We build custom software for people businesses.
We find the hours your team loses to manual work, build the tool that gives them back, and roll it out until people actually use it.
Your people are too good to copy-paste.
A people business sells what its people know and the time they have. That’s the whole asset. And yet your best people spend hours a week on the manual work between your apps: rekeying numbers from one tool into another, chasing files over email, rebuilding the same report every Friday, copy-pasting status updates to clients.
Nobody budgets for it. Nobody tracks it. It’s just the way it’s always been - until someone adds it up.
- Rekeying the same data into three apps
- Chasing brand assets and documents over email
- Rebuilding the weekly client report from scratch
- Answering “any update?” instead of doing the work
- The data moves itself; your team checks it
- Clients upload once, into one link
- The report drafts itself; a person reviews and sends
- Clients see progress live; your team does the work
We choose what to build, build it, and make sure it gets used.
- 01
Scope
We sit with your team, map how the work really happens and choose what to build first - priced, before you commit.
- 02
Build
We build and test it around how your firm works, connected to the apps you already use. You approve it before it counts.
- 03
Roll out
We train your team and manage the change, so people actually use it - not just have access to it.
- 04
Improve
We watch the usage, fix it when an app changes and keep improving it as your firm changes.
The tools every people business ends up needing.
We’ve built them for our own agency, and now for firms like yours. Each one is shaped to your workflow, not a template you bend around.
Client portals
one branded place where each client sees deliverables, files, invoices and updatesLearn more →Client onboarding
new clients fill one link; assets, access and details land where your team worksLearn more →Status pages
clients see progress live; the “any update?” emails stopLearn more →Reporting that drafts itself
weekly and monthly reports pulled from your data, reviewed by a person, sent in minutesLearn more →App-to-app sync
your CRM, accounting, practice tool and spreadsheets finally agree with each otherLearn more →Document and transcript processing
call notes, intake forms and documents turned into structured, usable recordsLearn more →Internal dashboards
capacity, hours, pipeline and margin, live, without the Friday spreadsheetLearn more →Three things we’ve learned building internal software
- 01
Change management matters more than you think
Most internal software doesn't fail at the build - it fails at the roll-out. A tool nobody uses is an expensive spreadsheet. So we plan the change, train your team and watch the usage until the new way is simply how work gets done.
- 02
Without first-hand process knowledge, you will fail
You can't fix work you've never watched being done. Before we build anything, we sit with the people who do it and map how it really happens - the workarounds, the exceptions, the bits nobody wrote down. We learned that running our own agency.
- 03
It doesn't make sense to fire people
In a people business, your people are the product. The hours we give back go into clients, craft and growth - not a smaller team. Cut the people and you lose the knowledge that made the software worth building in the first place.
Our storyWe did this for ourselves first.
We run Fame, a podcast agency. Over a few months we built ten internal tools to run it - client status pages, a client portal, a team homebase, intake forms, an asset review tool. Our people stopped copy-pasting and chasing, and spent the time on clients instead.
Forge is how we do the same for firms like yours - without you needing to do any of the technical work we did.
Prices on the page, not behind a call.
Good questions, plain answers.
What is a "people business"?
A business that sells its people's expertise and time rather than a product - agencies, accounting firms, law firms, consultancies, recruiters. If your best asset walks out the door at six, you're a people business.
Do we need anyone technical?
No. You need an owner or ops lead who can answer questions about how the firm works. We do all the building, and we keep looking after it.
What happens in the ops audit?
We interview your team, map the apps you use, and quantify the hours lost to manual work. You get a roadmap with your first three builds scoped and priced. The fee is credited against your first run month if you go ahead.
Where does the software live?
On your own accounts, so you own it. We set it up there, your team gets a secure link (or your own domain), and we keep looking after it - nothing needs maintaining by your team. Tool costs for those accounts are paid by you directly.
Will this reduce our headcount?
That's not what we're for. We build tools so the people you have can spend their hours on the work only they can do. Most clients use the hours to take on more clients, not fewer people.
What if we need changes later?
That's what the run plan is. Tell us in plain language, we build it, you approve it.
Your people’s next Tuesday could look very different.
Start with a two-week ops audit. We’ll show you where the hours go - and what it’d take to get them back.