I've spent nearly thirty years building and running software companies. Now I help other owner-operators do the same.
CWS Inc. is the parent company I founded in 1996. For nearly three decades we have built and run custom software for clients across industries — and for the last fifteen years, healthcare SaaS for organizations like Mayo Clinic. The kind of long-running, quietly-reliable software business that never trends on Hacker News and never runs out of customers.
Like most operating businesses, CWS accumulated a stack of third-party SaaS tools over the years. Like most operating businesses, we eventually hit the wall: the monthly bill kept going up, the integrations kept breaking, and every tool did about 20% of what we actually needed.
So we started rebuilding — one system at a time, in order of ROI. Every new internal system was designed to integrate with the others on a shared data layer. Once the data was unified, we put custom AI agents on top. Background workers now handle triage, reporting, and escalation that used to be a full-time admin job.
The result was more than cost savings. It was leverage — the kind that lets a small team run a big business. Friends and peers in other owner-operated companies kept asking how we did it. DK Advisory Group is the answer.
We kept the engineers.
Claude Code made them ship 10× faster.
We didn't shrink the team. CWS has run a small group of senior engineers for years — expensive, indispensable, the people who know how the business actually works. We added Claude Code to their workflow and throughput jumped roughly tenfold. Same team. Same payroll. Different leverage.
That's the same playbook we hand to clients. AI does not replace your senior engineers — it compounds them. The build-vs-buy math bends harder toward build because the cost of "build" has dropped. The result is more custom software, shipped faster, by the people who already know your business.
How I work.
A handful of commitments that shape every engagement.
Buy when it fits. Build when it pays.
Most consultants are on one side of this debate. We are on neither. The question is always whether the cost of custom — build, run, maintain — is lower than the cost of renting a vendor that is 80% right for you. Sometimes the answer is buy. When the answer is build, we build.
If the system can't be observed, it can't be trusted.
Every agent we deploy has logs, audit trails, dry-run modes, and clear failure modes. AI that makes decisions your business depends on has to be inspectable — or it is a liability, not a leverage point.
Ownership beats subscription.
When we build custom software for a client, the client owns it — the source code, the hosting, the deployment pipeline, the intellectual property. No platform lock-in. No seat-based pricing that scales with your team. No vendor risk.
Stay in the codebase.
The best technology leaders do not drift away from the code. We write, review, and debug alongside your team — not just in slide decks. It is the only way to give advice that actually works when it meets reality.
Three decades of shipping and running.
- 1996Founded CWS Inc.
Started building custom software for clients across industries.
- 2011Healthcare SaaS pivot.
First Mayo Clinic engagement. Custom healthcare software becomes the core line of business.
- 2012CME / medical education registration platforms.
Registration and administration systems for Mayo, FAER, and other healthcare partners.
- 2015Well-Being Index platform family launched.
Rails backend, iOS, Android. Still in production, still run by the same operator.
- 2024Internal rebuild of the CWS stack begins.
Systematic replacement of vendor SaaS with integrated custom systems.
- 2025DK Advisory Group launches.
Bringing the CWS playbook to other owner-operated businesses. DK Echo ships as the reference agentic system.
Have a stack worth a second look?
A 30-minute call is free and there is no sales deck. If we are a fit, we'll talk scope. If not, I'll tell you so.