The AI guy in Fond du Lac.

Who's actually here

Local operator, local stack.

I'm Alex Jahn — about a decade in the trades, an active flip portfolio with a Fond du Lac partner, and the AI stack on this site is the same one running my own businesses. When I install something for a client, it's because I've already broken it, fixed it, and run it through enough real work to know where the edges are.

"AI consultant" tends to mean a slide deck and a Zoom call. Around here it means I drive to your shop, sit across from you, look at what's eating your week, and either install something that helps or tell you AI isn't the answer for that one. Both are real outcomes. I'd rather lose a sale than land you with a tool that doesn't fit.

What an engagement actually is

What "AI consultant" means when I say it.

I'm not selling a chatbot. I build and install custom AI stacks — usually voice intake, proposal generation, lead scanning, materials lookup, calendar handling — wired into the way your business already runs. Not a SaaS subscription you log into. Hardware in your shop, your data on your machine, your shop's voice on the phone.

A typical engagement looks like this:

• Free first audit. I read your site, your intake flow, your proposal process. You get a written set of findings — what's worth automating, what isn't, and rough numbers on what each move would save you. No card, no sales call.
• If we both think there's a fit: a scoped install. Starts around $6,500 and includes a Mac mini sitting in your shop running the stack. Full price and timeline are on the install page.
• About 30 days from box to live. Hardware ships, I build the stack at my shop, install day at yours, then a few weeks of remote tuning over Tailscale until it's running clean.
• Ongoing. Support, training your team, expanding the stack as your operation grows. Same hands the whole time.

If the audit says "AI isn't the right answer for what's biting you right now" — that's the answer. I'd rather you spend the $6,500 on something that actually moves the needle than on me.

Why local matters here

Why "remote AI consultant" doesn't fit a trades shop.

Most AI consulting is remote, deck-driven, and priced for companies with an IT department. That model breaks the second you try to apply it to a four-truck contractor in Fond du Lac. Nobody in the office speaks "API," there's no one to hand the laptop to when something hiccups, and the tool that "saves five hours a week" only saves them if someone is actually around to fix it on a Wednesday morning.

Local changes the math:

• I'm 20 minutes from most of Fond du Lac County. If something breaks I can drive over. That alone is a different deal than a 1-800 support queue.
• I know the work. Carpentry, drywall, flips, the kind of contractor who's still in tools half the week. I can read your situation without you having to translate it.
• Your stack lives in your shop. Not in a cloud subscription that disappears if I stop the relationship. Hardware on your side, data on your side, code I can hand over if you ever want it.
• One human, full ownership. No account manager hand-off, no offshore tier-two support. Same person who installed it is the one who answers when you call.

That's a small footprint by design. I'm not trying to onboard a hundred clients. I'm trying to install AI stacks that actually run in the kind of operations I grew up around.

Who this is for

Operators I serve.

Mostly small operations — solo to ten employees — running real work in the Lakeshore region. The shape that fits:

• Trades & contracting: carpentry, framing, drywall, flooring, painting, roofing, HVAC, electrical, landscaping, concrete. If the phone rings while you're on a ladder, we have things to talk about.
• Real-estate operators: flippers, small landlords, wholesalers. Court Catch (foreclosure-of-mortgage scanning), the Local Comp Kit, and the materials catalog are the parts of the stack built first for my own flips.
• Small business operators: shop owners, service businesses, anyone running a small operation where one missed lead or one botched estimate is the difference between a good week and a bad one.

The counties I drive to without thinking about it: Fond du Lac, Calumet, Winnebago, Sheboygan, Dodge. Further is possible, but the first conversation costs me a tank of gas either way.

"The kind of operator I'm trying to reach already knows their work. They don't need a deck about AI. They need someone who'll show up, install something that doesn't break, and stop talking when it's working."

Three ways in

How to start.

Three doors, depending on where you are right now.