I didn’t plan to build software again.

After 20 years in tech management—consulting, biotech, travel, architecture—I thought my coding days were behind me. I launched a consulting firm thinking I'd help others solve big problems. What I didn’t expect?

The tools I needed didn't exist.

I was spending hours chasing contacts, rewriting the same emails, trying to manage projects across spreadsheets, CRMs, sticky notes, and inboxes. I wasn’t scaling—I was surviving.

I’d actually been dabbling in AI since 2007, after reading Michael Crichton’s book Prey. He listed his research sources in the back - and I bought them all. That curiosity never left.

So when I couldn’t find the tools to run my own business, I started building. A little script here. A helper tool there. That turned into a platform. That platform turned into TODD - built around four things clients kept saying:

• "I hate spreadsheets"

• "CRMs sucks"

• "GenAI is biased"

• "Do you follow-up?"

Wasn't part of the plan to start coding again, but I'm glad I got frustrated enough to start coding again.

Happy to be here, and open to swapping lessons, stories or tools.