Zerpa is the AI consultancy for leaders who want honest counsel, not a tech pitch. We figure out what you actually need — build it when that's the answer, and tell you straight when it isn't.
The person who thinks about your problem is the person you work with.
Consulting and studio under one roof — no handoff, no translation loss.
Including about when you don't need AI. Especially then.
Whether you're running a growing company that knows AI is coming, or a senior leader figuring out what it means for your own work — the feeling tends to be the same. The mountain is real. You don't want a vendor. You want someone who's been up it before, tells you the truth, and doesn't disappear when the work gets hard.
Even experienced climbers hire guides for serious ascents. Knowing what you don't know isn't a weakness — it's the beginning of a good plan.
You're sharp, accomplished, and honest that AI is moving faster than you've been able to engage with it. You don't need a course. You need a trusted thinking partner who understands both the technology and how serious leaders operate — and meets you exactly where you are.
Your team knows AI matters but you've been paralyzed by options or burned by hype. You need someone who will map the terrain honestly, tell you what's real and what isn't, and build the practical thing — not the impressive one.
Every Zerpa engagement is principal-led. That means the thinker and the builder are the same — and when specific disciplines call for specialist support, we bring the right people in. No account managers relaying messages. No junior handoffs dressed up as collaboration. Just direct, invested work from people who are accountable for the outcome.
Four things that don't change, regardless of scope or client type.
We design every solution around how you actually work — and how your team does, if you have one. The best AI is the kind that gets used on a Tuesday, not just demoed on a Wednesday.
The engagement ends when the thing is working — not when the deck is done. We measure success by what's running in your world, not what's in our deliverable folder.
We'll tell you the honest thing, not the comfortable thing. If the path you're climbing isn't the right one, we'll say so before you've gone too far up it.
Strategy and build under one roof means the thinking and the making stay connected. No translation loss between the advisor and the implementer — because they're the same.
Build it when custom AI is genuinely the right answer — and stay until it runs.
Find it when an existing tool does the job — configured right and actually adopted.
Skip it when you don't need it — before you spend money finding out the hard way. That last one might be our favorite.
Senior AI counsel for leaders who need a thinking partner, not a product. We work through what AI means for your role, your organization, and your competitive position — then build the fluency and strategy to act on it. Discreet, direct, and calibrated to how you actually operate.
You bring the domain expertise and the hard questions. We bring the AI knowledge and the straight answers.
For organizations ready to move on AI but unsure where to start — or who've been burned by initiatives that went nowhere. We map your terrain honestly, separate what's real from what's hype, and build a clear path you can actually execute. No 80-page decks. A plan that works next week.
The mountain is real. Let's map your route before it maps itself for you.
When you need something built, integrated, or configured. We design and implement AI solutions around how your people actually work — custom when it earns it, off-the-shelf when it doesn't, and YAGNI when the honest answer is simpler than you thought. We don't leave until it's running.
If it's not running on your systems by the end of our engagement, we haven't finished.
A few recent climbs — the challenge, the route, and what we figured out together.
The problem wasn't that leaders didn't want to use AI — it was that they couldn't get it to do anything useful. Not because they weren't smart, but because prompt writing is an invisible craft nobody teaches. So we built Prompt Zerpa: an AI-powered tool that reads what someone is trying to accomplish, identifies what's structurally missing from their prompt, asks targeted questions to fill the gaps, and engineers a better prompt — while making the reasoning visible. The teaching is built into the tool. Every use leaves the person slightly more capable than before.
Closes the gap between "AI didn't help me" and "I can't imagine working without it."
Sometimes the most honest thing you can do is be your own first client. We designed and built a structured AI fluency curriculum — covering web app fundamentals, agentic AI systems, and the Claude API — built around a single learning loop: Teach it, Check it, Build it. We tested it on ourselves first, refined it through iteration, and now use the same framework to build AI fluency programs for executives and their teams. The result is a repeatable system that works for people who think, not just people who code.
A learning system that builds genuine capability — not just familiarity with the tools.
A private landowner faced a high-stakes decision on a 138-acre landlocked parcel before entering negotiations. Needed rigorous analysis — fast. We built a full research framework, financial models for two development scenarios, and negotiation positioning. The kind of work that used to require a team of consultants and weeks of lead time, delivered at the speed the decision actually required.
From scattered data to confident strategy. Ready to negotiate.
Zerpa draws on the Sherpa tradition — guides who know the mountain before you arrive, keep you moving when you want to stop, and don't leave you at base camp with a map and a handshake. That's the standard we hold every engagement to.
We started Zerpa because too many capable leaders were getting bad AI advice — or no advice at all. The gap isn't technical knowledge. It's judgment: knowing what's real, what matters, and what to do in what order. That's harder to find than it should be.
Our background spans leadership, organizational systems, and the human side of change — which shapes how we approach AI work. The best solution is the one that fits how your people actually operate. We care about that at least as much as the technology. Probably more.
Leadership doctorate. Organizational systems thinker. Former head of school, curriculum designer, and nonprofit founder. Deep and ongoing AI fluency built through practice — not theory. The kind of background that turns out to be excellent preparation for helping leaders navigate something genuinely new.
Doctorate in leadership and organizational systems
Background in executive leadership, curriculum design, and change management
Practical AI fluency across tools, APIs, and implementation — self-directed and current
Principal-led model: the thinker and the builder are the same person
No pressure, no pitch. Just an honest conversation about where you are and where you want to go. If we're the right guide, we'll know quickly. If we're not, we'll tell you that too.
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