Founder and CEO of ProcessFast, in Columbia, South Carolina
Brad Stancel
I build the AI, automation, and data systems that give business owners their time back, and I make sure they actually work.
A title agency switches production software and still needs Monday's reports. I work out which reports survive the move, which get rebuilt, and what the migration really costs.
Ops Insights, since 2015See the details
An embroidery shop's customers text photos of their logos, so “working phone service” had to include picture messages, not just calls.
Clever Orchid EmbroiderySee the details
A report engine that reads straight from customers' ResWare, RamQuest, and SoftPro databases on SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
In productionSee the details
A reusable booking system and a customer-intelligence API with generated client SDKs, shared across the websites I build.
In productionSee the details
Webhook- and n8n-driven operations jobs that log exactly what they changed, so a button never hides what happened.
In daily use
A multi-agent pipeline that turns a plain-English report request into validated SQL: requirements, retrieval, drafting, and a separate agent that checks the result.
Active buildSee the details
Ops Insights on Kubernetes in AWS, defined as code with OpenTofu, Helm, and Argo CD, alongside 40-plus self-hosted services at home.
In productionSee the details
Ubuntu on everything I run. When a stock package doesn't support the newest hardware yet, I build it from source.
Everyday
An API gateway that puts 25-plus AI tool servers behind one front door, and firewall allowlists that follow dynamic DNS instead of going stale.
In daily useSee the details
After a Kubernetes upgrade, a monitoring service wouldn't start. The real cause was a storage volume stranded in a different AWS availability zone.
ResolvedSee the details
Two NVIDIA DGX Spark nodes on a 200 Gb link. Stock NCCL deadlocked on the new chips, so I built it from source and got 2.4× the throughput.
Local AI labSee the details
A 30.7 kWh battery bank that peak-shaves time-of-use rates. Measuring the load also exposed HVAC heat strips running when they shouldn't, at hundreds of dollars a month.
At homeSee the details
Where I usually come in
Business owners rarely call about a technology. They call about a problem. These are the ones I hear most.
- “My team retypes the same information into three systems, and the report everyone needs takes a day to put together.”AI and business process automation
- “I want AI working on client files, contracts, and financials, but that data can't go into a public chatbot.”Private AI and self-hosted LLMs
- “Our numbers live inside the software we run the business on, and nobody can see what they're telling us.”Business intelligence and reporting
- “The software the business depends on is years out of date, and everyone is afraid to touch it.”Legacy software modernization
- “We're about to commit to a big software purchase, migration, or AI project, and we want someone independent to check it first.”Fractional CTO and technical due diligence
- “Something in production breaks in a way nobody can explain, and our cloud setup only works because one person remembers how.”AWS, Kubernetes, and DevOps
- “Our website looks fine, but leads slip through, spam floods the inbox, and we can't tell what's working.”Business websites that bring in work
A record you can check
More than a decade of building and running software businesses, with the press coverage and the code to back it up.
- 2015
Started building Ops Insights, reporting and business intelligence for title agents and underwriters. It has run in production ever since. Details about 2015
- 2017
Announced Ops Insights integrations with Adeptive's ResWare and with RamQuest, covered by ALTA and The Title Report. Details about 2017
- 2020
Released a RamQuest-specific version of Ops Insights, covered by ALTA. Details about 2020
- 2023
Rebuilt Ops Insights' infrastructure on Kubernetes in AWS, defined entirely as code. Details about 2023
- 2025
Launched the Clever Orchid Embroidery site on a shared platform for small-business websites. Details about 2025
- 2026
Rebuilt Complete Dental Care's site, shipped Client Hub and a booking package, published a free, open-source reStructuredText preview plugin for JetBrains IDEs, and brought a two-node NVIDIA DGX Spark cluster online for local AI. Details about 2026
Selected work
All work
Live, 2025–presentClever Orchid EmbroideryA custom embroidery shop in Columbia, SC, with a website that works as its front desk: catalog, booking, reviews, and lead capture.
Live, 2026–presentComplete Dental CareA Columbia, SC dental practice whose dentist is also a Certified Dental Technician. The site is built to make that rare difference obvious.
How I work
A few rules I learned the expensive way.
“Working” is a claim that needs evidence.
A green checkmark, an exit code of zero, or an AI agent saying it's done is a clue, not proof. I check the result the way the customer will see it.
Fix it at the layer where it breaks.
The error usually shows up somewhere other than where it starts. Patching the symptom buys a week; finding the cause buys years.
Keep it simple enough to recover.
If a system can't be rebuilt from its code and documentation, it isn't finished. I leave the write-up behind.
Own what you run.
Your domain, your data, and your accounts stay yours. I don't build dependencies on me or on a vendor that can change its terms.
Always taking something apart
I learn by building. I taught myself HVAC well enough to diagnose the systems in my own house, then designed a solar and battery setup for it and measured the circuits until the numbers made sense. That's how I found heat strips running when they shouldn't have been, at hundreds of dollars a month.
The same habit runs my work. New hardware, new AI models, a customer's undocumented database: I want to know how it really behaves, then write down what I found so the next person doesn't have to rediscover it.
- A local AI labTwo NVIDIA DGX Spark nodes, local models, and coding-agent experiments
- HVAC and home systemsDiagnosing my own HVAC systems, heat strips, and the wiring behind them
- Solar and off-gridA 30.7 kWh battery bank, peak shaving, and a mesh radio network
- Making thingsPlans for machining parts nobody makes anymore, and radio experiments
Notes from the work
All writing- Field notesWhy I built a reStructuredText preview plugin for JetBrains IDEsI document everything in reStructuredText and Sphinx. When JetBrains IDEs couldn't preview it without Python, I built a free, open-source plugin.
- Business systems“Working” is a claim that needs evidenceExit code 0, a green checkmark, or an AI agent saying “done” is evidence, not proof. How I check that backups, deploys, and AI-built software work.
- AI labWhy the same AI model does better work in one coding harness than anotherModel quality and agent quality are different things. What testing one model across coding harnesses taught me, and what it means for business teams.
Tell me what's slowing the business down.
Describe the problem in plain terms. I read every message myself and reply when there's something I can genuinely help with.
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