Bring Your Own Bot
What building the bot in Klau taught me, why the Basecamp approach is obvious in hindsight, and how Klau and Strata will work with the AI agent each user already has.
Writing about building software for waste haulers
Notes on Klau, Strata, and the work behind them, including the weekly Building Klau in the Open series. Newest first.
From the Lathe to the CNC: How I Build Software with a Fleet of AI Agents
I plan and curate the work during working hours. A fleet of AI coding agents does most of the coding, around the clock. My job is to confirm, send back, and refine until the result matches the spec.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 22: My Son Turns 13
A different kind of weekly post. My son turned 13, and I wrote about the entrepreneurs I grew up around and the principles I hope he picks up.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 21: A Project I Am Not Showing Yet
The week went into a project built on Klau that is already running part of a real hauling operation. I am keeping it quiet for now, and looking for haulers who want to adopt a system as it is built.
Org Alignment
For years I filled out a forced-ranking spreadsheet called Org Alignment. The people were good. The structure was built to extract, and it is why I build the way I do now.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 20: A Chrome Extension for Legacy Systems
For legacy vendors without integrations, I am building a Chrome extension that brings Klau tools into their web screens. Also, a week of honest posting about the past.
A Layoff Labeled Transformation
Years ago I was in leadership during a layoff called a transformation, and flew in days later to work with the team it hit. It is why I plan to wrap my projects in a public benefit corporation.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 19: Why a Public Benefit Corporation
I spent the week thinking about the public benefit corporation structure, and why I want its charter and duties to protect Klau's customers long after I stop running it.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 18: Big Sur and a Public Benefit Corporation
A camping trip in Big Sur, a podcast with Eric Ries, and a settled answer to how Klau will be structured: as a public benefit corporation.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 17: A Quiet Week by Design
I barely worked on Klau this week, and the pilots kept running. That is the kind of business I want to build.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 16: Trail Work and Live Loads
I spent Earth Day doing trail work instead of shopping. On the Klau side, I fixed how dispatch keeps one driver on a live load from start to finish.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 15: Not for Sale
A prospect asked what happens to the founding member deal if Klau is acquired. My answer: acquisition is not the goal. I want Klau to be a company that can be passed on.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 14: The Dispatch Exchange
A hauler needed Klau to dispatch jobs from files in an SFTP folder. That one customer need became the Dispatch Exchange, available to every Klau user.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 13: The Klau CLI
Many haulers run legacy systems with no modern API. The Klau CLI lets them point Klau at a folder and start dispatching.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 12: A Driver App
Klau was meant to sit on top of what haulers already run. After months of hearing that their driver tools fall short, I built a thin driver app that learns each driver's routine.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 11: 60 Commits, No New Features
An enterprise pilot surfaced hardcoded assumptions and time zone issues. I fixed those, merged the job creation paths into one service, and stopped a runaway AI cost.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 10: The Lindy Effect
A calm week with two paying customers, bug reports from real users, and a change to the dispatch optimizer that lets it handle large fleets.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 9: An Onboarding Checklist
New haulers now get a checklist that walks them through setup. Conversations this week showed where Klau fits for haulers who already take orders online.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 8: Klau Is a Teammate
Eight weeks in, I can put the idea behind Klau into words: you onboard it like a person. I recorded an 18-minute overview of everything built so far.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 7: A Self-Service Ordering Storefront
Dispatching was the groundwork. The product is a self-service ordering storefront for roll-off companies, with pricing, payments, and dispatch handled behind it.
Launch Note: Klau Coaching Is Live
Klau Coaching is open for sign-ups at $49 a month. Upload your dispatched work and Klau scores each day and shows where time was lost.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 6: A Dispatch Scorecard for Coaching
The dispatch scorecard is now a coaching tool inside Klau. It scores human-dispatched days and drivers and shows what Klau would have done instead.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 5: King of the Hammers with Grant
A short week. I took my son Grant to King of the Hammers, the off-road race in the desert, and came home refreshed.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 4: A Scorecard Tool
Two more demos, a simpler pricing model in progress, and a new scorecard tool that measures what a day of dispatched jobs could save.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 3: First Demo and Pricing
The first real demo, what Klau is and is not, pricing based on jobs optimized, and an offer for 10 founding members.
Building Klau in the Open, Week 2: Learning From the Gaps
One week after announcing Klau, two conversations led to disposal costs in routing and a new way to think about onboarding dispatchers.
Introducing Klau
After years of solving logistics problems for others, I am building Klau, dispatch software for roll-off haulers.
How We Are Building Klau
Klau is a dispatch and operations platform for haulers. It works alongside the systems they already use. This is how we built its foundation.
Holiday Phone Safety Guide: What to Tell Your Parents About Scams and Subscriptions
A simple guide to share with older parents this Thanksgiving. Covers phone scams, fake virus warnings, and how to find hidden subscriptions.
Building Lifestyle Software in Unglamorous Industries: Lessons from a Decade in Waste
What a decade in waste management taught me about building a small, profitable software business in an overlooked industry.
Faster Customer Lookups for Hauler CSRs with HaulerPhone
Finding the right account when a customer calls can be slow for waste hauler CSRs. HaulerPhone shows the caller's account when the call comes in, with AI call transcripts planned for a later release.
Pausing Weighven to Build HaulerPhone, a Caller Dashboard for Haulers
HaulerPhone shows waste hauler customer service reps who is calling and which accounts they have. It starts at $49/month, works alongside existing systems, and is planned to launch in September 2025.
Building Weighven: A Scale House Interface in Three Days
Three days ago, Weighven was an idea. Today the frontend runs on desktop, tablet, and phone. The backend is next. Here is what I built and what I learned.
Let's Build Together: Edison Code's Micro-SaaS Approach
After nearly two decades in the waste industry, I'm restarting Edison Code. I want to hear about the problems you face and build small, focused tools for them.
Survivorship Bias and the Constraints That Matter
Why building for independent haulers means looking past easy metrics and working within their real constraints.
The Waste Industry Deserves Better Software
Waste touches every household and business, but the software that runs it is still behind. Here is why I care about closing that gap.