About truNorth

We exist because most AI consulting is thinly-veiled vendor sales. Buyers deserve an advisor whose only stake is whether it works.

Why We Exist

Scott was in the room when North America's largest telecom operators decided where to point billions of dollars in CX AI investment. Ian was managing the fallout when those decisions hit customers at scale. They watched the same cycle repeat across every industry they touched: a vendor-aligned consultant recommends the platform they have a deal with. A pilot launches with optimistic metrics. The pilot "succeeds." Production never ships. Two years later, everyone starts over. The original consultant has been paid. No one is accountable.

The problem isn't the technology. It's the incentive structure of the consulting model. Firms that earn referral fees, volume incentives, or preferred-partner revenue from the same vendors they recommend cannot give unbiased advice. The math doesn't work. And most buyers have no idea which kind of consultant they're hiring until it's too late.

We founded truNorth to be the firm that didn't exist: no vendor partnerships, no referral arrangements, no financial relationship with any platform we might recommend. We have one incentive — your project ships to production, delivers measurable results, and doesn't need to be restarted in twelve months.

Between us, we've shaped the AI investment decisions of carriers serving 300 million subscribers, built CX operations infrastructure that touched 5.5 million customers, and sat in post-mortems for enough failed pilots to know exactly what "ready" looks like — and what it doesn't. That's what we bring to every engagement.

Founders

Scott Stimson

Founder & Principal

Scott has spent 20 years inside the rooms where AI investment decisions get made. As Head of Telco Solutions Architecture at AWS Industries, he shaped the technology roadmaps of every major North American carrier — guiding C-suite decisions on AI-powered contact centers, BSS/OSS transformation, and cloud-native CX platforms at a scale most consultants will never see. His team's work drove 40% year-over-year growth and maintained 98% retention across accounts generating tens of billions in annual revenue.

He's been the most trusted technical advisor in the room for over $10 billion in committed technology investment. He's spoken at Mobile World Congress and AWS re:Invent. He's written the white papers that shaped how the industry thinks about CX transformation. He founded truNorth because the advice he gave inside those rooms — the honest kind, without a vendor agenda — wasn't available anywhere else on the market.

Select Experience

  • Head of Telco Solutions Architecture, AWS Industries — 7+ years, $10B+ investment influence
  • Director of Product Management, Curvature — $500M+ in new annual revenue
  • Keynote speaker, Mobile World Congress & AWS re:Invent
  • 25+ published industry white papers on telecom AI transformation
  • AWS Certified Generative AI Developer – Professional; Colorado State University, B.S. IT

Ian Johnston, PMP

Co-Founder & Principal

Ian has built and run CX operations at a scale most companies will never reach. At Amazon and Ring, he managed programs touching tens of millions of customers — leading executive escalation workflows from the Office of the CEO, scaling global support operations, and launching a Voice of Customer program that turned customer signal into structural operational change. When Ring's CX was breaking under growth, Ian rebuilt it: 11 team members to 43, four social platforms, seven languages, 300% improvement in engagement, and $4 million in cost savings in a single quarter.

At TikTok, he ran global Trust & Safety operations — the most demanding CX environment in consumer technology. He's been in the post-mortems, the escalations, and the program reviews that most CX leaders never see. He knows exactly where AI-powered CX implementations break, and he knows how to stop them from breaking. That's the operational backbone he brings to truNorth.

Select Experience

  • Program Manager, Trust & Safety — TikTok (global cross-functional ops)
  • Executive Inquiries PM, Office of the CEO — Amazon
  • Scaled Ring CX: 11 → 43 team members, $4M savings in one quarter
  • VOC program impacting 5.5M customers; 300% engagement improvement
  • Project Management Professional (PMP) certified

Operating Principles

Vendor-Agnostic, Always

We don't take money from vendors. We don't resell platforms. We recommend what's right for you, not what's profitable for us.

Implementation Over Strategy

Strategy decks are cheap. Shipping is hard. We stay through implementation, measurement, and iteration. No hand-off-the-roadmap-and-disappear.

Outcome-Anchored

Every recommendation ties to measurable business outcomes. If we can't measure it, we don't claim credit for it.

Diagnostic-First

We always start with readiness assessment. No vendor demos until you're clear on what success looks like and how to measure it.

Transparent Limitations

We'll tell you when we're not the right fit. We'll tell you when not to buy. We'll tell you when your problem isn't technical.

No Pilot Purgatory

90-day pilots max. Clear success criteria. Ship or kill decision. We don't let projects drift into indefinite "let's see what happens" mode.

How We Work

truNorth is a boutique consultancy. We work with a select number of clients at a time so you get our full attention—not a junior team. Scott brings the technical architecture and AI strategy; Ian brings the operational implementation and program execution.

For larger engagements, we bring in trusted specialists with deep expertise in specific domains (data engineering, ML ops, change management). We're not trying to scale to 100 consultants—we're trying to be the vendor-agnostic guide you wish you had at the start.

Work With Us

Take the 5-minute readiness assessment or book a call to discuss your situation.