Software built around your operation. Not the other way around.
Stax
John Cole
Most software forces your business to adapt. Off-the-shelf tools weren't designed for your workflows. Custom developers often start with architecture and work backward. I start with your operation — how it actually runs, the rules, the exceptions, the edge cases — and build the software around that.
What I Do
- Internal web apps & dashboards
- Workflow & process automation
- Spreadsheet replacement
- Tool integrations (QuickBooks, Stripe & more)
- Legacy system rescue
- Ongoing systems stewardship
You own everything
Why it matters
Your operation developed rules no software vendor anticipated.
Off-the-shelf platforms are designed for average businesses. If your operation isn't average — multiple stages, specific rules, workflows that depend on each other — you adapt. You build workarounds. Spreadsheets fill the gaps. The workarounds become the system.
Custom software is supposed to fix this. Often it doesn't — because the developer understood code better than they understood your operation. They built what they were told to build, not what the workflow actually needed.
The result works at demo. The gaps surface three months in.
What I do differently
Most developers start with technology. I start with your operation — every stage, every role, every rule, every edge case. That understanding becomes the specification. The specification becomes the software.
The spec is the foundation
Software built from a shallow understanding of the operation will miss the cases that matter. I spend real time learning how your operation works before writing any code.
Edge cases get designed in
Not discovered after launch when they're expensive to fix. The exceptions and rules that make your business yours get built in from the start.
The software stays yours
Every project includes Groundwork documentation — architecture, data model, business logic. The system doesn't live only in my head when we're done.
What I do
Build, rescue, integrate, or steward the systems your operation depends on.
Build
Build the system your operation actually needs
When spreadsheets, disconnected tools, or off-the-shelf software stop fitting the way your business actually works, I build focused internal systems around the real workflow.
Typical work includes:
- operational dashboards
- inventory and order systems
- workflow automation
- internal admin tools
- reporting systems
- custom business applications
Rescue
Rescue software the business already depends on
Older custom systems often contain years of undocumented business logic. Replacing them safely requires understanding what they actually do before touching the code.
I work with aging internal applications, legacy databases, brittle integrations, and systems that have become difficult or risky to maintain.
Typical work includes:
- legacy application assessment
- reverse-engineering business rules
- stabilization
- incremental modernization
- migration and rebuild planning
- replacement of unsupported systems
Integrate
Connect the systems that should already work together
Sometimes the problem is not that you need another application. It is that the systems you already use do not share data or support the full workflow.
I build the custom layer between ERPs, inventory platforms, APIs, internal tools, shipping systems, accounting software, and other operational systems.
Typical work includes:
- API integrations
- data synchronization
- workflow bridges
- automated imports and exports
- reporting consolidation
- custom middleware
Steward
Keep critical internal software healthy
Some businesses depend on custom software but do not need a full internal engineering team.
Systems Stewardship provides ongoing technical ownership: maintenance, planned improvements, integrations, architecture decisions, documentation continuity, and someone who understands how the system fits the operation.
This is not unlimited break/fix support. It is long-term ownership of software the business depends on.
Systems Stewardship starts at $2,500/month.
Talk about ongoing ownership →Groundwork
Groundwork before code
Complex operational software rarely fails because someone cannot write the code.
The difficult part is understanding the operation well enough to know what the software actually needs to do.
Before major build, rescue, or modernization work, I map the system and the business rules behind it.
That process is Groundwork.
What Groundwork can include
- stakeholder and workflow review
- current-system inventory
- business-rule and exception inventory
- architecture, data, and integration map
- operational risk review
- technical-debt findings
- documentation of undocumented behavior
- modernization or replacement options
- prioritized implementation roadmap
Recommended path
A Groundwork engagement ends with a clear recommendation:
- Maintain — the current system is basically healthy.
- Stabilize — fix the risky pieces without rebuilding everything.
- Extend — keep the system and add what is missing.
- Modernize — replace components incrementally.
- Rebuild — the current system no longer makes economic sense to preserve.
- Replace — an existing platform may solve the problem better than custom software.
Standalone Groundwork assessments typically start around $3,500 and scale with system complexity.
Real work
What this looks like in practice.
Logistics · Active
Auction-to-shipment operations portal
Problem
Fragmented auction-to-shipment workflow spread across multiple systems and manual steps.
Built
One operations portal spanning:
- lot management
- bid management
- three clear-check providers
- warehouse check-in
- label generation
- outbound shipping/tracking
Scale / result
Supports processing approximately 100k items across 10 operational roles and replaced 12 separate manual tools or spreadsheets.
Warehousing · Active
Full rebuild of a decade-old legacy system
Problem
A decade-old ColdFusion inventory platform with little or no usable documentation, a fragile/inaccessible data layer, and critical system knowledge concentrated in one developer.
Approach
Reverse-engineered the actual workflow and business rules before rebuilding the system around current operations.
Groundwork documentation captured architecture, data relationships, workflows, and operational logic so the new system would no longer depend on undocumented institutional knowledge.
Scale / result
1M+ records migrated · 20 operational roles · goal of reducing manual work by more than 50%
Running something similarly fragile or complicated? Let's map what you have before you decide what to replace. Talk through your system →
Who this is for
If your operation has outgrown your software, we should talk.
If you can build it yourself with standard off-the-shelf tools, you probably should. If your operation has genuine complexity that doesn't fit those tools — that's exactly what I do.
Pricing
Flat price. No hourly surprises.
Focused systems
$8–15k
A contained operational problem with clear boundaries.
Examples: workflow automation, focused internal tool, reporting/admin system, API integration, dashboard, small operational application.
Operational systems
$15–35k
Substantial custom internal software supporting real business operations.
Examples: inventory systems, order-management systems, multi-role workflows, custom operations portals, substantial integrations, significant legacy-system replacement.
Complex platforms
$35k+
Systems spanning multiple stages, departments, integrations, or data sources.
Examples: end-to-end operational platforms, deep system integrations, major migrations, multi-team workflows, complex legacy rebuilds.
Systems Stewardship
from $2,500/mo
Ongoing technical ownership for software the operation depends on.
Can include: maintenance, planned improvements, integrations, dependency/security work, architecture, technical decision-making, documentation continuity, roadmap planning.
Fixed price is agreed before work starts. Groundwork documentation is included in build engagements. Complex or poorly documented legacy systems may begin with a standalone Groundwork assessment.
Let's talk
Free 30-minute call. No pitch.
Tell me what you're running on, what is becoming difficult, and where the workarounds are. I'll tell you honestly whether the right next step is to build something, rescue what you already have, keep it and improve it, or do nothing at all. If I can't help, I'll say so.