Catlin IL AI Development for a Village That Farms and Commutes
Built for the grain trade, the appointment book, and a school district that now covers two towns' worth of bus routes.
People came to Catlin for salt. In 1824 somebody hauled in twenty-four kettles that held a hundred gallons apiece and started boiling it out of the water, and a year before that the first mill in the district was grinding a bushel of corn an hour by hand. The Potawatomi were marched through here in 1838 on the way to Kansas, and a marker says so. The village itself was platted in 1856 and named for the man who ran the Great Western Railroad.
What Catlin is now is easier to state and more interesting than it looks in a table. It is less than a square mile holding just under two thousand people, and it is young — a median age of 38.6, more than a decade below the villages closer to Danville, with almost half of its households married couples and only about one home in twenty standing empty. Nothing about that happened by accident. People move here on purpose and then stay.
The trade underneath it is still grain, and Sandusky Street is where you can see it: a grain and barge address at the south end, the village office a few doors up, the IGA and a construction firm on North Sandusky, and the Norfolk & Western line running beside the whole thing. Ag supply yards sit out on Lyons Road, the sewage plant is on North Westwood Drive, and the Riola mine portal is a few miles down the Catlin-Indianola Road — the only coal still visible from a village that otherwise reads as farmland.
The institution over all of it is Salt Fork CUSD 512, put together in 2015 out of the old Catlin and Jamaica districts. The elementary school and the high school both stand on West Vermilion Street; the bus routes now reach across two communities. The library district is on Mapleleaf Drive and the funeral home on Douglas Street. Between the farms, the district, and a short row of businesses on East Vermilion selling to households who are out of the village all day, that is the whole local economy.
Watseka, Illinois·Serving Indiana & Central Illinois·Est. 2024·Founded by a published AI-alignment researcher (thirdwayalignment.com)
In Plain English
What We Fix for Catlin Businesses
Most businesses around Catlin and the Salt Fork country west of Danville do not call us asking for software. They call because the same thing keeps going wrong every week.
Calls going to voicemail while you work
The phone rings while you are on a job. By the time you call back, they hired someone else. We build systems that answer, capture what the customer needs, and get it to you.
Quotes that take days to go out
Job details end up on a notepad, in your head, and in three text messages. We put them in one place so the estimate goes out the same day.
Customers calling to ask where things stand
Every "just checking in" call interrupts real work. A customer portal lets them see it themselves.
The same information typed in three times
Written on a form, retyped into a spreadsheet, retyped again into the invoice. Enter it once and let it flow.
A young village with no spare hours in it
Households here are two working parents, a commute at each end of the day, and a child in a district that now buses across two towns. That is who your customers are and often who your staff are. The businesses that do well are the ones a family on Mapleleaf Drive can deal with at ten at night or in twenty minutes on a Saturday. The ones that struggle are not worse — they just need somebody free during the day, and nobody is.
Fast, works on a phone, and turns visitors into phone calls and quote requests.
Online quote requests
MAKE MORE MONEY
Customers describe the job and attach photos. You price it accurately the first time.
A customer portal
SAVE TIME
One place for customers to see their job, documents, invoices, and status.
Scheduling
EASIER TO RUN
Jobs, crews, and equipment on one calendar. No double-booking.
Billing and online payment
MAKE MORE MONEY
Invoices go out when the work is done. Customers can pay online.
Customer tracking and follow-up
LOSE FEWER CUSTOMERS
Missed calls get captured. Quotes get followed up on. Nothing depends on remembering.
Document and record management
SAVE TIME
Contracts, photos, signed forms, and certificates found in seconds instead of folders.
Custom software built around your business
EASIER TO RUN
When your process has outgrown spreadsheets, paper, or software built for somebody else.
What about AI?
AI is one tool we can put inside your system. We use it when it saves you time, organizes information, finds something faster, or prepares work for your review.
If ordinary software can do the job better, we use ordinary software instead.
We are not here to sell you AI. We are here to build the thing that fixes the problem.
Your business does not have to change to fit our software. We build the software to fit your business.
We do not hand you another piece of software and expect you to figure out how to use it.
01We learn how your business actually works — a real week, not the version on paper.
02We find where the most is being lost — usually one specific handoff.
03We build the smallest thing that fixes it — one workflow, fixed price, a result you can see.
04We add to it as you grow — each piece connects to the last.
A person on your team can always review anything important before it goes out. We are a Illinois-based team and we work under an NDA whenever you want one.
Four workflows built around Catlin and the Salt Fork country west of Danville.
For owners and IT folks who want the specifics. Each one starts at the surface a customer or a crew actually touches, automates the repeatable middle, keeps a person on the gate that matters, and ends in something you can hand to an auditor, a customer, or a regulator.
Research focus: a full, young farming village where the grain trade sets the money, a consolidated two-community district sets the calendar, and every household is out of town between seven and six.
01 / Grain contracts, splits and settlement
Step 1 · Where it starts
A grower sees their contracts, delivered bushels and open positions from a phone in the cab, without ringing the office to ask what is left on a contract.
