Hands-on builds for owner-run businesses · DC area & Connecticut
Do more with the team you have.
Justin Labs finds where your team loses time to spreadsheets, copy-paste and tools that don’t talk to each other — then builds the fix and keeps it running.
Free 30-minute call, no obligation. We’ll find out together whether Justin Labs is the right fit.
Services
00Start here · fixed price · 1–2 weeks
Tech Health Check
Where every engagement starts. A fixed-price review of the tools, spreadsheets and workflows you already run — where your team's time goes, and what it takes to get it back.
- Lab Report: findings & fixes
- Hours each fix saves
- A capped quote for every fix
- Fee credited toward your build
readout · 00/04start here- Symptom
- “I know we're losing time. I just don't know where.”
- Fix
- A map of how the work really runs, and a ranked list of fixes.
- Proof
- A measurable goal and a capped quote for every fix.
01
Automate the manual work
The busywork your team does by hand — retyping, reconciling, chasing paperwork — becomes software that does it for them.
- Spreadsheets turned into apps
- Intake from emails, forms & documents
- AI only where it beats simpler rules
- People approve what matters
readout · 01/04service- Symptom
- “My team spends all day copying data between spreadsheets.”
- Fix
- Spreadsheets become real systems: forms in, automations in the middle, dashboards out.
- Proof
- Hours saved, and growth without hiring.
02
Connect your tools
Your tools start sharing information, so nobody re-types anything and everyone works from the same numbers.
- POS, CRM, accounting & email in sync
- One source of truth
- Fewer overlapping subscriptions
readout · 02/04service- Symptom
- “We pay for ten tools and none of them talk to each other.”
- Fix
- Integrations between the tools you already pay for, around one source of truth.
- Proof
- Hours saved; lower software spend as a bonus.
03
Make it reliable
Systems that hold up as you grow — and keep working when the one person who understood them is out or moves on.
- Monitoring & alerts
- Backups that are actually tested
- Safe, repeatable updates
- Documentation your team can follow
readout · 03/04service- Symptom
- “Something breaks every time we change anything.”
- Fix
- Smoke alarms and a pre-flight checklist for your systems.
- Proof
- Fewer outages and fire drills.
04
Right-size your cloud
Tech bills that creep up every month get cleaned up, so you pay only for what you actually use.
- Cloud cleanup & right-sizing
- Cost visibility
- Less to maintain
readout · 04/04service- Symptom
- “Our tech bills keep creeping up and I don't know why.”
- Fix
- Cleanup, right-sizing, and a clear view of where the money goes.
- Proof
- Steadier systems; lower cloud bills as a bonus.
- Symptom
- “I know we're losing time. I just don't know where.”
- Fix
- A map of how the work really runs, and a ranked list of fixes.
- Proof
- A measurable goal and a capped quote for every fix.
How an engagement works
01
Observe
We look at how your business actually runs today: the tools, the spreadsheets, and where your team's hours go.
Tech Health Check
02
Hypothesize
Every recommended fix comes with a measurable goal and a capped quote, so you know what you'll get back before anything is built.
Tech Health Check
03
Experiment
We build it small, test it on your real data, and prove it works before anyone relies on it. Not trial and error on your business.
Build Sprint
04
Result
It goes live, your team is trained on it, and you get the numbers that show it paid off. An optional retainer keeps it running and improving.
Build Sprint → retainer
Selected work
Angel investing network
Deal intake & triage
Founder applications in; sorted, scored deals out, with the polite no’s already drafted. Written up in full below.
Restaurant
Message-to-order automation
Orders that arrive by text, WhatsApp or email become clean tickets for the kitchen. No app for customers to download, no forms, no retyping.
Seafood distributor
Inventory & traceability
Intake, stock counts and on-hand weights tracked in one live system instead of spreadsheets, with every lot traceable from the dock to the order.
Consumer products company
Internal AI assistant
An assistant that answers from the company’s own documents and processes, so the same questions stop landing on the same person.
Finance
Spreadsheet model to web app
A complex Excel financial model rebuilt as a web app: the same logic, inputs anyone on the team can use, and results that don’t break when someone edits a cell.
- Observe
- An active angel network was reading every startup application by hand. Strong deals waited in the same queue as poor fits, and declining founders politely took real time.
- Hypothesis
- If applications sort and flag themselves, the team only spends time on deals worth its attention, and every founder still gets a considered reply.
- Experiment
- A founder application form feeding an automated pipeline: rule-based tagging, an AI deep review and signal score on promising deals, triage in the team’s chat, and auto-drafted pass emails a person approves.
- Result
- The pipeline runs the network’s deal flow day to day. Reviewers start from a sorted, scored queue instead of a pile of forms, and the routine replies are already written.
Track record · Built the company-wide LLM gateway at a large consumer tech company · shipped an AI triage system that cut time-to-fix from hours to minutes · leads deal flow for one of the DC area's most active angel networks.
About
I'm Kj. I trained in molecular and cell biology, then became a staff-level AI infrastructure engineer, building the systems large engineering teams depend on every day. Justin Labs brings that same standard to owner-run businesses whose operations have outgrown their spreadsheets.
I run every project like an experiment on my lab bench: watch how the work really gets done, build the fix small, and measure the result. Justin Labs is AI-native by design — built with AI from day one, so one engineer delivers like a small team — but inside your systems I use AI only where it beats simpler options, and your data stays yours.
Common questions
Who do you work with?
Owner-run businesses, roughly 10 to 200 people, especially ones running on spreadsheets, copy-paste and tools that don’t talk to each other. Home base is the DC area and Connecticut, and we work with businesses anywhere in the US. The work is remote-first, with on-site visits when they help. Startups and nonprofits come in too, usually by referral.
Do we need to be technical?
No. Engagements start from how your business runs, not from your software. You explain the work; turning that into systems is the job. Technical detail is there if your operations or IT person wants it.
Is the first call really free?
Yes. The 30-minute call is free and there’s no obligation. It’s to make sure we’re a fit before either of us spends time or money. If we are, the next step is the Tech Health Check.
What does it cost?
Work is quoted from $105 an hour, with a cap on every quote so you always know the most you’ll pay. Rates are flexible for small businesses and early clients. The first call is free.
How long until something works?
The Health Check takes one to two weeks. A build usually runs four to eight weeks, and you see a working version on your own data early, so you judge results rather than promises.
Who owns what gets built?
You own the system built and deployed for you, and your data. Everything is documented in a Lab Notebook your team can follow. Justin Labs keeps its general-purpose building blocks, which is part of what keeps projects fast and affordable.
What happens to our data when you use AI?
It stays yours. Client work runs on AI services with business terms that don’t train on your data, access is limited to what the work needs, and people approve anything that matters.
We tried AI tools and they didn’t stick.
Common — most tools fail in the gap between a demo and daily operations. That gap (connecting your tools, keeping it reliable, getting your team to actually use it) is exactly what Justin Labs builds for.
Accepting new clients
Let's find the hours your team could get back.
Start with a free 30-minute call. Tell me how your business runs today, and I'll tell you honestly whether Justin Labs can help and what the first step would be. No obligation.