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Brandon Ashton Stein — Founder & Principal of Ashton Advisors Brandon Ashton Stein Founder & Principal · Houston, TX
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Strategy Insights M&A Operate
SECTION // 03 · 13 ENGAGEMENTS · 2006–2026
Selected engagements

Twenty years of work, taken seriously.

A sample from two decades across consulting, software, and operating roles. All engagements stay confidential; what's below is public, anonymized, or shared with permission.

01 / HighlightsCareer-defining moments

Four credentials that anchor twenty years of the work.

ENERGY OPERATE

Multi-year digital transformation across three energy majors.

Salesforce platform ROI realization across customer, commercial, and trading workstreams.

SOFTWARE STRATEGY

$23M ACV portfolio led across SaaS mid-market + enterprise.

C-level advisor across Texas mid-market segment: sales, renewals, CSAT, and ACV growth.

SOFTWARE M&A

Pre- and post-M&A readiness inside 90 days of close.

Day-1 to first-90 GTM playbook for an inherited cyber-security customer base.

SERVICES M&A

90-day sales onboarding ahead of a private-equity acquisition.

Pre-M&A enablement program for a national infrastructure operator's seller cohort.

02 / Selected clients

Trusted by F500 operators, PE sponsors, and category leaders.

Many engagements remain confidential by design.

CL // 01

Integrated oil & gas major

Salesforce platform ROI & transformation

  • Multi-cloud platform ROI realization across Sales, Service & Marketing
ENERGYOPERATE
CL // 02

Gulf-Coast LNG exporter

Customer & commercial CRM advisory

  • Established commercial CRM foundation for emerging LNG operator
ENERGYSTRATEGY
CL // 03

National fiber-network operator

Pre-M&A diligence & sales-enablement readiness

  • 90-day onboarding placemat ramped new sellers to revenue production
SERVICESM&A
CL // 04

PE-backed cyber-security firm

M&A go-to-market · post-asset transition

  • ~$5.8M global partnership pipeline unlocked via 3 SI/MSSP deals
SOFTWAREM&A
CL // 05

Global investment bank

Private wealth & investment management

  • Senior portfolio analysis for $10MM+ private wealth clients
SERVICESSTRATEGY
CL // 06

Global card & payments issuer

Sales & marketing transformation

  • F100 sales & marketing transformation tied to new CRM analytics
SERVICESSTRATEGY
CL // 07

Fortune 50 enterprise tech firm

Sales incentive plan & enterprise GTM design

  • Global sales-comp transition from regional → enterprise model
SOFTWAREINSIGHTS
CL // 08

Global enterprise hardware leader

Sales force effectiveness & CRM strategy

  • F500 sales-force effectiveness redesign for account-based motion
SOFTWAREOPERATE
CL // 09

National environmental services operator

Customer operations & service delivery

  • Customer-operations operating model at industrial-services leader
SERVICESOPERATE
CL // 10

Home-based healthcare provider

CRM adoption & customer-care operations

  • $2.8M Salesforce CRM adoption at largest U.S. home-based provider
SERVICESOPERATE

Confidentiality note: a meaningful share remains under permanent NDA. Client references on request.

03 / Engagement indexDetail by year

A selection from the last decade.

2025
Energy · Strategy

Enterprise AI strategy & readiness for an energy services firm

AI agenda and readiness assessment for a Houston services platform. Capability map, use-case backlog, governance, 24-month commercial roadmap.

24 mo
Roadmap horizon
2025
Software · Insights

Independent software vendor diligence for a sponsor

Multi-vendor scorecard and ROI build on candidate AI and data platforms across a software-heavy portfolio. Stood up an evergreen comparison framework the deal team still uses.

8
Vendors evaluated
2024
Energy · Operate

Salesforce CRM transformation for an integrated operator

Embedded program leadership across customer cloud, sales cloud, and service cloud rollouts spanning the operator's downstream and commercial businesses.

5 BUs
Cross-cloud rollout
2024
Finance · M&A

Post-merger people, GTM, and operating-model design

Led org, change, and GTM readiness across a mid-market financial services integration. Built the TSA framework and 180-day knowledge-transfer plan.

180 days
Integration runway
2024
Services · Strategy

Strategic sales & marketing relaunch for a tech-enabled services firm

Repositioning, GTM redesign, and a sales enablement rebuild aligning marketing, sales, and customer success to a single revenue motion.

+pipeline
Material lift in 1H
2023
Software · Operate

Customer success operating-model redesign

Re-architected the segmentation, coverage, and renewal motion for a mid-market software customer base. Outcome: a healthier portfolio with clearer ownership and faster expansion paths.

$23M
ACV under new model
2023
Private Equity · Insights

Consulting partner / SI scorecard for a sponsor portfolio

Built a sponsor-grade scorecard for systems integrators and consulting partners: used to standardize partner choice across portfolio companies.

12 SIs
Benchmarked & ranked
2022
Finance · Operate

Customer service operations stand-up at a PE-backed insurance platform

Built customer service ops and shared services through a heavy acquisition phase. Dozens of agencies onto one operating model.

Multi-agency
Integration scope
2021
Energy · M&A

Trading platform integration following an upstream acquisition

Operating model, change plan, and TSA exit roadmap for an acquired trading desk and ETRM/CTRM stack.

TSA exit
On plan
2020
Software · Strategy

F500 sales force effectiveness redesign

Coverage model, comp design, territory build, and enablement program for a Fortune 500 sales organization moving to an account-based model.

F500
Enterprise scope
2019
Energy · Software

ETRM/CTRM customer success motion built from scratch

Stood up CS from scratch at a venture-backed energy & commodity trading platform: onboarding, support, and renewal playbooks across customer types.

0 → 1
CS function build
2018
Services · Strategy

Salesforce-anchored regional practice build

Built and ran a Houston-market consulting practice delivering CRM, customer experience, and digital programs across energy, healthcare, and industrial clients.

Regional
Practice stand-up
2014–2017
Multi-industry · Big-4

Eight years of F500 strategy & operations engagements

Sales force effectiveness, GTM design, customer operations, and large-program leadership across energy, financial services, and the public sector: Deloitte Consulting's S&O practice.

8 yrs
Big-4 foundation
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