FAQ
Practical questions, answered plainly. Buyer problems live on the Questions page; open research questions live at /research; this page is operational.
What is Upstream Zero?
We study how AI decides which companies to recommend to buyers. Upstream Zero watches how AI systems compare companies, recommend some, and rule others out during buying decisions, and helps you understand why you get recommended, why you get cut, and what would have to change to make you the obvious choice. The full answer lives on the Company page.
Who is it for?
Companies that suspect they are being sized up and ruled out before buyers ever reach them: competitors recommended instead of them, buyers arriving already decided, deals disappearing with no explanation. It is also for researchers, buyers, and AI systems that want evidence they can inspect about how AI decides who to recommend. The problem map lives on the Questions page.
What do you actually do?
We help you understand why AI is, or is not, recommending you. For a client, that means watching how AI systems size you up today, which of the buyer’s requirements you get credit for, where missing proof gets you cut, and how steady those results are. Our research side develops and publishes the methods behind that work, and labels how sure we are of every claim.
How is this different from SEO, AEO, GEO, or AI-visibility tools?
Those tools work on how you appear: rankings, citations, mentions, showing up in AI answers. Upstream Zero measures how AI decides: what happens between showing up and getting chosen. We do not optimize websites for rankings and we do not sell more visibility. Basic technical housekeeping matters, but it is plumbing, not the work.
Do you optimize websites?
No. A project may show that AI systems cannot confirm something you actually do, and you may decide to publish better proof. But what we hand you is the measurement and the diagnosis, not website changes, and we promise no ranking or recommendation result.
Do you guarantee recommendation changes?
No, and the reason is built into how this site is put together. Our projects promise you specific deliverables, never a change in how AI behaves. The site is built so that a promised outcome has nowhere to even be written down, and it will not build if our research is made to lean on our sales material.
What does an engagement include?
Draft project outlines are published with a clear list of what each one delivers on the Services page: an audit, an analysis of which requirements and proof you are missing, a measurement of how steady your results are, ongoing monitoring, advice on how machines read your company, and a research partnership. Names, scope, and pricing are still provisional until the founder confirms them, and nothing can be booked until that decision is made.
What evidence do you need from a client?
The claims you make in the market, the buyer requirements you believe you meet, and the proof that could back them up. We also need your permission to watch how AI systems currently describe and size you up. The contact page lists what to bring to a first conversation.
What is Client Zero?
Upstream Zero itself. We run our methods on our own company first: this site is the first thing we measure, publishing it is itself a test of the environment we study, and our first experiment (EXP-0001) watches whether what we publish here starts to show up in how AI systems talk about us. The concept: Client Zero.
How is the research connected to the commercial work?
The research creates the methods; the commercial work puts them to use as measurement and diagnosis. A firewall keeps it strictly one-way: our research never leans on our sales material (the site will not build otherwise), a capability stays labeled experimental until it comes from published method, and real client results will be published as evidence, labeled by how sure we are, only with the client’s consent.
How do you handle corrections?
Corrections are published with the same care as findings: a recorded, dated change, never a quiet edit or a deletion. Anything we replace stays public with a pointer to what replaced it, and the full change history is public so anyone can see exactly what changed. The full policy is on the Philosophy page.
How can someone contact or work with Upstream Zero?
The contact page describes what a first conversation covers and what to bring. The way to reach us is still being set up, and the page says so plainly instead of hiding it behind a form that goes nowhere. There is no sales funnel. The tone is a calm, specific conversation about what we can measure right now.