AI assessments and builds for established businesses
AI that actually works
in your business.
We find where AI can bring in new leads, get quotes and replies out faster, cut mistakes and let your team take on more without hiring. Then we build it and keep it running.
For owners and leaders of companies with 10 to 150 people. On the call we find one bottleneck; within 48 hours you get one specific fix by email, yours to keep.
- 01Orders
- 02Invoicing
- 03Scheduling
- 04Reporting
- 05Customer replies
- 06QuotesFix first
- 07Onboarding
- 08Reorders
- 09Follow-ups
Cobalt and Ash is led by Cesar Pereira.
25 years building the systems companies run on, including 12 at one of North America’s largest distributors.
58%
eCommerce growth in four years, built with the sales team
3.2M
orders a year through the platform my team built, after merging multiple systems into one
$30.6M
retail contract won after I built a working demo for the RFP in one week
Walmart and Target
won as customers for proof-of-delivery software I conceived and ran, which grew past $4M a year
The problem
What’s holding the business back.
Each of these eats hours. Most cost more: new accounts nobody has time to chase, a sale that goes to someone faster, a mistake that ships, or a hire you have to make before you can grow.
- 01 Pipeline
Most new business comes from referrals and repeat customers. Nobody has time to go after the accounts you actually want.
Costs you: Growth that depends on who happens to call.
- 02 Leads
Leads wait a day for a reply because the person who prices them is on the floor.
Costs you: The leads that bought while they waited.
- 03 Quotes
A quote request arrives as a PDF, a voice memo and an email thread. Someone retypes all three, and the quote goes out tomorrow.
Costs you: The buyer who got a faster quote somewhere else.
- 04 Orders
Orders come in by email and get keyed into the ERP by hand.
Costs you: The wrong part shipped, the return and the apology.
- 05 Reorders
Reorders depend on someone remembering.
Costs you: The customer who reordered from whoever reminded them.
- 06 Growth
The team is already stretched. Saying yes to the next big account means hiring someone first.
Costs you: Growth that waits on a salary.
- 07 AI so far
Someone on the team tried ChatGPT. It writes a decent email, but it doesn’t know your prices, your customers or your ERP, and nobody is sure what’s safe to paste into it.
Costs you: You have AI, and the work still lands on your team.
If two of these sound familiar, start with a free 15-minute call.
How it works
Start with a free call. Then three ways forward.
Start here · Free
A 15-minute call
Five questions about how work moves through your business. I find one bottleneck, and within 48 hours you get one specific fix by email, yours to keep.
01
Assessment
$997
We map how work moves through your business, put a dollar figure on each leak, and put the fixes in order of payback. You get a written report and a plan.
Your part: One 60-minute call and a 30-minute review.
02
Concierge
Priced after the assessment
Twice a month we build the top fixes together, on your screen, in your own accounts. Your team learns as we go.
Your part: Two working sessions a month.
03
Sprints
Priced after the assessment
When something needs to run on its own, I build it for a fixed fee: for example an outbound pipeline, a quote desk, order intake or lead follow-up.
Your part: Ten real examples of the work, and sign-off on the design before I build.
The assessment ($997)
If I don’t identify at least 5 hours a week of opportunity in your business, you get a full refund and you keep the report.
No stretching the numbers: if it’s 4 hours, you get your money back.
Everything I build
You own every account, every key and every workflow. If you stop working with me, everything keeps running.
Examples
What the work looks like.
Four common builds, shown the way client results will appear here: the problem, what I build and what changes.
Examples of the work, not client results. Real results go here, with each client’s permission.
01 Pipeline
Outreach to the accounts you want, running every week.
The problem
New business depends on referrals. Your salespeople don’t have time to research prospects, write to each one and keep following up.
What I build
- Builds a list of companies and buyers that look like your best customers
- Drafts each message from research on that company; you approve samples before anything sends
- Sends from separate domains, so your main business email is kept out of it
- Follows up, and logs every reply and booked meeting in your CRM
What changes
Your salespeople spend their time in conversations instead of looking for them.
Helps with
- More sales
- Growth without hiring
02 Leads
Every new lead hears back in minutes, not tomorrow.
The problem
Web forms and calls land in a shared inbox. The person who prices them is busy, so replies wait and follow-ups depend on someone remembering.
What I build
- Sends your own approved reply at once, with a booking link
- Routes the lead to the right person, details filled in
- Drafts follow-ups on a schedule for a person to approve
- Logs every lead and reply in your CRM or a shared sheet
What changes
Leads hear back while they’re still choosing, and none of them wait on someone’s memory.
Helps with
- More sales
- Hours back
03 Quotes
Quote requests drafted before anyone opens them.
The problem
Requests arrive as PDFs, voice memos and email threads. An estimator retypes each one into a spreadsheet, then into the quote.
What I build
- Reads every request, whatever the format
- Matches the items to your price list and stock
- Drafts the quote in your own template
- Sends nothing until your estimator approves it
What changes
Your estimator checks and sends instead of typing. Quotes go out sooner, while the buyer is still deciding.
Helps with
- More sales
- Fewer mistakes
- Hours back
04 Orders
Emailed orders reach the ERP without retyping.
