Where this stands

What I'm actually doing

Building software for the businesses in this town, giving it away, and selling it to other towns later.

Small businesses here run on paper calendars, handwritten guest checks, and asking on Facebook when you need a plumber. Not because anybody's behind, but because the software built for this was really built for companies a thousand times the size, priced accordingly, and needs a training session nobody has time for.

The reason it can be free here is boring and it's the whole trick: AI writes most of the code now, and my entire operating cost is about $41 a month. Software that would once have taken a team a year takes me a few weeks. Nobody has passed that saving along yet, because everybody is still charging what software used to cost.

So: the businesses here get it free, permanently, and help me find everything wrong with it. Then I sell it to other small towns, and the businesses that helped build it share in that.

You're not my customer

I want to be direct about this, because if we don't name it we'll both default to a script that doesn't fit.

What that means in practice, in both directions:

Please don't spare my feelings

The single most valuable thing you can give me is telling me something is bad. "My servers hated it." "This is slower than the paper pad." "I tried it twice and went back to the old way." That's not criticism, it's the entire point — I can't see what's wrong from where I'm standing, and a polite "it's nice!" costs me weeks.

If you'd feel rude saying it out loud, say it in an email. I would genuinely rather hear it badly than not hear it.

And I'm not staff

This isn't a product with a support contract. If something breaks I'll fix it as fast as I can, and sometimes that's the same day and sometimes it's next week. If you need it to be someone's job to answer at 2am, you need a company with staff, and I'd tell you that honestly rather than pretend.

What's actually built

Everything below is live right now and you can open any of it on your phone.

What's missing or broken

This list is the honest one. If it were shorter I'd be hiding something.

• The directory has almost nobody in it. It works fine and it's nearly empty, which makes it useless until it isn't. That's the thing I most need help with.
• Coda can't split a check. In a pub that's constant. It's the first thing I expect to get told off about.
• Coda has no comps, voids or staff meals. Every restaurant needs these and I don't yet know how yours works.
• Nothing has been used during a real rush. Everything's been tested by me, calmly, at a desk. That's not a test.
• Glissando's reminders don't exist yet. The text message is the whole point of it and right now it's a mock-up.
• There's no way for you to post to the noticeboard yourself. You email me and I put it up. That's fine for now and won't scale past about ten people.

What I know how to do, and what I don't

What I'm good at

I've built software for businesses for thirty years — manufacturing, healthcare, billing, the unglamorous internal systems companies actually run on. I know how to make something reliable, how to keep data safe, and how to build fast enough that changing my mind is cheap. If you tell me something's wrong, fixing it is usually the easy part.

What I'm figuring out as I go

I've never run my own business. I've built them for other people my whole career and never had to make one work myself. Pricing, when to say no, how much of my time this is worth, whether any of this is a business at all — I'm genuinely learning that part, and the people helping me are all better at it than I am.

I also don't know whether servers will actually use a phone instead of a pad when it's busy, whether anyone will look at a directory once it's full, or whether people will bother emailing me a notice. Those are guesses. Some of them are probably wrong, and the fastest way to find out which is to put it in front of you.

What I'm asking of you

All of it is small, and none of it has a deadline.

• Let me list you in the directory. Takes about thirty seconds and costs nothing. It's the single most useful thing, because a directory nobody's in helps nobody.
• Use whichever app fits your business, for real. Not a trial run — actually use it, on a real day, and see where it falls apart.
• Tell me what's wrong with it. Bluntly. Text, email, or in person. No form to fill in.
• Tell me what you'd need before you'd rely on it. Often more useful than what's broken.

When somebody joins in I'd like to say so on this page — it's how the next person finds out this is real and not one bloke talking to himself, and being named locally is worth something. Only if you want it. Say the word and you're in with no mention anywhere, and that's a completely normal thing to prefer.

What I'm not asking: money, a commitment, exclusivity, or that you stop using whatever you use now. If it isn't better than what you've got, keep what you've got and tell me why.

The money part

Nothing here is settled and I'll put the real terms in writing before anyone signs anything. But the shape I intend, plainly:

Free here, permanently

Not a trial, not an introductory rate, not free-until-I-change-my-mind. Businesses in this town don't pay for these apps, and that survives whatever happens to the rest of it. It costs me almost nothing to honour, which is the only reason I can promise it.

Sold elsewhere

Other small towns have the same problems and no local person building for them. That's where the money would come from, and it's a long way off.

The businesses who helped, share in that

A defined percentage of what these apps earn outside this county, split evenly between the businesses who helped make them work. In writing, with real numbers, before anyone commits to anything.

And it ends on purpose

The share pays out until it reaches an agreed figure and then it stops, and everyone knows that number going in. A season with a harvest, not an arrangement nobody remembers agreeing to that turns awkward in five years.

The other thing I'm doing, and why I'm telling you

I run a separate business called Binary Blender — software and consulting, aimed at companies, nothing to do with this town. It's how I'd eventually make a living.

One of my reasons for building all this is that it makes that business look good. "He built the software his whole town runs on" is a far better argument than anything I could put on a website. That's a real motive and you should know about it rather than find out later.

Two things follow from it, stated plainly:

• Money I make over there isn't shared. The share described above is on what these apps earn in other towns. Consulting income is separate and it's mine. I'd rather say that now than have it be a surprise.
• A paying customer could pull me away for a while. If a real contract turns up I'll take it, because that's how I pay my bills, and this would get less of me for a stretch.

Why I'm still not worried about it being abandoned

Not because I'm promising I won't get busy. Two actual reasons:

An abandoned version of this is worse than useless to me. "I built the software my town runs on" is a good story. "I started building software for my town and dropped it when something better came along" is a bad one, and it's worse for the business than never having started. The thing I want out of this only exists if it gets finished.

And I live here. I'll be seeing you at the grocery store for the next twenty years. That's a stronger guarantee than any contract I could write, and it cuts in a direction that suits you.

I'd also say I hate leaving things unfinished, which is true — but don't give that any weight. Everyone says that, it can't be checked, and it's exactly what somebody about to abandon something would also tell you. The two reasons above are the ones you can rely on, because they hold whether or not I'm feeling strong that week.

What's happened lately

Newest first — what's been built, what broke, and who's joined in. Worth a look now and then.