Strategic/Creative Operations Leader · Austin, TX

Systems that make your business run smarter, train better, and grow faster.

I'm Cristopher Stanford — a Strategic/Creative Operations Leader with 15 years teaching and 20 years in operations leadership, who now builds the software too. I don't just build tools. I build the systems around them so your team adopts them, your numbers improve, and you stop duct-taping your business together.

Diagram: Finance, Secretary, Training, and CRM modules connected to a business through WhatsApp, email, AI agents, and reporting.
20
years in operations leadership
15
years teaching & curriculum development
10+
production modules built & running
20+
websites shipped
5
complete AI integrations
Cristopher Stanford
About

Why a teacher and operator ends up writing software

Most software fails for the same reason most training fails: it was built by someone who never had to make a room full of busy people actually use it. I've spent my career on the other side of that problem.

15 years teaching

State-board curricula, adult learners with wildly different starting points, and outcomes measured by whether students passed and got hired. I learned how to break a complex skill into a sequence people can actually follow — and how to tell within a week whether a program is going to work.

20 years in operations leadership

Multi-unit scheduling, staffing, inventory, compliance, and P&L across locations. I've lived the gap between what the software reports and what's actually happening on the floor — and I design around that gap.

Strategic & creative — and I build it myself

Today I build the tools myself: customer-facing apps, internal operations modules, AI agents, and the automation that connects them. The teaching and operations background isn't a side note — it's why what I build gets used.

If your business needs a tool, I'll build it. If it needs a system — the tool, the training, and the process around it — that's where I'm hard to replace.

Talk through your situation
What I build

Software, training, and the operations backbone — from one person who's done all three.

AI Software Engineering

Custom AI agents, automations, and intelligent features embedded in your existing workflow — not a chatbot bolted onto your homepage. I favor open-source models and self-hosted tooling where it keeps your costs predictable.

Typical: AI agents that handle email, WhatsApp, and scheduling · document processing · n8n automation pipelines · AI features inside existing apps.

App & Web Development

Customer-facing apps and websites built to convert and built to maintain. Clean, fast, and handed over with documentation your next developer can actually read.

Typical: lead-gen websites · customer portals · internal dashboards · MVPs for founders.

Business Operations Modules

Replace the pile of subscriptions with purpose-built modules: a Finance module that replaces QuickBooks, a Secretary module that handles scheduling and correspondence, CRM and intake systems — all talking to each other.

Typical: QuickBooks replacement · scheduling & correspondence automation · CRM + intake · custom reporting.

Custom Training Program Development

Full-scale, thoughtful training curricula for any topic or industry — onboarding, compliance, sales, technical skills, franchise operations — delivered on a platform built for it. Fifteen years of making adult learners succeed, applied to your business.

Typical: employee onboarding · franchise/multi-location operations training · certification-style courses · train-the-trainer.

Graphic Design

Brand identity, marketing collateral, and UI design that stays consistent across your website, your app, and your training materials — because they're all coming from the same person.

Typical: logo & identity · pitch decks · course visuals · UI kits.

Not sure which fits?

Most clients come in with a symptom, not a spec. Tell me what's broken, slow, or missing and I'll tell you honestly what it needs.

Tell me what's broken →
How we can work together

Fix One Thing

A single tool, site, module, or course. Clear scope, two to six weeks. You choose what to build and the investment level.

Best for: "We know exactly what we need."

Run It With Me

Ongoing engineering, training, and operations support on a monthly retainer. For businesses that want a technical partner, not a vendor.

Best for: "We're growing and need someone who owns this."

Work

Work that's running right now

Every project below is in production. For each one: the problem, what I personally did, how it was built, and what changed.

Finance Sample data DashboardInvoicesExpensesReconcileReports Cash on hand$48,210 Open invoices$12,940 Overdue3 INV-1042 · Sample Client A$2,400INV-1041 · Sample Client B$860INV-1040 · Sample Client C$5,200
Operations module

Finance Module — a QuickBooks replacement

Problem
United Court of Austin was paying for QuickBooks and still doing extra work to get books that matched how the organization actually operates.
My role
Sole designer and engineer.
Solution
A QuickBooks replacement built for that organization: invoicing, expenses, reconciliation, and reporting. It is meant to reduce both the subscription and the bookkeeping work around it.
Result
The screen is sample data, not the organization's books. The module is the working replacement, shaped to their operation rather than to a generic accounting package.
PythonPostgreSQLReportingSelf-hosted
Module 3 · Client Consultation Lesson 3.2 — Reading what the client didn't say Outcome: identify three non-verbal cues and respond with a clarifying question. A. Repeat their request back word-for-word B. Ask what they liked least about their last visit ✓ C. Start the service and adjust as you go Right. The last visit tells you what they're afraid of repeating. Lead with that.
Platform

