DBL Systems
My software and technology consultancy. Operator-built software, AI in real operations, and technical leadership for companies with a problem worth solving.
DBL Systems is my software and technology consultancy. I’ve spent more than 20 years building software and businesses, and today I work selectively with companies where I can be useful across product, engineering, AI, and the business problems underneath them.
The thing that makes this different from hiring a typical development shop is that I’m an operator. We run hospitality businesses, real estate projects, and a software company. When I take on a technology engagement, I’m not translating requirements. I can walk into the business, understand the actual problem in operational terms, figure out where technology genuinely helps, and usually build the solution myself.
That last part matters more than it sounds. A lot of technology spending goes toward building the thing that was asked for instead of the thing that was needed, because nobody in the room had run the operation. I’ve run the operation.
Who this tends to be right for
Founders and operators of businesses doing real volume who’ve outgrown spreadsheets, workarounds and headcount. Companies sitting on a system that works but can’t be changed anymore. Teams that want to use AI for something other than a demo and don’t know where to start. And people with a genuinely hard problem who mostly need someone senior to think it through with them before anyone writes code.
It’s usually not right for a first-time founder looking for a cheap MVP, or for anyone who wants a large team of contractors. This is a small, senior practice on purpose.
How engagements work
Straightforward: project work, retainers, or ongoing consulting. Some engagements are a two-week diagnostic that ends in a written recommendation and nothing else. Others run for years. For the right situation I’m open to hybrid and equity structures, and I’ve done both.
DBL has existed since 2002 and still supports a small number of long-term clients, which is why it stayed active through everything else I’ve built.
Selected work
Convene: The clearest example of how I work. After a decade of operating Fresh Markets, I built Convene, a full marketplace platform handling applications, bookings, payments, and communication for market organizers. Operator-built software for a problem I lived with daily.
Hospitality operating systems: The properties at Inplace Hospitality run on systems I’ve built and integrated myself: booking and channel management, payments, guest communication, and automation that lets a small team operate several properties well.
SoundFly: Worked with the founder and team of this online music school to re-architect their platform around a SaaS subscription model. A business-model problem solved through engineering, which changed the company’s revenue trajectory.
Viply: Designed and built the backend, API, and admin platform for a mobile app that digitized beach-badge access for New Jersey towns, payments, seasonal surge traffic, and municipal customers included.
If you’re wrestling with a technology or product problem, let’s talk about it.
What I do
Four kinds of work
Most engagements are some mix of these. If yours doesn't fit neatly, that's usually a good sign it's interesting.
AI and agents in real operations
Putting LLMs and agents to work inside a business that's already running. Not demos and not a chatbot bolted onto a marketing site, but systems that handle actual operational work: triaging inbound, drafting and sending real correspondence, reconciling data across tools, and taking the repetitive judgment calls off a small team's plate.
Operator-built custom software
Custom applications, internal tools, APIs and marketplaces, built by someone who has run the kind of business he's building for. Convene came out of a decade of operating Fresh Markets. The hospitality systems came out of running the properties. That's the pattern.
Embedded technical leadership
Fractional CTO work, architecture and technical due diligence, and hands-on help for teams that need senior judgment without a full-time hire. Useful when you're choosing a direction you'll live with for years, or when someone needs to tell you honestly whether what you have is salvageable.
Modernization and integration
Legacy systems that still make money but have become hard to change, and the plumbing between the tools a business already pays for. Payments, channel managers, CRMs, accounting, and the automation that ties them together so a small team can operate at a size it shouldn't be able to.
Let's talk about it
Tell me what you're working on. I read everything that comes through here and reply personally, usually within a day or two. If I'm not the right fit I'll say so, and I'll point you somewhere better if I can.
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