Your most expensive hours go to your most repeatable work.
Renewals chased by hand. Intake retyped between systems. The same update written for the eighth time. I audit how your team's week actually gets spent, put a dollar figure on every workflow that shouldn't need a person, then build and run the systems that take them over. Fixed fees, fixed timelines, and you work directly with the engineer doing the work.
Now accepting 3 founding clients for the August 2026 cohort →
15 years of production systems · CTO of an operations marketplace · co-founded a platform used by 50,000+ organizations
None of this is anyone's job. All of it eats the week.
It doesn't show up on an org chart — it gets absorbed, a few hours at a time, by whoever is closest. Across a small staff it adds up to a full-time salary doing work that runs on rules.
Renewals, inquiries, records
Renewal sequences that stop when a human runs out of week. The same dozen questions answered from documents everyone has to hunt for. Records drifting for a decade because cleanup never makes the top of the list.
Intake and the document grind
A week of back-and-forth before real work starts. Reading, summarizing, extracting, and comparing done by the most expensive person available — then retyped into the system of record.
Updates, packets, follow-ups
Status updates written after the client asks. Board and committee packets assembled by hand. Event and deadline communications rewritten from scratch every cycle instead of from last cycle.
Billing prep, proposals, tracking
Time reconstructed from memory on Sunday night. Proposals started from a blank page the firm has written eighty times. Certification and compliance tracking living in a spreadsheet one person understands.
The test is simple: if the work repeats, runs on text, and you can explain its rules in twenty minutes, a system can carry it — and the audit will tell you what that's worth.
An audit that pays for itself, then only what earns its keep.
Every engagement is fixed-fee and fixed-timeline, and each stage stands on its own. Buy the audit and stop there, and you still own a plan your own team could execute. Nothing rolls forward unless the numbers say it should.
AI Operations Audit
$4,500, fixed fee, one week. The audit is priced to stand on its own, and it does not credit toward a build — which means when I tell you what's worth building and what isn't, you know the recommendation isn't selling you anything.
Book the audit →- 01Where the hours actually goA map of the repetitive work across your team, ranked by hours consumed. It is rarely where people assume.
- 02What each one is costing youEvery workflow costed in staff hours and dollars, plus the revenue quietly leaking out of the ones nobody owns.
- 03What it would take to fixBuild effort, timeline, and price for the top candidates — so you can sequence them instead of guessing.
- 04A written plan you ownYours to keep. Build it with me, hand it to your own team, or sit on it until the budget is there.
Builds are fixed-fee from $7,500, scoped from audit findings, and live in 2–3 weeks. If you want the systems monitored and improved after that, the retainer is $850/month, month to month, no contract. And if you already know the workflow that's bleeding hours, skip the audit — bring it to a twenty-minute calland I'll scope the build directly.
Two kinds of organization, one shape of problem.
Associations & member organizations
Renewals, member inquiries, events, CE tracking, session monitoring — run by someone who has worked inside an association.
See the workflows →For knowledge-work firmsProfessional services firms
Client intake, the document grind, status updates, proposals, billing prep — the work that fills the day but doesn't bill.
See the workflows →Also select health-related organizations and mission-driven nonprofits — same fixed-fee model, more care around how the data is handled.
Three steps, start to going live.
Fixed fees and fixed timelines throughout — you'll know the cost and the date before you commit to anything.
A 20-minute working call
You describe where the hours go. I tell you straight whether an audit or a direct build is the right entry — and whether I'm the right fit at all.
Scope, one of two ways
If you already know the workflow, you get a fixed-scope proposal within 48 hours — one page, one price, one deadline. If you don't, we start with the one-week audit: every workflow mapped, costed, and ranked, in a plan you own either way. I'll tell you which on the call.
Build, live in 2–3 weeks
Implementations are fixed-fee from $7,500, scoped before you commit. I lead the build and do the core engineering myself, pulling in a trusted specialist when it gets you a better result faster. I run it alongside your staff until it holds up, then hand you the keys or keep it running on an $850/month retainer — month to month, no contract.
I'm Chris Chalfant. Fifteen years building production systems across startups and large enterprises, plus a co-founded platform serving 50,000+ organizations.
Plenty of consultants can diagnose. Plenty of engineers can build. This practice is built on doing both — the person who writes the plan is the person who ships it, and accountability never changes hands.
I run operations software in production every day, so I'm reading your workflows the way someone who has to keep systems alive reads them. And I spent 16 months as the engineer inside one of the largest professional associations in the world, so I know where a six-person association staff loses its week. I've also done consulting work across nonprofit, B2B, and health organizations. You're not paying me to learn your industry — I've worked inside it.
Fixed fees, fixed timelines, and deliverables you own. I lead every engagement personally and do the core engineering myself. When a trusted specialist will get you a better result faster, I bring one in — and the accountability stays with me either way. You deal with me, not an account manager and not a handoff.
