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I’ve started this newsletter three times in my head before actually writing anything down. That’s probably the most honest thing I can tell you about me - and also the last time I’ll lead with hesitation.

What Black & Tan Labs actually is

I’m Jason. I build AI systems for small businesses - the kind that handle the admin, close the loop on leads, and make the tools you already own finally talk to each other.

Not strategy decks. Not ChatGPT wrappers. Working systems, built for real operations: the salon that loses a booking every time the phone goes unanswered, the furniture store whose follow-up process is a sticky note, the restaurant that’s never once sent a review request after a great meal.

Black & Tan Labs is the studio I built to close the gap between what AI can do and what small businesses are actually getting out of it. That gap is embarrassingly wide. That’s the opportunity.

Why now

I’ve spent 30 years building things - architecture, software, products, teams. The last few years I’ve been deep in agentic AI: systems that don’t just answer questions but take actions, run workflows, and get things done without someone babysitting them.

Small business owners are smart, capable, and completely underwater. They know something’s possible. They don’t have time to figure out what, and they definitely don’t have time to build it.

That’s exactly where I want to work.

What this newsletter is

This is where I think out loud - in public, with receipts.

Build logs from real client work. Honest takes on what’s actually useful versus what’s being sold as useful. The occasional rabbit hole when something grabs me. And the unglamorous parts of building a studio from scratch, because those are usually the most useful parts to read.

I’ll aim for weekly. I’d rather send something real than hit a cadence for its own sake.

If you own a small business and you’re tired of doing things manually that a system should be doing - this is for you.

Hit subscribe. Let’s get to work.