Privacy notice
Effective date: 1 October 2026.
This notice explains what personal information Ask Sterling collects, why, who receives it and what you can do about it. The short version: this website itself collects almost nothing; if you send an enquiry through our form, we pass it to one named funding partner because you asked us to, keep it for up to 12 months, and never sell it.
Who we are
Ask Sterling is a trading name of OPTIMAX AI LTD, registered in England & Wales, company no. 16143914, 38 Sunnymede Avenue, Epsom KT19 9TJ, United Kingdom. We are responsible for the personal information described here. Contact for anything in this notice: mike@optimax-ai.com.
What this website collects
No forms on this site. The pages and calculators on asksterlingfunding.com don't ask for your name, email or phone number.
Calculator inputs stay in your browser. When you type figures into a calculator, the sums run on your device. Those figures are not sent to us or stored by us.
Server logs. Our hosting provider (Vercel) automatically records technical information when your browser requests a page, such as your IP address, the page requested, the time, and your browser type. We use these logs only to keep the site secure and working, for example to spot abuse or fix errors.
No analytics or advertising tags. We don't currently run analytics, advertising pixels or tracking cookies on this site. We will update this notice before we add any.
What the enquiry form collects
The enquiry form lives on our funnel at leads.optimax-ai.com/ask-sterling, run by the same company. This notice covers it too. When you complete it, we collect:
- Your business answers: for example time in business, monthly deposits, what the money is for, your state and industry, the amount you're looking for, credit score range, existing advances and ownership share.
- Your contact details: name, email address and phone number.
- Your consent: a record of the consent statement you saw and agreed to, and when, so we can show that consent was given.
If your answers show that our partner can't help (for example, your state isn't covered), the form tells you before asking for contact details.
How we use it
- To pass your enquiry to our funding partner, as you asked.
- To keep a record of your consent and of where your enquiry went.
- To handle any request you make of us (access, deletion, stop contact).
- To check the quality of introductions with our partner (for example, whether an enquiry met their criteria, which is how our fee is worked out).
- To protect the form against fraud and abuse.
We don't use your information to make automated decisions about you. Funding decisions are made by funders, not by us.
Who receives it
One funding partner. With your consent, we send your enquiry to Abbey Road Capital / SOJA Ventures, named on the form. They use it to contact you about this enquiry and, with your permission, may share it with funders they work with. Once they receive it, they handle it under their own privacy notice. See who you'll speak to.
Service providers. Companies that run our infrastructure process data on our behalf and only on our instructions: website and funnel hosting (Vercel), our database (Supabase), and email (Google Workspace).
Legal reasons. If the law requires it, or to protect our rights or someone's safety.
That's the complete list. Nobody else receives your details from us.
Calls and texts (TCPA)
Federal rules require a caller to have your consent before certain automated or prerecorded calls and texts to your phone, and commercial texts need written consent. That's why our form asks for your consent before anything is sent, and why it names the one partner who may contact you by phone, email or text about your enquiry. Ask Sterling itself doesn't call or text you.
You can withdraw consent at any time: you may opt out of robocalls and robotexts "at any time and in any reasonable manner". Reply STOP to a text, tell the caller, or email us and we'll pass it on.
We do not sell or share your personal information
We do not sell or share your personal information, as California law uses those words. "Share" there means passing data on for cross-context behavioral advertising, which we don't do. Disclosing your enquiry to our partner happens because you direct us to on the form, and California law says a business does not sell personal information when a consumer directs it to intentionally disclose that information.
Your rights and how to use them
Whatever state you're in, you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and where it went;
- correct it;
- delete it;
- stop passing it to anyone (we only ever pass it once, at your request);
- stop any contact from us.
California residents have these rights under the CCPA (to know, delete, correct, opt out of sale or sharing, limit the use of sensitive information, and not be discriminated against for using them). We give the same rights to everyone.
To make a request, email mike@optimax-ai.com from the email address you used, or include the phone number you used, so we can find your record and check it's you. We won't charge you, and we won't treat you differently for asking. If you ask us to delete your enquiry, we'll also tell our partner you've asked; they hold their copy under their own notice, so you may want to ask them directly too.
Do Not Call
The National Do Not Call Registry is free to join at DoNotCall.gov or on 1-888-382-1222. It stops unwanted sales calls from companies that follow the law. Asking a company to stop calling you works too, even if you once gave them permission.
How long we keep it
We keep enquiry records for up to 12 months from the date you send them, then delete them. We may keep a minimal record of a stop request (your phone number or email) for longer, so we can keep honoring it. Server logs are kept by our host for a short period for security.
Security
Data travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS) and is held with the service providers named above. Access is limited to the people who need it to run the service. No system is perfectly secure, and if something goes wrong that affects you, we will tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
Children
Ask Sterling is for business owners. It isn't aimed at anyone under 18, and we don't knowingly collect information from children.
Where your data is held
Ask Sterling is run from the United Kingdom. Our service providers store and process data in the United States and other countries where they operate.
Changes to this notice
If we change how we use your information, we'll update this page and the effective date at the top before the change takes effect.
Contact
OPTIMAX AI LTD, 38 Sunnymede Avenue, Epsom KT19 9TJ, United Kingdom. Email: mike@optimax-ai.com.