A typical first workflow gives a small staff back 15–25 hours a month — and because everything is scoped fixed-fee up front, you'll know the expected number for yours before you spend a dollar.
From the people who've had to depend on this work.
These are colleagues and clients who needed something to ship and keep working after I left. That's the same test your workflow has to pass.
“Christopher is an incredible tech leader and engineer. He combines an extremely thoughtful and professional approach to software architecture, while being aware of underlying business needs/timing.”
“They have delivered a number of key features... all while being very responsive and professional. I would definitely recommend their services.”
“An exceptional developer... a critical resource for every project we worked on.”
Founding Clients
This is a trade, not a sale. The first 3clients get founding rates — on the audit, the build, or both — and in exchange I get the one thing a new practice can't buy: proof, on the record, with real numbers attached. A slot is a client, not a project. If you'd rather stay anonymous, pay standard; you get exactly the same work either way.
The cohort closes September 1 whether the slots fill or not — after that, everything is list price and the founding terms are gone for good.
Founding rates, either door
Founding clients pay the rates below in exchange for the four commitments listed here. The standard rates are $4,500 and from $7,500, and they stay there — this is the price of going first and being willing to be named, not a discount I hand out to close a deal. Everything else is unchanged: fixed fees, fixed timelines, and the $850/month retainer — month to month, no contract — only if you want me running it.
- Founding audit
- $3,000standard $4,500
- Founding build
- $5,000standard from $7,500
- 01A testimonial, written and on cameraA short written quote plus a two-minute recording — made once you've had the work long enough to actually mean it.
- 02Your name and logo, publiclyPermission to name you as a client here and in proposals. You see anything before it goes up.
- 03Two or three reference callsTwenty minutes each with prospects in your field, spread across the first year — not an open-ended commitment.
- 04A documented before and afterThe real numbers — hours given back, revenue recovered — written up as a case study I can publish. This one attaches to a build; audit-only founding clients owe the first three.
The things people ask before booking.
How do I know if we're a fit?
If someone on your staff does the same thing dozens or hundreds of times a month, it runs on text — email, forms, documents, member and client correspondence — and you can explain the rules to me in twenty minutes, it's probably a fit. That describes most member organizations and most professional services firms. If you can't point at a specific workflow yet, that's what the audit is for.
How long does this actually take?
The audit is one week, start to delivered plan. Builds are live in 2–3 weeks once scoped. If you're skipping the audit and bringing me a workflow you already know, you'll have a fixed proposal within 48 hours of our call. If something is going to take longer than that, I'll say so before you sign anything.
Why doesn't the audit credit toward a build?
Because it's a product, not a deposit. The moment the audit becomes a credit against future work, every recommendation in it is quietly arguing for more work — and you'd be right to read it that way. Paying for it in full is what makes it trustworthy, including the parts where the answer is "don't build this, fix the process" or "this one isn't worth it yet." You keep the plan regardless of what you do next.
What do you need from us?
For an audit: a week of intermittent access to the people who actually do the work, and permission to look at how it currently runs. For a build: access to the one system the workflow lives in, one person who knows how the work gets done, and about two hours of their time across the project. No committee and no IT roadmap required.
What happens to our data?
Wherever possible it stays in the accounts you already own — your inbox, your CRM, your document storage. I don't train models on your data, I use business-tier providers with no-training terms, and I'll sign your NDA or BAA. For health-related work, we scope the data handling before we scope the build.
What happens after the pilot?
Your choice. Keep it and run it yourself — you own what I build. Or I stay on a $850/month retainer and keep it running, monitored, and improving as your process changes. Most clients start with one workflow and add a second once they've seen the first one hold up. The retainer is month to month — there's no long-term contract either way.
What if we don't know which workflow to start with?
That's the normal case, and it's exactly what the AI Operations Audit is for: one week, and you walk away with every workflow ranked and costed in a plan you own. It's a fixed $4,500. Sometimes we find the answer on the call in twenty minutes, because it's usually the one your staff complains about — if that happens, I'll tell you and you can skip straight to the build.
Who is this not a fit for?
Organizations looking for ongoing staff augmentation or a generalist IT vendor — I do scoped engagements, not seats. Startups wanting an AI product built from scratch. And anyone hoping to replace their staff: this frees up the people you have, it doesn't eliminate them. I don't currently take on home-service or trade businesses.
Bring me the work that eats your team's week.
Two ways in. Book the one-week audit and get every workflow in your operation mapped, costed, and ranked. Or, if you already know the one that's bleeding hours — the renewal chase, the document grind, the 9pm client update — bring it to a twenty-minute call and I'll scope that build directly. Either way you'll get an honest answer about what's worth doing, what it costs, and how fast it could be live. If the answer is “don't bother yet,” I'll tell you that too.
Terms Audit $4,500 · implementations from $7,500 · optional $850/month retainer, month to month
Book a 20-minute working callTwenty minutes · straight answer either way