Developer-led studio, Western North CarolinaSave hours every week with AI automation. And a technical partner for everything else.
AI automation is what we do every day, and most businesses can put it to work right now on the manual tasks stealing the week. From there we're the technical person your business doesn't have: the website, the search presence, the software, and the infrastructure underneath.
The work is led by a principal engineer with 12+ years building software, AI-augmented so one studio can carry the whole stack: automation, site, search, software, and infrastructure. You talk to the engineer doing the work.
A roofing rebuild, in three numbers
One Tri-Cities roofing client moved off a page builder onto a site we rebuilt. The story is legible in three places: found on search, fast on every device, and cheaper to run.
rating across 112 Google reviews, on the site we rebuilt.
pages score 90+ on mobile, 56 of them at 95+.
hosting, down from $55/mo on a page builder, now on Cloudflare.
Four leaks most small businesses can't see
You feel them as lost calls and slow weeks. Named plainly, they are fixable.
You're invisible on search
Competitors hold the map pack and the AI answers. Your Google profile is half-built and your site never ranks for what people actually type.
Your site is slow or dated
It loads slowly, looks like a template, breaks on phones, and quietly turns away the people who do find you.
You're drowning in manual work
Leads slip through the cracks, you retype the same things daily, and the software that would fix it feels out of reach.
You're juggling vendors
A web person, an SEO person, an IT contact, whoever set up the domain. None of them talk, and they point at each other when something breaks.
Most agencies stop at the website. We build the systems behind it.
The website, the search presence, the software, and the infrastructure underneath are one system. We build them as one system, because we are the engineers, not a designer who outsources the hard part.
- Builds a site, then disappears
- Hands you a list of SEO "recommendations"
- Can't touch the software underneath
- One of five vendors who don't talk
- You own the integration headache
- Bills in full up front, then hopes you're happy
- Builds the site and the systems behind it
- AI automation that gives your team time back
- Custom software in-house, not subcontracted
- One studio accountable for the whole stack
- One point of contact, range of a small agency
- Money-back on your first work, no fine print
We lead with the fields where our proof runs deepest
The work travels well beyond them.
Home services & trades
Roofing, HVAC, plumbing, remodeling. A fast site plus the system that catches the call, texts back in seconds, books the job, and earns the review.
For trades →Private schools & education
Independent and micro-schools. Get found by the right families, and the systems that turn an inquiry into a tour into an enrollment.
For schools →Real estate
Agents and brokers in a wide market. Get found by buyers, sellers, and relocators, with the site, the local content, and the on-site tools an agent actually uses.
See a build →These are where our proof runs deepest, not the edge of what we do. If it runs on software, a site, an app, an automation, an internal tool, we build and run it. In a field that's new to us, we say so, lean on what you know, and research the rest with AI before we build.
Fast loops, not a long blind build
You see real work early, your expertise steers the details, we refine quickly.
The Crux Roadmap
A free fit call, then three business days of real, hands-on work across your site, search, and systems. The fee is refunded if you're not happy with what we show you.
Build the first pass
We build fast, using senior engineering, AI, and what we've learned works across industries.
You push back
You're the expert on your business. We surface our assumptions and ask you to correct them. We want the corrections; that's how the work comes out right.
We refine and ship
We fold your corrections in and ship it. Then we stay on as the one partner for the whole stack.
A developer-led studio should show the machine
Not just the dashboard. A few results from real client work.
We caught that Google disables reviews and Business Profile posts for schools, a rule most agencies miss, and steered a school's budget to what actually moves enrollment instead of a review plan that can't run.
We set up a lean lead-intake stack: a new web inquiry texts the owner in seconds and customers book themselves, with AI working every lead.
The roofing rebuild up top is the same discipline applied end to end: 62 pages at 90+ on mobile, a 5.0 across 112 reviews, and hosting down from $55/mo to $0/mo.
"Developer-led" is literal
We ship and run our own production software across the web, native apps, and AI.
Peanut Gallery
A real-time AI commentary engine: live transcription plus multi-model orchestration streaming reactions in under 300ms. Real applied-AI engineering, open source.
peanutgallery.live →Tideward
A native consumer app shipping across all six Apple platforms: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro, with offline state and cross-device sync. Cross-platform native engineering.
tideward.app →manugames.com
An Astro publisher site with structured data, an RSS feed, and a devlog content strategy. Cruxsmith is a studio of Manu Games LLC.
manugames.com →Based in Western North Carolina, engaged across the region and remotely
Questions people ask first
What do you mean by "the systems behind your business"?
The software that runs underneath the website: lead pipelines that text you the second a form comes in, online booking and intake, review automation, integrations between the tools you already use, and internal dashboards. Most agencies stop at the website. We build what runs underneath it.
Do you only work with home services and schools?
Those are the two fields where we have the deepest proof, so we lead with them. The work travels: we build for professional and institutional services too. Our cross-industry range is the point. We ramp into a new field fast, with you in the loop on the details only you know.
Is it just AI? Who actually does the work?
A principal engineer with 12+ years building software at scale designs, reviews, and stands behind every engagement. AI is the accelerator that lets one studio deliver the range and speed of a small agency. You work directly with the engineer doing the work. No juniors, no handoffs.
What does it cost?
Every tier is published on the pricing page: one-time work from $400 to $5,000, monthly retainers from $1,000 to $5,000, custom builds from $3,500. The path is the same either way: a free fit call, then the Crux Roadmap, a three-business-day hands-on start, fully refundable if you're not happy with what we show you.
Are you local?
We're based in Franklin, NC and work across Western North Carolina, the Asheville metro, and the Tri-Cities, plus remotely with the right clients anywhere.
Find your crux.
Start with a Crux Roadmap. A free fit call, then a clear diagnostic of the one or two moves that will move your business, and what it takes to build them.
Get your Crux Roadmap