ABOUT COMPASS ROSE DIGITAL
A lot of small business owners know they should be doing something with AI. They've heard the buzzwords, maybe tried a tool or two. But nobody's sat down with them and said: here's exactly what makes sense for your business, and here's how to do it.
That's the gap we fill.
Compass Rose Digital is an AI and automation consultancy based in Atlanta. We work with small business owners who are good at what they do but feel like they're constantly playing catch-up on the operational side.
We're not here to sell you software. We're here to help you figure out what's actually worth building — and build it right.
Our process starts with listening. Every business runs differently. Before we recommend anything, we want to understand how yours actually works — the tools you use, the tasks that eat your time, the places where things fall through the cracks.
If you're looking for someone who'll tell you straight what AI can and can't do for your business — and then back it up with real work — you're in the right place.
Marisa Costa
Founder, Compass Rose Digital
How we got here.
Before starting Compass Rose Digital, I spent over a decade inside other people's work — first as someone living in the operational chaos, then as someone trained to make sense of it.
The first half of that was as a legal secretary and executive assistant. I wasn't building systems — I was working inside broken ones every day. I know firsthand what it feels like when the follow-up falls through the cracks, when the spreadsheet is the only record of anything, when nothing connects to anything else and the cost of that just quietly compounds.
That experience didn't come from reading about small business operations. It came from living them.
The analytical side means I'm not just taking your word for where the problems are. I'm looking for what the patterns are actually telling us — which is often something different than what it looks like on the surface.
The second half looks different on the surface. For the past several years I've worked as a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at one of the largest credit unions in the country.
The work isn't process documentation. It's using data to understand behavior: why members use the products they use, what drives their decisions, how behavior patterns connect to business outcomes, and how to answer the complex questions that don't have obvious answers when you look at operations from the inside.
That combination is what makes the assessment work. Most consultants in this space come from a technology background — they know the tools but have never had to work inside the kind of operational reality your business runs on. I have. And the analytical side means I'm not just taking your word for where the problems are. I'm looking for what the patterns are actually telling us, which is often something different than what it looks like on the surface.
That's what I built Compass Rose to do.
HOW WE WORK
A few things we believe.
Diagnose before prescribing
We don't recommend tools before we understand your business. Every engagement starts with listening, not selling.
Honest about what AI can't do
AI is useful. It's also overhyped. We'll tell you when something isn't worth automating and why.
No fluff, no jargon
You'll always know what we're building, why we're building it, and what it's going to cost you.
Built to last
We build systems your team can actually maintain — not black boxes that fall apart when something changes.
Ready to find out what's slowing you down?
The assessment takes about an hour. The clarity lasts a lot longer.