Terms of Use

Who I am

kennangle.com is operated by Ken Nangle Consulting ("I", "me"), a business technology advisory practice based in Cloverdale, California. By using this site you're agreeing to what's on this page. If you don't agree with it, don't use the site.

Using the site

You're welcome to read, share, quote, and link to anything here. What you can't do:

• Use the site or its tools to break the law, or to harass or defraud anyone
• Try to get into parts of the site that aren't public, or interfere with how it runs
• Scrape it at a volume that degrades it for other people, or drive automated traffic through the research tool
• Present my writing as your own, or republish an article in full without asking

I can restrict access if any of that happens. I'd rather just email you about it.

The AI Readiness & Security Assessment and the Competitive Research tool

Both tools are free, and both have real limits you should know before you rely on them.

The AI Readiness & Security Assessment

It starts with a short AI security check, which gives you an AI security score from the answers you gave in a few minutes. If you choose to go deeper, a second set of questions adds a readiness summary and a recommendation. Either way it is a starting point for a conversation, not a full review of your business, a security audit, or legal or compliance advice. It doesn't know your financials, your people, your contracts, how your systems are actually configured, or anything you didn't tell it.

The Competitive Research tool is a proof of concept

It searches Google Places within the radius you set and asks Claude to describe what it found. That means: it sees businesses that have a Google Places listing and misses the ones that don't; results are capped, so a full list is often longer than what you see; the analysis is generated by an AI model and can be wrong, out of date, or confidently mistaken; and a free-text search matches keywords rather than a defined market category. It exists to show you what this kind of tool can do. It is not a market research product and shouldn't be used as one.

Neither one is professional advice

Nothing on this site — the tools, the articles, the service descriptions — is legal, financial, tax, or accounting advice, and reading it doesn't create a professional or advisory relationship between us. Decisions about your business are yours. Get advice specific to your situation before making one that matters.

The tools are provided as they are, without any warranty that they'll be accurate, available, or fit for a particular purpose.

How paid work is paid for

Everything I do runs on the same structure: 50% up front and 50% later. It applies to the working session (with or without the security review), both reviews, training, and application development.

For a working session, the first half is the deposit taken when you book, and the balance is invoiced separately and due before the debrief session. For everything else, the first half is due on your acceptance of the written scope, and the balance is due when the work is delivered, invoiced and payable on receipt. Prices are in US dollars and don't include any tax that may apply.

Where a signed engagement agreement says something different, that agreement governs.

Booking an AI Working Session

The AI Working Session is a paid engagement, currently $995, delivered as two 45-minute sessions with my analysis between them: an initial interview, and a debrief scheduled afterward. It's booked through the scheduling link on this site, which reserves the first session; the debrief is scheduled at the end of it.

What you get

Two 45-minute sessions on the AI question you bring — the interview, my analysis between the sessions, the debrief — and a written recap of the direction after the debrief.

Payment

A 50% deposit is taken by the scheduling provider when you book. The balance is invoiced separately and due before the debrief session. No card details are entered on this site or held by me.

Rescheduling

Free, any number of times, with at least 24 hours' notice — and that applies to each of the two sessions individually. Use the link in your booking confirmation. Your deposit moves with the booking.

Cancellation

Cancel with at least 24 hours' notice and the deposit is refunded in full. Cancel with less than 24 hours' notice and the deposit is retained. Book a session and simply don't attend, and the deposit is retained. If something genuinely went wrong, email me — I'd rather reschedule you than keep the money.

If I cancel

Your deposit is refunded in full, or the session is rescheduled — whichever you'd prefer. Nothing further is owed either way.

The credit

The full $995 credits toward either a Leadership AI Review or a Whole-Company AI Review, or toward an AI Working Session + Security Review, if you book one within 90 days of your session. The credit applies once, to one engagement, and isn't redeemable for cash.

Honesty clause

If it becomes clear that your question needs a proper review to answer well, I'll say so during the initial interview rather than afterward. That isn't grounds for a refund — you still get the full ninety minutes and the written recap — but you'll never be sold a review by being left uncertain.

