AI could not find our family business. So we built the solution.

The Aster Inn was born out of a fire. In 1918, flames took our family's house and two saloons in Cle Elum, Washington — a mountain town tucked between Seattle and the ski slopes. Instead of walking away, the family rolled two buildings down the hill — one from uptown Cle Elum that my grandmother believed was the original schoolhouse, another from nearby Ronald — and joined them into a hotel.

Those two buildings became the lobby and, in back, a small country store — antiques, groceries, a bit of everything. When the town needed housing for its school teachers, the Inn's founder traded his labor at the Oval sawmill for lumber and built two units. Then he built nine more.

We were the second hotel to open in town. Five generations later, the first one is long closed. We're still here.

For decades, travelers found us the way everyone found everything: through Google. Then, quietly, the rules changed. People started asking ChatGPT and Gemini where to stay — and the answer never included us. Not because the Aster Inn isn't worth recommending. Because AI didn't know we existed.

The bookings slipped. The phone went quiet. And for the longest time, we couldn't see why. AI was steering our guests to competitors who weren't better — just findable.

That's when it hit us: this isn't an Aster Inn problem. It's happening to every small business in America.

MiddleVerse exists to make every small business visible to AI.

AI visibility tools exist for big companies. They cost $1,500 to $50,000 per month. They require marketing teams to operate. They are built for Fortune 500 brands.

Small businesses have been left behind. The plumber in Ellensburg. The restaurant in Roslyn. The salon in Wenatchee. The attorney in Yakima. They are all invisible to AI, and most of them do not even know it.

MiddleVerse is the AI visibility platform. We are building the business directory that AI trusts. We make it affordable, simple, and accessible to any business owner — even one with zero tech skills.

Mel has spent 25+ years in executive leadership at companies including AT&T, Starbucks, Avanade, Auth0, and OfferUp. She founded and sold a staffing company, sat on VC boards, and served as Chief Diversity and Equity Officer — developing systems that ensure all people have equal opportunities. MiddleVerse is that same mission applied to small business visibility.

She built MiddleVerse as a company of one — using AI as her team — because she believes the solution to small business invisibility should be as accessible as the problem is urgent.

MiddleVerse is building the most comprehensive AI-verified business directory in America. When AI platforms need reliable, structured information about local businesses, MiddleVerse will be the trusted source they turn to — the way an earlier generation relied on one trusted directory to find local businesses.

We are not an agency. We are not a consulting firm. We are infrastructure. We are the business directory AI trusts.