I spent ten years as a business analyst and project manager on big systems, then I started building the things myself.
Burl.
The name comes from the mallee. A burl is the knotted root that survives a bushfire and shoots back from the ground. Most businesses get burnt at some point. The ones that last grow back from the root.
Burl is a small studio. You deal with the people doing the work.
At places like Mercer, Equity Trustees, Muirs and MICM.
ERP, integrations, data migration, reporting, much of it on regulated financial systems. Understand the real problem, agree the fix with the people who own it, deliver the whole thing, and be held to the outcome.
What changed.
Kindred started at home. Our son is one of the kids these learning plans are written for, and my wife writes them for a living as an inclusion leader. I watched how long each one took, and how much of that time went on paperwork instead of the kid.
Kindred is now live in an Australian school, drafting those plans without a single name reaching the AI.
After that came the rest: marking tools for teachers, a construction engine, broadcast graphics, a stock-clearance tool for a kitchen supplier, and a 2018 workstation in the garage that now runs AI models it had no business running.
How I work.
I'm happiest when I'm wrong early. My research notes include a list of my own claims, marked retracted or disproved, with the evidence. I'd rather write that down than build on it.
I'll tell you if you're buying the wrong thing. That's the point of hiring someone senior instead of someone cheaper.