Step 2 · What gets automated
Scale tickets are read and applied against the correct contract and split, and a delivery that does not match any open position is raised the same day rather than at settlement.
Step 3 · The process it plugs into
Landlord splits, storage, drying charges and basis all sit against the same delivery record, so a settlement statement is generated from the tickets rather than assembled from them.
Step 4 · SolaceSentry review
Every settlement and every price fill is confirmed by a person. Nothing about a market position is executed by software, and nothing goes to a grower unread.
Step 5 · What leaves the system
Settlement statements that reconcile first time, and a grower who can answer their own question at eleven at night without waiting for the office to open.
Proof metric: Settlement corrections issued in a season, and calls to the office asking what is left on a contract.
02 / Appointment books for a commuting clientele
Step 1 · Where it starts
Real availability visible and bookable at any hour, including the evening and early-morning slots that are the only ones a working household can take.
Step 2 · What gets automated
Cancellations are matched to people on a waiting list who have already said they can take that day and time, and the offer goes out immediately rather than at the next gap in the day.
Step 3 · The process it plugs into
Client history, preferences and product notes travel with the booking, so the person taking the chair does not have to be reminded what happened last time.
Step 4 · SolaceSentry review
You confirm anything that changes a price or a treatment. Reminders and confirmations go out on your say-so, in language you have approved.
Step 5 · What leaves the system
A book with fewer holes in it and a cancellation filled in minutes rather than lost, without anybody sitting on the phone.
Proof metric: Empty chair hours in a week, and the proportion of cancellations refilled the same day.
03 / District administration across two former towns
Step 1 · Where it starts
One place a family handles registration, fees, permissions, transport and activity sign-up for the West Vermilion Street buildings and the Jamaica-side routes, rather than a stack of separate sheets for each.
Step 2 · What gets automated
Submissions are matched to the right pupil and household even when the surnames differ, and incomplete forms are flagged before the deadline instead of counted after it.
Step 3 · The process it plugs into
Transport, activity rosters and eligibility are read from the same record, so a route change or a schedule change does not have to be re-entered in three places.
Step 4 · SolaceSentry review
District staff release everything. Anything about a child's record, transport or eligibility is decided by a person, visible only to those who need it, and logged when it is viewed.
Step 5 · What leaves the system
Registration completed on time by more families, and one accurate list for buses, teams and clubs across the whole district.
Proof metric: Forms outstanding at the deadline, and how many transport or roster changes had to be corrected after publication.
04 / The heritage museum and village events
Step 1 · Where it starts
Opening times, collections, event dates and volunteer sign-up in one place a resident can find, rather than scattered across three social accounts.
Step 2 · What gets automated
Donated photographs, deeds and clippings are described and indexed as they come in, so the collection becomes searchable instead of becoming boxes.
Step 3 · The process it plugs into
Accessions, donors and loans are tracked with provenance attached, and enquiries from researchers or families are logged and answered rather than remembered.
Step 4 · SolaceSentry review
A volunteer curator checks every catalogue entry and every attribution before it is published. A machine-generated description of a local family's photograph is a draft, not a fact.
Step 5 · What leaves the system
A searchable local collection and an events calendar the village can trust, kept up by people who are doing it in the evenings.
Proof metric: Items catalogued in a year, and research enquiries answered without somebody having to open a box.
Payment Plans
Premium custom work without one painful check.
We are not trying to be the cheapest software on the shelf. We are trying to be the lower-risk custom path when cheap apps do not fit and enterprise platforms are too much. Approved setup can be split across the build while monthly support stays predictable.
The goal is simple: price above basic SaaS because the work is custom, but package the first step so the monthly decision feels closer to a serious software subscription than a traditional open-ended agency project.
2026 Appreciation Discounts
2026 USA 250 Birthday Special
10% off eligible DID service fees
Available for new approved projects and support agreements signed by December 31, 2026.
Veteran and disability-owned businesses
Additional 5% off eligible DID service fees
Veteran-owned and disability-owned businesses can stack this with the USA 250 special.
Discounts may stack up to 15% off eligible DID service fees. Hosting, software licenses, SMS, AI usage, taxes, data licenses, and other pass-through vendor costs stay separate.
We are not trying to beat every cheap subscription. We are trying to beat the total cost of forcing a local business into software that does not match how it works.
Not the cheapest app
A generic monthly tool can be cheaper when your process already fits it. We say that plainly.
Less than a full custom build
Most custom software projects start far above these entry offers. We narrow the first scope so a local buyer can start.
Premium because it fits
The value is the mapping, setup, integration, review controls, and local support around the way the work really happens.
Custom Bridge Plans
Starter Bridge
$750 activation + $399/mo
A narrow custom workflow that feels closer to SaaS: contractor follow-up, a training tracker, a simple evidence vault, or one intake flow.
Growth Bridge
$1,500 activation + $699/mo
Best for teams that need several workflow steps, light integrations, a dashboard, a portal, or staff-facing automation.
Regulated Bridge
$3,000 activation + $1,250/mo
For legal, healthcare, cyber, manufacturing, and audit-sensitive work where access controls, review steps, and evidence matter.
