Custom software, built in Ohio.

Who

I'm Chris. I think of software the way a furniture maker thinks of furniture: built for one person, for one use, by hand, to last decades. Most modern software is the opposite — built for a million people in general, for nobody in particular, to be replaced every eighteen months. Blobfish Systems is the workshop where we build the old way, for small businesses who'd rather own their tools than rent them.

What we actually do

We build the tools a specific business actually needs. Not a platform. Not a product. A tool — tuned to the way one business already works, shaped around the quirks you've been apologizing for.

Our first client is The Harding Centre, a 66-unit mixed-use building in Ohio. Their dashboard has 18 pages, handles inbound tenant SMS, tracks maintenance, fires off automated renewals and welcomes, logs compliance inspections, surfaces voicemails, runs backups, and — for fun — has a little virtual pet named Blobby whose moods reflect the building's actual health.

Everything they use is hosted on an AI-agent-compatible Mac Mini sitting on a desk. It's backed up nightly. It's private. It's theirs.

Why "Blobfish Systems"

While building the Harding Centre dashboard, we added a Tamagotchi-style pet — an experiment to track the metrics. They loved it.

It sat next to the numbers — its mood tied to how the building was doing. Good month, it thrived. Tickets sat too long, it got anxious. Over time, it evolved.

We named him Blobby — after the blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus). At depth, it looks normal. Pull it to the surface, it falls apart.

Small businesses are the same.

Drop them into enterprise SaaS built for someone else and suddenly everything feels wrong. Nothing fits. Everything bloats.

Software should meet you where you actually live.

What I believe

• Software should know your business. Not a category it belongs to. Yours specifically — your workflow, your terminology, your quirks, your voice. Every screen, every message, every AI agent tuned to you. That's why SaaS keeps disappointing small businesses: it was built for 500,000 of you, not any one of you.
• Software should be yours, not rented. When we're done, you own the code, the database, and the hardware. No lock-in. If Blobfish Systems stopped existing tomorrow, your system would still run.
• Service is optional, software is always yours. I offer monthly Optimization Plans for clients who want me to keep improving the business — iterating on the site, lifting leads and conversions, tuning the dashboard, handling ops. But canceling a plan never takes your software away. You paid for it once, it's yours forever.
• Private by default. Your business data belongs on your desk, not on a server in Virginia you don't control.
• Small is a feature. I take one project at a time, so every client gets the attention their project deserves.
• Craftsmanship over scale. I'd rather build five great systems for five small businesses than one mediocre platform for five thousand.
• Tools should earn their place. Every feature we ship needs a reason to exist. Pretty dashboards that nobody uses are failures. (Optional pets are the secret exception — clients who opt in check their dashboards more, not less.)

What I don't do

• Charge a subscription for the software itself. Builds are project-priced, one-time. Optimization Plans are optional service on top.
• Resell other people's SaaS.
• Build for enterprises. We're a small team. Go call Salesforce.
• Host your data on servers I don't control.

The workshop

Based in Ohio. Most work happens remote; on-site setup, hands-on training, and a printed user guide delivered with every build, for clients within a day's drive. Remote clients get the same setup guidance and user guide, delivered digitally and in print. I'm reachable at hello@blobfishsystems.com.

If you're reading this because you're trying to decide whether your business needs software built for it — the easiest way to find out is a 15-minute conversation. I'll ask about your workflow and what's breaking. If there's a project here, we'll sketch it out. If there isn't, I'll tell you.

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Mr. Blobby (the fish) is a real species. The photo that inspired the mascot was taken in 2003 by researchers from the NORFANZ expedition off the coast of New Zealand. He was later voted "World's Ugliest Animal" by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. We think he's beautiful.