Training Program Platform

Problem
Most small businesses "train" by having someone shadow someone. It doesn't scale, it's inconsistent, and nobody can prove who learned what.
My role
Curriculum architecture, platform design, engineering.
Solution
A platform for building full-scale training curricula on any topic — structured modules, assessments, progress tracking, and instructor tooling — informed by 15 years designing programs that had to pass state board scrutiny.
Result
The sample on this site is the proof. It is short on purpose: seven panels, no video or audio, so the structure is easy to see. I have also built full modules that include video and audio.
Curriculum designAssessmentsVideo & audio

Take the live sample. Seven panels, no video or audio.

info2fuel Check the fuel offer before you sign. Free Scam Check · live prices · verified introductions Paste the offer or SCO… Run Scam Check EN590 · Rotterdam$712/MTJet A-1 · Houston$2.18/galBrent crude$78.40 CRM · Pipeline New lead · Scam CheckWhatsApp ack sent · 0:42 Qualified · EN590 buyerDocs requested via email Verified · intro scheduledn8n → calendar → reminder
Complete system

info2fuel — vertical CRM + public lead-gen site

Problem
In fuel brokerage, buyers and sellers lose months to fake offers, broker chains, and forged documents. The industry had no trustworthy front door.
My role
Product design, engineering, content, and ongoing operations.
Solution
A public site offering a free offer Scam Check, live price references, and document templates — feeding a custom CRM with WhatsApp/Twilio and email automation handling intake and follow-up.
Result
The design is live: the public site and the CRM behind it. Outcome numbers will wait until the pipeline has something to measure.
Custom CRMTwilio / WhatsAppEmail automationn8n

Visit the live site

More

United Court of Austin

As IT administrator, I engineered the website and the backend behind it: elections, bookkeeping that replaces QuickBooks, minutes for the secretary, and hybrid meetings hosted in-house — no Zoom or any other outside app.

ElectionsBookkeepingHybrid meetings

Secretary Module

Scheduling, correspondence, and reminders handled automatically; the admin hire you don't have to make.

AutomationCalendarEmail

Leo — autonomous AI agent

Self-hosted agent on open-source models handling email, WhatsApp, social posting, and Notion — orchestrated through 100+ n8n workflows on a 2-core server.

Open-source LLMsn8nNotion API
Training

Training people actually finish

I spent fifteen years teaching a licensed trade to adults who had jobs, kids, and no patience for filler. Every program I built had to survive a state board, a skeptical student, and a Monday morning.

That's the standard I bring to your onboarding, your compliance training, your sales playbook, or your franchise operations manual. The platform handles delivery — modules, assessments, progress tracking, instructor views. The curriculum design is where the fifteen years show up: sequencing that respects how adults learn, assessments that measure the thing that matters, and materials your team will actually open twice.

Built for any topic or industry — trades and licensing, hospitality, retail operations, healthcare admin, franchise systems, software onboarding, sales.

1

Define the outcome

What must someone be able to do on day one after training? We write that down first and design backward from it.

2

Sequence the skill

Break the skill into a path where each step is achievable and builds on the last. Adults quit when step three assumes step two.

3

Prove it landed

Assessments that measure performance, not recall. Tracking that shows you — not just them — what stuck.

Try the sample module: build a PB&J → Scope a training program
Integrations & stack

The stack behind the work — and it's live

Everything below is running in production today, not sitting on a slide. The contact form on this page runs through the same CRM, messaging, and email automation I'd build for you.

Custom CRM — myofarm.realengage.app

Intake, pipeline, and follow-up automation for a trust-sensitive vertical. Login-gated; demo on request.

Public lead-gen site — info2fuel.realengage.app

Scam Check tool, live pricing, document templates, inbound lead capture.

WhatsApp / Twilio

Two-way messaging, automated follow-up, and notifications wired into the CRM.

Email automation

Transactional and sequence email integrated with intake and pipeline stages.

Automation layer — n8n

100+ workflows orchestrating agents, messaging, data sync, and notifications.

AI agents — self-hosted, open-source models

Cost-predictable AI that runs on infrastructure you control.

PythonFastAPIJavaScript / TypeScriptPostgreSQLSQLiten8nTwilioOpen-source LLMsNotion APIDocker / Ubuntu
Field notes

Short, useful, from the floor

What people say

After working with me

"He could take something I'd been struggling with for weeks and break it into steps where I couldn't fail. I passed the board on the first try."
Former studentCosmetology program graduate · now salon owner
"Cristopher ran our locations like a system — not a fire drill. Numbers, people, and process, all in the same conversation."
Former regional leaderMulti-unit operations
"He didn't just build the tool. He built the training for the tool and the process around it. That's why we actually use it."
ClientSmall-business owner

Testimonials shown are representative placeholders pending written permission from the individuals quoted. They will be replaced with attributed quotes before launch.

Start a project

Let's build something

Tell me what's broken, slow, or missing. I'll reply within one business day with honest questions and, if it's a fit, a plain-English plan.

This form runs through the same CRM, WhatsApp, and email automation I build for clients. You'll get a confirmation within a minute — that's the system working.