Questions & Answers

No — and we’ll put it in writing. It’s the opposite of what we do. We use AI to take the boring, repetitive work off your people so they can spend their time on the parts that actually need a human. We measure success by what your team can do, not by how few of them are left. If someone pitches you AI as a way to cut headcount, that isn’t us.

Every package comes with a fixed price, agreed before we start — no meter running, no surprise invoice at the end. The first 30-minute chat is free, and you’ll leave it knowing your options and rough costs either way. If something is genuinely open-ended, we’ll say so and scope it in small, bounded steps rather than ask you to sign a blank cheque.

Almost never to start. Most of what we do gets more out of the tools and devices you already own — and we’ll happily tell you when something old is genuinely holding you back versus when it has years of life left (we’ve written about reviving a 10-year-old laptop). If a purchase would actually help, we’ll explain why in plain terms, with no pressure and no kickbacks.

You keep everything. Every account, password, domain, and document is registered to you from day one, and we leave you plain-English documentation so any other professional can pick up where we left off. No mystery boxes, no lock-in, nothing held hostage. We’d rather you stay because it works than because you’re stuck.

That’s usually a sign the tool didn’t fit how they actually work, or nobody showed them why it helps. We choose tools around your real workflows and train people hands-on, at their pace. And we keep watching: if something isn’t getting used, we swap it or remove it. Adoption is the whole point — a tool nobody opens is worse than no tool at all.

Never. We’ve seen tangled inboxes, mystery passwords, and cables held together with hope — none of it is embarrassing to us, it’s just where you are today. No question is too basic, and nobody gets made to feel dumb. Ever. That’s a promise, not a slogan.

It’s exactly who this is built for. We explain things in plain English, we’re patient, and we leave you with notes you can refer back to. Our whole approach is to meet you at your level and leave you more confident than we found you. (Comfortable with the technical detail? That’s welcome too — ask and we’ll go as deep as you like.)

Both. A lot can be handled remotely and quickly — screen-sharing, phone, email. For setup, training, and the personal services, in-person visits around the Bay Area are often the friendlier way, especially when we’re teaching. We’ll suggest whichever actually serves you for the task at hand.

We respond quickly — usually the same day. The free 30-minute chat can often happen within a day or two, and small fixes sometimes the same week. If something is urgent, say so when you reach out and call (510) 467-0217; we’ll tell you honestly what’s realistic.

It can be — if you understand what you’re sharing and with whom, which is a big part of what we teach. We help you choose reputable tools, set them up with sensible privacy settings, and understand what should and shouldn’t be typed into them. We’ll also be honest about AI’s limits, including that it can state wrong things confidently (there’s a plain-English rundown in our glossary).

AI-first means we reach for modern AI and automation early, because they genuinely save time and money now. Human-first means the goal is always to make the people better at their work — more capable, less bogged down — rather than to replace them. The two aren’t in tension; used well, AI is one of the best tools we have for lifting what a small team can accomplish.

We build. Automations, websites, internal tools, knowledge bases, whole app prototypes — and we do it with the same AI-assisted methods we’d set up for you. For a real, unedited look at what that’s like, read how we built a working app in about a day, missteps and all.