About
We used to sell the platforms. Now we replace them.
Black Badger Software Solutions is a software consultancy in Clearwater, Florida, founded and run by David Verneuille. We build custom business systems (CRM, project management, client portals, integrations), and our clients own them outright.
The arc
Why a platform consultancy stopped selling platforms
For years this company made its living implementing and supporting the big work platforms. Smartsheet, monday.com, Wrike, Zoho, and the rest. David held the official relationships, ran the migrations, configured the workspaces, and trained the teams. That work taught him how each of those products behaves once a real company leans on it. It taught him something else too. Every one of them makes the business change its process to fit the tool, because a product built for every business at once doesn't fit any business exactly.
The old job was finding the platform with the highest fit, because a perfect fit was never for sale. AI-assisted development ended that constraint. A system built around one company's real process is now practical to deliver at a cost that competes with what that company already pays in subscriptions. So we ended the platform relationships and changed sides. When somebody who made money recommending a product stops recommending it, that tells you something.
The platform years weren't wasted. They're why we can tell you exactly where Smartsheet is strong and where monday.com breaks down, and why the honest answer is sometimes to keep the tool you already have. We still say that on calls, regularly.
How we work
The same shape, every engagement
- 01
Strategy call
You describe how work moves through your company and where it breaks. We tell you plainly whether a build makes sense. If it doesn't, that's the answer you get.
- 02
Written scope
Deliverables, phases, and the assumptions on both sides, in writing, before anything gets signed. Larger systems start with a paid discovery so the scope rests on facts.
- 03
Working screens early
Real screens with your real workflow on them, early in the build. You give feedback inside the app itself rather than in a document nobody reads.
- 04
Handover
Documentation, training for your team, and every account (code repository, database, hosting, email) already in your name. An optional support plan if you want us to stay close.
Ownership
What owning your software actually means here
Custom software used to carry a real risk. If the one developer who built it disappeared, the client was stuck, and that's why businesses defaulted to widely supported platforms in the first place. Modern tooling removed it. Every system we deliver is written so any capable developer can pick it up and read it, and every account it runs on gets created in the client's name on day one. We're invited in as administrators, and the client can remove us whenever they want. We never hold the keys.
The same rule applies to the relationship. There's no license, no seat count, and no renewal conversation. After handover you can keep us on support, bring in anyone you like, or run the thing yourself.
The model
Where the tooling stops and judgment starts
AI-assisted development means tooling does the mechanical parts of building software, so the expensive human hours go into judgment. It doesn't mean a language model writes your business system while nobody watches.
What the tooling does
- Reads an existing system end to end and maps what it does, more completely than a person working through it screen by screen.
- Generates the repetitive layers of an application (the forms, the tables, the plumbing between them).
- Writes tests and reviews code against a security baseline before anyone looks at it.
- Keeps documentation current instead of letting it rot the week after handover.
What people still do
- Discovery, which still means watching the work happen and finding the spreadsheet nobody mentions.
- Deciding what the system should do, and more importantly what it should refuse to do.
- Telling you when a feature request is a bad idea and offering a better one.
- Standing behind the work, with a name on it and a phone number attached.
That shift is why this company changed direction. Building a system around one business used to be a luxury priced against a large agency team. Now it's practical to scope one against what that business already pays in subscriptions every year, which changes the answer to "should we buy or build" for a lot of companies that had stopped asking.
Limits
What we won't take on
Novelty AI
AI receptionists and similar demonstrations that impress in a meeting and move no real number. If a proposal can't name the operational metric it changes, we're not the firm for it.
Marketing strategy
We're software people. The system is ours to build, and the message inside it belongs to you or to whoever handles your marketing. Pretending otherwise would make us worse at both.
Building on a broken workflow
If the process was never written down and nobody agrees on what it should be, writing code first only makes the confusion faster and more expensive. Discovery comes first. If you don't want discovery, we're not a fit.
Holding your keys
We won't own your accounts, host your system on our infrastructure, or put ourselves between you and your own data. Every account is in your name from the first day of the build.
Questions
Questions about the company
The ones that come up when somebody's deciding whether a founder-led firm is the right call.
Who is Black Badger Software Solutions?
A software consultancy in Clearwater, Florida, founded and run by David Verneuille. We build custom business systems that our clients own outright. CRM, project management, client portals, and the integrations between them. We've delivered 467 projects, and by client accounting we've saved roughly $48M in payroll, most of it from one large Wrike engagement. The office is at 1221 Turner St, STE 206, Clearwater. We work across Pinellas and Hillsborough counties and with clients all over the country.
Why did you cancel the platform partnerships?
Those programs pay a consultant to recommend one product whether or not it fits, and the fit was never good enough to keep defending. For years we implemented and supported Smartsheet, monday.com, Wrike and Zoho. The same thing happened every time. The business changed how it worked to suit the tool. Then AI-assisted development made a genuinely custom system practical to build against what a company already pays in subscriptions, so we changed sides. We'd rather be paid by you to recommend what fits.
Are you still a partner or reseller for any software vendor?
No, and that's the point. There's no referral fee, no reseller margin, no revenue share, and no quota on any platform named anywhere on this site. So "keep what you have and configure it properly" is an answer we can afford to give, and we give it on calls regularly. A comparison written here has nothing riding on the outcome either.
How big is the team?
Founder-led, with specialists brought onto a build as its shape requires. We don't publish a headcount. It's a proxy that stopped meaning much once AI-assisted development changed how much one experienced person can carry, and what matters more to you is who you talk to. David runs the strategy call, writes the scope, and stays on the engagement. You won't be handed to an account manager after signing.
What is an AI-assisted development model, in plain terms?
We use AI tooling for the parts of software development that are mechanical, so the expensive human hours go into the parts that are judgment. Reading an existing system and mapping what it does, generating the repetitive layers of an application, writing tests, checking work. Those are all faster with it. Discovery isn't. Neither is deciding what the system should do, or the calls about what to leave out, and people still do all of that. The upshot is that a build shaped around one company is practical now, where it used to be a luxury.
What happens if Black Badger disappears?
You keep everything, and any competent developer can pick it up. Every account a build runs on (source code repository, database, hosting, transactional email) is created in your name from day one. We're invited in as administrators, and you can remove us whenever you like. The code is written plainly, to be read, with no cleverness in it for its own sake. Modern AI tooling also means an unfamiliar developer gets up to speed on a codebase quickly, and that was the specific risk that used to make custom software a bad bet.
What do you refuse to work on?
Three things, consistently. Novelty AI that doesn't move a real business number, because an AI receptionist is a demo and not an operations improvement. Marketing strategy, because we're software people, and the message inside the system belongs to you or to your marketing firm. And building on top of a workflow that's already broken. If the process was never written down and nobody agrees what it should be, writing code first just makes the mess faster.
Do you work with businesses outside Florida?
Yes, regularly. The office is in Clearwater, and Pinellas and Hillsborough counties are where an onsite session is easy to arrange. Everything else runs over video and screen share, and that's how most of the build works even for a client twenty minutes away. Distance has never decided whether a project went well.
Where we are
Clearwater office, clients everywhere
The office is at 1221 Turner St, STE 206 in Clearwater, and we serve Pinellas and Hillsborough counties from there. Onsite discovery is a normal part of local engagements. Most of the work itself runs over video and screen share, and that's how we work with clients across the country too. Distance has never decided whether a project goes well.
Office
Black Badger Software Solutions
1221 Turner St, STE 206
Clearwater, FL 33756