The problem
Customers send purchase orders in a dozen layouts. Someone keys every line into the ERP and hopes the part numbers are right.
What I build
- Reads each purchase order and pulls out the lines
- Checks part numbers, prices and ship-to against your ERP
- Sends anything that doesn’t match to a person
- Queues clean orders for one-click approval, then enters them
What changes
Nobody retypes orders, and mismatches are caught before anything ships. The same team handles more orders.
Helps with
- Fewer mistakes
- Growth without hiring
- Hours back
The math
What one leak is worth.
Small, repeated tasks add up. Change the numbers to match your own team; nothing you type leaves this page.
- Hours a year
- 360
- Cost a year
- $12,600
That’s what this one task costs you each year. The assessment shows what a fix would cost and how fast it pays back.
Illustrative math, not a client result. Minutes a day × people × 5 days × 48 weeks, at the loaded hourly rate.
The founder
Who you’d be working with.
I’m Cesar Pereira. For 25 years I’ve built the systems companies run on: eCommerce platforms, the connections into ERP, and the quoting and ordering tools sales teams live in. I’ve also built and run outbound campaigns that find new business.
I’ve led that work as a director and built it as an engineer, and I still do both. That’s the point of Cobalt and Ash: the person who finds the problem is the person who fixes it.
I write reports a leadership team can act on in an afternoon, and I keep my client list short on purpose so the work gets my full attention.
Based in Wheaton, Illinois.
Principles
How I work.
- 1
Paid before discovery, and refunded if I don’t find the hours.
The first 15 minutes are free. Real discovery is paid, the price is on this page, and the refund rule is in writing.
- 2
Your accounts, your keys, your data. No lock-in.
Everything runs on accounts your company owns and pays for directly.
- 3
Drafts before automation.
A person approves what AI writes until the numbers prove it can be trusted.
- 4
I’ll tell you what not to automate.
Sometimes a $30 tool beats a custom build, and the report says so.
- 5
No invented numbers.
When I have client results, they’ll be here, with permission.
Not ready to book?
Start with a free Lead-Leak Snapshot.
One page of verified, dated facts about what a customer runs into when they try to reach you: your website, your forms, your phone line, your Google profile and what AI tools say about you. Free, in 2 business days, from public information. No call required.
Questions
Common questions.
Who is this for?
Owners and leadership teams of established companies with roughly 10 to 150 people, owner-led or private-equity backed, who know AI matters but aren’t sure where to start.
The work looks similar in most industries: quotes, orders, follow-ups, reporting and customer replies.
Where should a business our size start with AI?
Start with one task that repeats every day and costs you when it’s slow or wrong: quotes, order entry, replies to new leads or follow-ups. Not a company-wide rollout or a new platform.
That’s what the free 15-minute call finds. You get one specific fix by email within 48 hours, and if there’s more worth doing, the assessment maps the rest in order of payback.
What happens on the free call?
Fifteen minutes by video. I ask five questions about how work moves through your business, find one bottleneck and name it back to you. Within 48 hours you get one specific fix by email, yours to keep whether or not you hire me.
If the full assessment makes sense for you, I’ll say so and tell you what it costs. If it doesn’t, I’ll say that too.
What exactly do I get for $997?
A research brief on your company before we talk; a 60-minute discovery call; a written report with every leak mapped in hours and dollars; 3 to 7 recommendations in order of payback, each with effort, cost and risk; a check of where customer data would touch AI; a list of what not to automate; a four-day starter plan; and a 30-minute review call.
Add another leader to the discovery for $500 each, up to four.
Do we need to be technical?
No. You need to know how your business runs; I handle the technical side. The report is written in plain English, and nothing gets built during the assessment itself.
Will AI replace my team?
No. The point is to let the team you have handle more, not to replace it. What I build takes the retyping, chasing and copying off their plate, and a person approves anything AI writes for a customer until it has earned that trust.
What happens to our data?
It stays yours. Anything we build runs on accounts your company owns and pays for, with your own keys. I don’t sell or share your information.
With your permission I record the discovery call so nothing gets missed; only I see the recording. The assessment includes a check of where customer data would touch AI and the rules to set first.
What if you don’t find anything?
If I don’t identify at least 5 hours a week of opportunity in your business, you get a full refund and you keep the report.
How much does it cost to put AI to work in a company our size?
With Cobalt and Ash it starts free: a 15-minute call and one fix by email. The full assessment is $997.
After that it’s your call. Your team can do the work from the report. If you want help, Concierge (a monthly fee), Sprints (a fixed fee per build) and a 30-day Managed Assistant pilot are priced after the assessment, once I know what the work involves. Once something is running, the Care & Improvement Plan is $500 a month per system.
AI tools are billed to your company directly, on your own accounts, so you always see what they cost.
Do you work with companies under 10 people?
Yes, with fixed-price fixes instead of the assessment: a missed-call text-back, a booking link, a Google profile cleanup and more, from $750 each, installed on your own accounts. Each one starts from a free Lead-Leak Snapshot.
Who don’t you work with?
I don’t take on work involving healthcare or financial-services data, or any company where I’d have a conflict of interest.