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

The Aster Inn has been in our family for over a century. It is a small hotel in Cle Elum, Washington — a mountain town between Seattle and the ski resorts.

For years, people found us through Google. Then something changed. Travelers started asking ChatGPT and Google Gemini where to stay. And when they did, the Aster Inn did not come up. Not because it is not a good place — it is. But because AI did not know it existed.

We watched bookings decline and could not figure out why. The phone stopped ringing, and we did not know it was because AI was sending customers to our competitors. They were not better. AI could just find them.

That is when we realized: this is not just our problem. This is 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.