Booking an AI Working Session + Security Review

The AI Working Session + Security Review is the AI Working Session with a review of how your business uses AI added to it, currently $1,995. It runs over about two weeks: the same initial interview and debrief, with my analysis and the AI review between them. It's booked through its own scheduling link on this site, which reserves the first session; the debrief is scheduled at the end of it.

What you get

Everything in the AI Working Session, plus a review of the AI tools, accounts, plans, and settings your business actually uses, including whether vendors can train on your data, who has access, and what any AI tools can do on their own. You also receive a written AI use policy of one to two pages tailored to your business, a prioritized list of security fixes, and a protocol for verifying payment requests.

How the review is done

You share your screen and walk me through your tools and settings. I never ask for, receive, or hold your passwords or access to your accounts. If anyone asks you for them in my name, it isn't me.

What it is not

It is a review of how your business uses AI. It is not an IT security audit, a penetration test, a compliance certification, or legal advice, and it does not make your business compliant with any law or standard. What I find is limited to what you show and tell me. You are responsible for deciding which changes to make and for making them.

Outside threats

Outside threats — website scrapers, break-in attempts, fake sign-ups — I'll flag what I see and point you to the right IT help. Defending against intrusion is IT security work and isn't part of this review.

Payment, rescheduling, and cancellation

The same as the AI Working Session above: a 50% deposit is taken by the scheduling provider when you book, the balance is invoiced separately and due before the debrief session, and the rescheduling, cancellation, and if-I-cancel terms are identical.

The credit

The full $1,995 credits toward either a Leadership AI Review or a Whole-Company AI Review, if you book one within 90 days of your debrief. The credit applies once, to one engagement, and isn't redeemable for cash.

Upgrading from a Working Session

If you've had an AI Working Session, its full $995 credits toward an AI Working Session + Security Review booked within 90 days of that session.

Reviews and other engagements

The Leadership AI Review, the Whole-Company AI Review, training, application development, and ongoing advisory are not bought through this site. Each starts with a conversation, and each is set out in a written scope with a fixed quote before any work begins. Payment follows the 50/50 structure above unless your agreement says otherwise.

Prices shown on this site are indicative. The quote you receive in writing is the one that governs, and it takes precedence over anything on this page or elsewhere on the site.

Intellectual property

Mine. The writing, articles, service descriptions, tools, and design of this site are mine, except where something is credited to someone else. You can quote and link with attribution. You can't republish substantial portions, or use any of it to train an AI model, without written permission.

Yours. Anything you send me — assessment answers, messages, questions — stays yours. You're giving me permission to use it for the purposes in the Privacy Policy, which includes the anonymized North Bay AI Readiness Report, and nothing beyond that.

Work I build for clients. Software I build under a client engagement belongs to the client, with documentation and no ongoing licence, once the engagement is paid in full. The specifics are in the engagement agreement, not here.

Other people's services

This site uses and links to services I don't control — the scheduling and payment providers, the form provider, the AI and mapping services behind the tools, and any site I link to from an article. Their terms are their own, and I'm not responsible for what they do or for content on sites I link to.

Availability

I aim to keep the site and its tools running, but I don't promise uninterrupted service. Any of it may be unavailable for maintenance, or may be changed or withdrawn.

Limitation of liability

To the extent the law allows: I'm not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential losses arising from your use of this site or its tools — including lost profits, lost business, or decisions made on the basis of what a tool told you.

For any claim relating to this site or its free tools, my total liability is limited to $100. For a paid session, it's limited to the fee you paid for it. Liability arising from a review, training, or development engagement is governed by that engagement's own agreement.

Nothing here limits liability that can't be limited by law, including for fraud.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to conflict-of-law rules. Any dispute goes to the state or federal courts serving Sonoma County, California, and we both agree to that.

Changes

I can update these terms. The date at the top will change, and the current version is always at kennangle.com/terms. Continuing to use the site after a change means you accept it. A change never applies retroactively to a session you've already booked and paid for — those are governed by the terms in force when you booked.

Contact

See also the Privacy Policy.