Bridge plans assume a 36-month support agreement. If the agreement ends early, the unpaid setup balance becomes due. Third-party software, hosting, SMS, and AI usage stay separate.
Market Price Check
Basic subscriptions
Often about $30-$550/month before extra users, add-ons, setup time, and process gaps.
Best when a business needs its calls, quotes, files, evidence, approvals, and follow-up connected around the way it already works.
Custom agencies
Public software-project guides commonly place small custom builds in the $10k-$50k+ range, with U.S. senior work often $120-$250+/hr.
DID uses fixed entry offers and smaller first scopes so a local team can prove the workflow before approving a larger build.
Enterprise platforms
QMS, field-service, SOC 2, GRC, and vCISO paths can quickly reach the low tens of thousands once onboarding and support are included.
DID is the bridge: more tailored than a cheap app, far less commitment than buying enterprise software before the team is ready.
Entry audit credit
For many local buyers, a workflow audit can be credited toward the first build when the implementation is approved within 30 days.
Setup split
Approved setup can be billed by milestone or spread over 3-12 months depending on region, scope, risk, and monthly support.
3-year partner price
A 36-month support agreement can earn a 10-12% managed-support discount, price-lock normal support rates, and reduce upfront strain.
A young, almost fully occupied farming village of just under two thousand, with a grain trade on Sandusky Street, ag supply on Lyons Road, the elementary and high schools of a two-community consolidated district on West Vermilion Street, and Danville twenty minutes east.
Access at the hours people are actually free. Both the customer base and the staff base here are commuting households, so anything that requires a weekday phone call is quietly losing business.
Where most people start
Growth Bridge for grain, service and appointment businesses; a single fixed build for the museum or a village committee.
Anything touching a pupil record or a grower's financial position starts at the stricter tier, because the access log and the approval step are the reason it is trustworthy.
When you do not need us
Grain accounting packages and salon booking products both exist and are mature. Where one matches how you trade, buying it is cheaper and better, and we will tell you which one.
We come in where the parts have to line up — tickets to contracts to settlements, or registration to transport to activity rosters across two former districts — and where an error is somebody's money or somebody's child.
What we would take on first here
Scale tickets applied to contracts and splits so settlements reconcile without rework
Evening and weekend booking for businesses selling to two-income households
Registration, transport and activity records across a consolidated two-community district
Catalogued, searchable local collections for a museum run entirely by volunteers
Questions from Catlin owners
Straight answers about working with us here
Our growers are not going to log into anything. Is that a problem?
Some will and some never will, and the build should assume both. The office keeps working exactly as it does now — tickets in, settlements out — and the online view is an extra for the growers who want it at ten at night. If in two years nobody uses it, you have lost a small part of the build, not the whole thing. We would rather say that up front than pretend adoption is guaranteed.
We are a one-chair shop. What would you actually build?
Almost certainly the cancellation problem and nothing else. An empty chair on a Tuesday is money you cannot recover, and the fix is a waiting list that already knows who can take that exact slot, so the offer goes out the minute the gap appears. That is a small fixed-price piece of work, and if a booking product on the market does it for forty dollars a month we will tell you to buy that instead.
The district consolidated in 2015 and we still have two of everything. Can software fix that?
It cannot fix the politics, but it can stop the duplication being manual. Where consolidation hurts administratively is that the same fact — a pupil's transport, a team roster, an eligibility check — gets maintained twice and drifts. Holding it once and reading it in both places is straightforward work, and it is usually where the first hours come back.
Who is allowed to see records about our children?
Only named staff, and every look is recorded. We build that first on anything involving a school, before any of the convenient features, because a district cannot answer a parent's question about who saw what unless the system was built to answer it. It also means access ends when someone leaves, rather than lingering in an old account.
Where does AI stop and ordinary programming start in a build like this?
Reading a scale ticket, indexing a donated photograph, and matching a form to the right household when the surnames differ — those are model jobs. Applying a contract, printing a settlement, sending a reminder and filling a slot are plain code and always have been. We separate them in the quote so you can see exactly what you are paying an AI premium for, which is usually less than people expect.
The museum has no budget at all. Is there a version of this for us?
Yes, and it is deliberately small. One catalogue, one events page, one volunteer sign-up, handed over so the historical society in the Woodin house owns the account and can run it without us. We quote a fixed figure for that and there is no retainer. A village collection that is searchable is worth more to the town than a bigger system nobody maintains.
Is our information kept in this country, and can we get it out?
Yes to both. The team is US-based, we work under an NDA when you ask, and everything you put in comes back out in ordinary formats whenever you want it. Grower positions and pupil records are not the kind of data anybody should hold hostage, and we put the export commitment in the contract rather than in a sales conversation.
How do we tell whether it was worth the money six months later?
We fix the measurement before the build starts, because measuring afterwards is how projects get to claim anything. For an elevator that is settlement corrections per season. For a shop it is empty chair hours. For a district it is forms still outstanding on the deadline. One number, gathered the same way before and after, and you can check it without us.
Start with the one handoff that costs you the most. We scope it for a fixed price, build it, and show you it works before anyone talks about a bigger system.