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AI automation for SMB construction.

I spent the past year inside a $7M glazing sub — payroll, daily reports, change orders, compliance. I’m a developer by background, so when AI got good I started automating the back office instead of growing the team. Got the owner 20+ hours a week back. Now I do this for other SMB subs.

Booking opens MondayEmail Braden

$3,5001 week1 founder

01The Audit

$3,500. One week. You get a roadmap and a quick win.

Before you spend real money on an automation build, you need to know exactly where your hours go and which workflows are worth touching first. That’s what the audit is.

3–5 workflows audited

Payroll, daily reports, change orders, intake, AP — whichever ones are bleeding. Real walkthroughs with your team, not surveys.

ROI-ranked roadmap

Each workflow gets an hours-saved estimate, build difficulty, and risk. You see the order of attack before signing anything bigger.

1 quick win shipped

By the end of week one, at least one workflow is already saving hours. Proves the pattern before you commit further.

02Not for everyone

Who this isn’t for.

Three groups I won’t chase. If you’re any of these, we’ll both save a call.

  • GCs over $50M revenue

    different sale cycle, IT department, procurement

  • Construction tech vendors (Procore, Buildertrend)

    they have their own AI roadmaps

  • Pure design firms with no field ops

    no recurring data drudgery to automate

03FAQ

Common pushback.

We're too small for AI.

That's exactly the point. Small ops teams have the most hours per person to reclaim. The audit tells us where.

We tried Zapier and it broke.

Zapier breaks when the workflow needs judgment. The new tools (Claude, GPT) handle judgment. Different category.

What if the AI is wrong?

Every output gets human sign-off in v1. Once we trust a workflow's accuracy we relax that. Same pattern as hiring a new admin.

How long until we see value?

Audit week 1 ends with a quick win already implemented. You'll see one workflow saving hours before you commit to a build.

04About

Braden Freeman.

Braden Freeman

I’ve been the ops person, not a vendor with a deck. I know what dies on Friday afternoon when a foreman forgets a timesheet, and I know what it costs you when the GC kicks back a daily report three weeks running.

Technical depth predates the construction year — React/Next.js/Supabase/Python, AI tooling fluent. Built the automation stack inside a real $7M sub. Not learning on your dime. I work alone, fast. Small client, small contract — get a quick win, decide if you want more.

braden@trenchdev.com