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Writing for people who run local business.
Honest posts on getting found online, putting AI to work in your day-to-day, training your team, and what it actually takes to run a local or small business.
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What custom software actually costs, and what moves the number
Nobody publishes real prices, so founders shop blind and get quotes that vary by 5x for the same description. Here is what actually drives the number, and how to get a quote you can compare.
September 7, 2026 · 5 min read
AI-native buildsAI-native or AI bolted on, and why the difference shows up in month four
Both versions demo the same. One of them keeps working when real users arrive, the data gets messy, and the model changes underneath you. Here is the architectural fork, in plain terms.
September 7, 2026 · 4 min read
Industry playbooksDesigning for the copier: free safety materials for Arizona's disaster volunteers
We built print-ready group safety materials for a FEMA Medical Reserve Corps unit that serves all 15 Arizona counties. The audience changed nearly every design decision, starting with the assumption that the page would be photocopied in black and white.
August 26, 2026 · 5 min read
Industry playbooks3D Gun Configurators: How Local Shops Keep the Sale
Independent gun shops do the selling and collect a transfer fee while a national site keeps the margin. A 3D configurator on your own website closes that gap.
August 17, 2026 · 7 min read
AI-native buildsMerchant Signal: New-Merchant Leads From Public Records
How we turned public license filings into Merchant Signal, a live source of new-merchant leads in 15 markets across 11 states. See how we built it.
June 29, 2026 · 7 min read
AI-native buildsBuilding 'Lita's Kitchen: how a 2024 Arizona law became a marketplace in days
A build-in-public look at how we turned Arizona's Tamale Bill into 'Lita's Kitchen, a bilingual marketplace for home cooks, and built it with AI in days, not months.
June 15, 2026 · 5 min read
Vibe coding securityWhat April's AI Coding Breaches Mean for Your Launch
In one week, three AI coding platforms leaked source code and credentials. Here is the pattern, and the check every founder should run before launch.
June 2, 2026 · 7 min read
Vibe coding securityThe four things we look for when we audit a vibe-coded app.
Every AI-built app we audit has at least one of these four gaps. Most have three. None of them require code-writing to detect. All of them require knowing where to look.
May 28, 2026 · 6 min read
Vibe coding securityAn AI-built EdTech app exposed 4,538 UC Berkeley and UC Davis student accounts. The marketplace closed the ticket without a response.
18,697 user records leaked. Minors likely on the platform. The founder built the app with good intentions and shipped before they knew what row-level security was. This is one answer to the question of whether vibe coding security risk is theoretical.
May 25, 2026 · 5 min read
Vibe coding securityAI-Generated Code Has 2.74x More Security Flaws (2026 Data)
Peer-reviewed 2025 and 2026 studies put exploitable flaws in AI code at 40 to 62 percent. Our audit of 200-plus vibe-coded apps found 91.5 percent had at least one.
May 19, 2026 · 5 min read
Vibe coding securityMoltbook leaked 1.5 million API auth tokens three days after launch. The founder had never heard of row-level security.
A breakdown of how an AI-built product can ship a working authentication system and still expose every user. The pattern shows up in almost every vibe-coded app we audit.
May 13, 2026 · 5 min read
Stuck productsFive tells your software project is dead, and what to do at each stage
Non-technical founders rarely get a clean signal that their build has gone off the rails. By the time it is obvious, the runway is mostly gone. Here is how to read the warning signs earlier.
May 12, 2026 · 4 min read
Vibe coding securityFive thousand vibe-coded apps just leaked their users' data. There was no breach. There was no hacker.
RedAccess scanned the open web this month and found public S3 buckets, unprotected Supabase tables, and open API endpoints exposing medical records, Fortune 500 documents, home addresses, and hotel reservations. The AI that built the apps did not configure storage permissions, and the founders did not know to check.
May 11, 2026 · 6 min read
Pillars
What we write about.
Vibe coding security
Apps built with AI look fine on the surface. The data is wide open underneath. Audits, patterns, and case studies.
Stuck products
Diagnosing, recovering, and rescuing software that lost its way.
AI-native builds
How to wire AI into products from day one, not bolt it on later.
Build vs hire
Decision frameworks for non-technical founders sizing up engineering options.
Industry playbooks
What home services, construction, legal, restaurants, franchise, and healthcare actually need from software.
Founder mental models
Broader thinking for non-technical founders managing technical work.
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