About

Who is StepAhead?

StepAhead was founded by two friends, an aerospace engineer turned computer scientist and an economist who has built small businesses himself, on one belief: small business owners deserve the same AI firepower Fortune 500 companies enjoy, delivered personally and priced for a small business.

Our story

Why does a rocket scientist care about small business?

Our parents run small businesses, and for years we watched them give up their nights and weekends to the invisible work that keeps your business going: scheduling, callbacks, paperwork, follow-ups, and admin.

Then AI changed everything. We found ourselves building with it in our free time. At some point, the obvious question hit us:

Why are the people we love most buried in work that technology could handle in seconds?

So we started building for them. Billing software, lead-generation tools, AI voice agents, automated back-office workflows, and SEO & AEO strategies that helped nearly double monthly revenue. We watched our parents get their evenings back. That was when we knew this wasn't a side project anymore.

Small businesses are the backbone of America, yet most AI innovation is built for massive companies with massive budgets. We started yourstepahead.ai to change that. Because in the end, this was never really about AI. It was about giving business owners back the hours that matter.

Why did we start StepAhead?

We grew up around small businesses, watching family put in full days of real work and then lose their evenings to invoices, scheduling, and paperwork. Meanwhile, the companies with engineering teams quietly automated all of it years ago.

That gap bothered us enough to build a company around closing it. The tools that used to require a corporate IT budget now fit a small business, if someone who deeply understands both the technology and the economics sets them up properly. That's the job we signed up for.

Small business owners deserve Fortune 500 AI firepower, without the Fortune 500 invoice.

The StepAhead founding belief

Who are the founders?

Co-Founder · Technical Lead

Filipe Botas

Trained as an aerospace engineer and computer scientist at the University of Michigan, Filipe has a variety of expertise, from engineering space systems commended by NASA to coordinating the digitalization of industrial operations in the oil industry. Today, Filipe turns complex AI technology into systems small businesses can rely on.

If Filipe can engineer systems for spaceflight, he can automate your front desk.

Aerospace Engineering
Computer Science
AI/ML Architecture
Systems Design

Co-Founder · Strategy Lead

Jacob Rafiy

An entrepreneur from New York City, Jacob has built three companies, most notably JHRcommodities which scaled to $250,000+ in revenue and served thousands of customers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Jacob studied economics and philosophy at the University of Michigan and business through Harvard Business School’s CORe program. He excels at breaking down complex problems and devising practical solutions.

If Jacob can build companies from the ground up, he can identify how custom AI systems will help you grow.

Business Strategy
Applied AI
Entrepreneurship
Economics
Philosophy

How do we work with clients?

Personally. There are no account managers or hand-offs: the people you meet on the free consult are the people who design, build, and maintain your systems. We start with one fixed-scope pilot, prove the time savings, and only expand when the results have already paid for the work.

Ready to put AI to work in your business?

The consult is free. The cost of waiting isn’t. Every week of manual work is hours you never get back.

Book your free consult