The work that became automatable
Two production platforms — ChessWeb.site (a SaaS website builder for chess coaches) and TrendingChess.com (an AI-powered directory of the chess ecosystem). Both serve real users, generate real revenue, and require real operations: lead discovery, content production, customer support, and outreach across multiple channels.
A traditional team for this scope would be 5+ people: a marketer, a content writer, a developer, a customer success rep, and an ops generalist. We built it solo by automating the work that doesn't require human judgment and keeping the work that does.
The architecture
Claude Code as the execution engine. Custom skills handle each business function — outreach, content, deployment, analytics. Skills run on schedule via Claude Desktop's automated tasks or on-demand when triggered manually.
Firestore as the operational backbone. Lead pipelines, content queues, customer states, and analytics live in document collections with real-time sync. Cloud Functions fire on every state change, keeping downstream systems coordinated.
n8n for delivery. Email sends, social posts, and external API calls happen through n8n workflows — versioned, testable, and visible.
A React dashboard tying it all together. Approval queues, pipeline status, and metrics are one interface. We review and approve. The system executes.
What we learned that applies to any business
The methodology — Shadow, Systematize, Ship — is industry-agnostic. Every small business has the same shape of problem: people doing work that AI does better, scattered across tools, with judgment calls mixed into mechanical execution. Separating the two is where the leverage is.
AI doesn't replace people. It replaces the parts of jobs that are mechanical. The judgment, the relationships, the strategic decisions — those stay with humans, and humans get more time to focus on them.
Approval queues are non-negotiable. Every AI output goes to a human before it goes to a customer. Quality stays high, mistakes are caught, and the system gets smarter from every approval signal.