Articles

Practical guides, real case studies, and the unfiltered story of building an AI consulting business from scratch.

Guide

Why we automated sales first (and why you probably shouldn't)

We've been talking a lot about sales automation, but we're not a sales automation company. We automated sales because we're a startup and selling is how you find out if you have a business. If you already have customers, the answer is different. Here's how to figure out where AI actually belongs in yours.

March 2026 10 min read
Case Study

When iteration speed changes what you can attempt

We almost lost two enterprise pilots because we couldn't ship features fast enough. Switching to agentic development didn't just speed us up. It changed our entire business model.

March 2026 10 min read
Building with Claude Episode 6

Two weeks of autopilot: what happened when I stopped checking

I stepped away from my consulting business for two weeks. When I came back, one prospect had opened my email 23 times. The system caught it. I almost didn't.

March 2026 8 min read
Building with Claude Episode 5

The pipeline that runs itself: how we track prospects on a $5/month server

We built a complete sales pipeline with NocoDB, n8n, and Claude Code that discovers leads, enriches contacts across three data sources, drafts outreach, quality-checks every email with an AI reviewer, and follows up while we sleep. Here's the architecture, what it costs, and what we learned.

February 2026 14 min read
Guide

Start with the problem, not the pack: why most Claude Code starter kits miss the point

There are 87,000+ Claude Code skills available online. Founders are sharing massive starter packs. But after building real systems for clients, I've learned that less is more. Here's the approach that actually works.

February 2026 8 min read
Building with Claude Episode 3

The master plan: building a consulting business in public

The full roadmap for Black Hills Labs. Four workstreams, seven weeks, five engagements. What we've built so far, what's next, and why we're sharing everything.

February 2026 10 min read
Guide

From Desktop to CLI and back: what I learned running both Claude tools

I started with Claude Desktop, hit its limits on a real project, switched to Claude Code CLI, discovered the power of MCPs, and now Cowork is bridging the gap. Plus how Claude Code compares to Cursor, Gemini, Codex, and Aider for business automation.

February 2026 12 min read
Building with Claude Episode 1

Something big is happening: we've been building on it

How Lexacon.AI went from 6 months of traditional dev to completing a 12-month roadmap in 3 months with Claude Code. The Opus 4.5 inflection point, and what it means for SMEs.

February 2026 6 min read

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