recommendation before they ever open Google. If ChatGPT doesn't know you exist, you're not on the list — no matter how good your reviews are. I fix your search presence and the website behind it.

  • AI visibility audit
  • Website & content optimization
  • Review engine
  • Ongoing visibility tracking
  • Website builds & rebuilds
See the visibility work →
Lead offering AI Search Visibility

When customers ask ChatGPT who to hire, does it say your name?

Customers now ask AI assistants for recommendations the way they once searched Google. If AI doesn't mention your business, those customers call your competitor. This package measures exactly how you show up, fixes the sources AI pulls from, and builds the review volume that keeps you recommended.

45%
of consumers now use AI to find a local business — up from 6% a year ago
BrightLocal 2026
1.2%
of local businesses get recommended by ChatGPT by default. The rest are invisible.
SparkToro 2026
55%
of businesses leading in Google search do not appear in AI recommendations
SOCi 2026
4.4x
higher conversion rate from AI-referred visitors versus standard organic traffic
Semrush 2026
Step 01 · $500 flat · 1 week

AI Visibility Audit

I test 10–15 real customer questions across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. You get a side-by-side view of how you and your competitors appear, plus a prioritized fix list. Yours to keep whether or not we go further.

Step 02 · $2,000–$4,000 · 2–4 weeks

AI-Ready Website Refresh

Service and location pages rewritten the way AI engines read and cite them, schema markup, an FAQ built from real customer questions, and consistent business info across the directories AI pulls from.

Step 03 · $1,500–$2,500 setup + $250–$500/mo

Review Engine

Every completed job triggers an automatic review request to the real customer. Every new review gets a personalized draft response you approve with one tap. Fully FTC-compliant: real customers only, no filtering.

Ongoing · $500–$1,000/mo

Visibility Retainer

Monthly re-testing of your AI visibility, content and directory updates, competitor tracking, and a one-page scorecard so you always know where you stand and what changed.

Download the one-pager → Book initial consult Vendor-neutral · I build the automations · You own everything
Websites

A real website, without the agency price tag.

If you've put off getting a website because the quotes were absurd, or because the DIY builders felt like a monthly trap, this is for you. Built once, one flat fee, owned by you.

Built From Scratch

Fast, clean, and mobile-first. Designed around what your customers actually need to find, not a stock template with your logo dropped in.

One Flat Fee

No monthly platform bill and no surprise hourly creep. You know the number before I start, and it doesn't change halfway through.

You Own It Outright

Files, domain, and hosting all in your name. No proprietary builder holding your site hostage. Leave anytime and take everything with you.

Why "AI-ready" matters, even if you've never thought about AI

More customers now ask ChatGPT or Google's AI for a recommendation instead of scrolling search results. Those tools read websites to decide which businesses to name. If your site is thin, unclear, or doesn't exist, you don't get named — and you never find out you were skipped. Building it correctly the first time costs nothing extra. Retrofitting it later does.

Request the one-pager → Book a scope call One flat fee · You own the site
For sales teams

Your reps should be selling, not updating fields.

Twelve years carrying a bag taught me where the time actually goes. Most of it isn't selling. These are the four places AI takes real work off a rep's plate — built and wired up, not recommended in a deck.

Outbound Prospecting System

Research, list building, and personalized first-touch drafting handled automatically. Your reps open a queue of ready-to-send outreach instead of staring at a blank sequence.

CRM Hygiene & Automation

Call notes, next steps, and stage updates written into the CRM straight from the conversation. Clean data with no rep effort, which means forecasting you can actually trust.

Sales Process Audit

A hard look at your pipeline stages, conversion rates, and where deals stall. You get the bottlenecks named and a prioritized fix list, with the AI-solvable ones flagged.

Rep Enablement & Playbooks

Prompt libraries and call frameworks built for your product and your buyer, so adoption sticks after I leave instead of fading in three weeks.

Book an intro call → Starts with a process audit · Engagements start hourly
How it worksThe ascent

Four switchbacks from interested to in production.

A switchback is the trail engineering that makes a steep climb walkable. Same idea here. We take the hard, all-at-once leap and turn it into a route you can actually follow.

Switchback 01

Assess

Map where AI actually fits your operations, what's a quick win, and what's a risk. You get a clear readiness picture, not a sales pitch.

Switchback 02

Govern

Put the guardrails in first. An acceptable-use policy, data-handling rules, and a risk framework built on NIST so adoption never creates exposure.

Switchback 03

Roll out

Pick a contained pilot and build the workflow. Where it helps, I'll wire up the working automation myself rather than hand you a slide deck.

Switchback 04

Measure

Prove the rollout worked, then decide what climbs next. This is the part that justifies the next year of investment.

About
Principal Advisor
Jake Thelen
Founder, Switchback AI Advisory
  • 12 yrs Sales experience in tech
  • 06 yrs Independent advisory via GLG & Pro Sapient
  • Cert AI Strategy & Governance, The Wharton School
  • Builds Automation, internal sales tooling, data pipelines
  • Base Park City, Utah · works remote

You're working with one person, not an account team and a deck of subcontractors.

Twelve years in tech sales, six years advising through GLG and Pro Sapient, and a certificate in AI Strategy and Governance from the Wharton School. I've carried a quota, run outbound, and lived in a CRM, which is why the sales work here is specific rather than generic.

The part that makes the advice different: I build. Automation, internal tools, data pipelines. When I recommend a workflow I've usually wired one up myself, so you get a strategist who can also hand you something that runs.

FAQ

Questions people ask before reaching out.

What does Switchback AI Advisory do?

Switchback AI Advisory is an independent AI consulting practice. I help leadership teams plan, govern, and roll out AI inside their everyday employee workflows. I don't sell software and I don't take vendor referral fees, so the guidance is built around your outcome, not a product quota.

What does vendor-neutral AI consulting mean?

It means I have nothing to sell you and no financial relationship with any AI tool or platform. When I recommend a tool or a workflow, the only thing driving the recommendation is what fits your team, your data, and your risk tolerance.

How much does AI consulting cost?

Engagements start hourly, so there's a low-commitment way to begin. From there, work often grows into fixed-scope assessments or a monthly retainer. I share rates on our first call once I understand what you're trying to do.

Do you help with AI governance and policy, not just tools?

Yes. Governance is often the starting point. I build acceptable-use policies, data-handling rules, and risk frameworks based on the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, so your team can adopt AI without creating legal or security exposure.

Who do you work with, and do you work remotely?

I work with leadership teams at mid-market companies, with deep specialties in sales and go-to-market organizations and in education and edtech. I'm based in Park City, Utah, and work remotely with clients across the Mountain West and nationwide.

How is this different from a consultant who only advises?

I build. Alongside the strategy, I can design and wire up the actual automations and pilots myself, so you get working systems, not just a slide deck and a bill.

Get in touch

Let's see if there's a fit.

Engagements start hourly, so there's a low-commitment way in. Book a short intro call or send a note and I'll get back to you within a business day.

Book an intro call →

[email protected]
Engagements start hourly · rates shared on our first call