What does your team still do by hand?
The best opportunities usually hide in the handoffs: the steps between people, inboxes, and systems.
The work still gets done. Your team just stops doing it by hand.
How an engagement works
What I do
Consult
Free · 30 minutes
Not sure what AI or automation could actually do for your business? That's what this call is for. Tell me where the time goes, and I'll point you at the strongest opportunity and tell you honestly whether it's worth pursuing.
Map & Build
Fixed price
A few one-hour sessions with your team to map one workflow, the real version with all its exceptions. Then I redesign it, build and test the automation in your systems, document it, and train your team. Three to six weeks for most projects, with 30 days of support after launch. You own everything.
Partner
Flat monthly fee
Month to month: your automations stay running, your team stays trained, and we work through your backlog one build at a time. Cancel anytime.
Automation is the easy part
The harder part is how the work actually happens: the exceptions, the workarounds, the steps that live in someone's head. Automate a broken process and the problems just move faster. That's why every project starts with mapping the real workflow, and why I stay until your team runs the new one without me.
The work isn't finished when the automation runs. It's finished when the team trusts it.
Who you're working with
It's just me.
I'm Duncan Shea. I've spent more than twenty years turning software into working processes: eight years at AppFolio, where I went from web developer to director running product lines with a 27-person team, then post-sales leadership at software companies in real estate, insurance, and AI. My wife and I also run a small e-commerce business, so I know what it's like to wear all the hats. Solomon is her family name; Shea is mine. And it's just me here: the person you meet on the first call is the person who builds your automation and trains your team.
FAQ
Common questions
Do we need to know what we want automated?
No. Most clients know where the frustration is, not what the fix should be. Finding the best starting point is part of the job; it's what the free consult is for.
Can't we just use ChatGPT?
Sure, and for plenty of individual tasks you should. A business workflow is different: it has to connect to your systems, follow your rules, handle the exceptions, and run when nobody's sitting there prompting it. Making that dependable, and getting your team to trust it, is what you're paying for.
What happens to our data?
Your data stays in systems and accounts you control. When a workflow uses an AI model, I use business-grade services configured so your data isn't used for training, with retention kept to the minimum the provider allows. And if something is sensitive enough that you don't want it touching the cloud at all, I can set up an open-source model that runs on your own hardware.
Who owns what you build?
You do. Everything gets deployed in your accounts, with the documentation and access to run it. If we ever part ways, it all keeps working and it's all yours.
Is this about replacing my staff?
The goal is to help the team you already have handle more, make fewer errors, and spend less time on repetitive admin. Automation can also help you put off the next administrative hire. What I don't do is design projects around layoffs.
What don't you do?
Websites, marketing, IT support, custom apps for resale, and AI strategy decks with nothing built. If what you need is one of those, I'll point you to someone good.
What does it cost?
Fixed-price projects start at $7,500; ongoing partnerships at $3,000 a month. The right comparison is the hire you're putting off: a loaded admin salary in Orange County runs $65k to $90k a year, and most clients spend a fraction of that to get the hours back.
