Palo Alto
Custom software for Palo Alto businesses.
Black Badger builds custom software, CRM, and operations systems for Palo Alto companies that have outgrown their subscription stack. We work remotely from Clearwater, Florida. What we build is yours outright, from the repository and the database down to the hosting and every account.
Who this is for
Palo Alto companies don't need to be sold on custom software. Most of the people we talk to here could build it themselves if they had the time. What they want is a firm that treats ownership seriously, which means mainstream code in your repository, a standard SQL database on your accounts, no per-seat anything, and documentation a future hire can pick up cold. The Palo Alto teams that reach us are startups and small firms that adopted a suite early, professional offices running tools configured for someone else's process, and operating companies on the Peninsula whose platform bill grew faster than headcount. Zoho questions lead by a wide margin. Wrike and Smartsheet come in behind them, and each has its own page here.
Platforms Palo Alto companies leave
The platforms Palo Alto companies ask us about
Smartsheet
In Palo Alto, Smartsheet is usually the operations layer that grew up beside the product, and seen from an engineering culture it's a database that never got designed and business logic that never got tested. We build the system that replaces it, rules as tested code, and your company owns it. We set Smartsheet up for years as a partner and ended that. Our focus is replacing the grid.
Replacing Smartsheet in Palo AltoWrike
Wrike lands in Palo Alto inside marketing operations and program teams at companies big enough to have procurement, and the person who calls us is usually staring at a portfolio count nobody recognizes. We build the system that replaces Wrike, intake and approvals intact, and your company owns it. We set up Wrike for years and held a partnership once. Past tense on purpose. Our focus is replacing it.
Replacing Wrike in Palo AltoZoho
The Palo Alto Zoho story is usually an early, sensible decision that aged. A founding team bought Zoho One for one bill, a contractor wrote the Deluge, and nobody in the building can say why a deal changes stage. We build the CRM that replaces it, mainstream code in your repository, owned by your company. We were a Zoho partner and ended that. Our focus is replacing Zoho.
Replacing Zoho in Palo AltoThe work
We're in Clearwater, Florida, and we have never had a Bay Area office. Palo Alto engagements run over video end to end, which nobody here finds novel. What Palo Alto sends us more than anything else is Zoho questions. Teams bought the suite for one bill and are now maintaining Deluge functions nobody wants to own. The Zoho page linked above covers what replacing Zoho looks like.
Questions Palo Alto companies ask
Straight answers for Palo Alto companies
Why would a Palo Alto company hire a firm in Florida?
The engagement is remote either way. What actually matters is the model, and ours is a written scope, working screens early, and a deliverable that lands in your repository on your accounts with no license attached. We also spent years inside the platforms these systems replace, which is the knowledge that makes a migration safe. Geography stopped being the deciding factor in this work some time ago.
Can our own engineers take the system over later?
Yes, and that's the design goal. The stack is mainstream, the code is documented and conventional, and every account is in your name from day one. Plenty of clients move maintenance in house once the system settles. Handover includes a walkthrough for whoever holds it next, and nothing about the arrangement requires us to stay involved.
What does an engagement look like from here?
A strategy call first, where we ask how work moves through your company and what you're paying to rent software. If a build makes sense, a written scope follows, and for larger systems a paid discovery so the scope rests on facts. You see working screens inside the real system while it's being built. And if a build doesn't make sense, you hear that on the first call.
Talk through what your Palo Alto business is trying to fix
Book a strategy call, or send a short note about what is happening today. If a build is not the right answer, you will hear that first.