I · Co-owner
Matthew Ryan
CTO of WNY Moving, co-founder of Bracey Skyway Partners, and before that a technical architect at Nuvei.
More about MatthewA workshop for ideas · Buffalo, New York
Ideas, built to last.
A studio making software, automation and AI systems, for ourselves and for the businesses we work with.
i.
3 days
commercial real estate onboarding, was months
Nuvei
ii.
0
manual entry, books always live
WNY Moving
iii.
<1 min
to log, sign and invoice a job on-site
4.0 Storage
iv.
1 layer
for any moving-company CRM
Semres
Made here
Built before anyone asked.
Products, models and tools nobody commissioned. Most of what we bring to client work, we learned making these.
i.
Octavian Interface
One private desk for the person who runs the company, or several of them.
ii.
Semres
Referrals, video surveys, estimates and follow-up for moving companies, on any CRM.
iii.
Lookzapp
A custom TensorFlow model that maps 168 facial landmarks, live.
Also from the workshop
FightStats214 metrics per UFC fight, against about 12 official ones. 168 fighters, 600 fights.
MCP serversLive, permissioned company data for any Claude client, remote or on the machine.
For other people
Six kinds of work we take on.
Most engagements use more than one. Every one starts with how your business actually runs.
i.
All servicesCustom apps
Web and iOS apps built around the workflow your team already has, instead of a template you have to bend your process to fit.
ii.Websites and portals
Public sites, customer portals, and partner logins that pull live data on their own instead of waiting on someone to go update them.
iii.Tailor-made AI systems
Assistants, agents, and internal tooling built on your own data and your own rules, wired into the systems you already run.
iv.Live dashboards
The numbers that actually matter to your business in one place, updating themselves, so decisions stop waiting on a spreadsheet.
v.Process automation
The repetitive work sitting between your systems, handled end to end. Nobody keys the same data in twice.
vi.Integrations and back end
CRM sync, webhooks, databases, payments, and contract flows. The plumbing that makes everything above hold up in production.
Case studies
What changed, in numbers.
Builds for businesses, each measured by what nobody does by hand anymore.
WNY Moving · CTO
Replacing a moving company's Excel books with a live portal fed by SmartMoving
Full back-end automation and operations infrastructure for a moving company that was running its books in Excel.
0manual entry, books always live
Read the case studyNuvei · Technical Architect
Cutting commercial real estate onboarding at Nuvei from months to three days
Embedded inside Nuvei before it went private, going team to team to map and automate manual operational processes.
months to 3 daysCRE onboarding cycle
Read the case study
4.0 Storage · Technical Analyst
A storage business that went from spreadsheet entry to touching each job once
Took a student storage business that ran on spreadsheets and rebuilt its operations as a self-running system.
under 1 minto log a job, fully on-site
Read the case studyThe studio
The founders.
The people who own and run Octavian Ideas, in Buffalo, New York.
II · Co-owner
Noah Kunzman
Owner of WNY Moving, serving homes and businesses across Western New York, and co-owner of Semres.
More about NoahCalculator
Put a number on the manual work.
Two inputs, one number. It will not be exact, but it is usually closer than people expect, and it is the number worth comparing a build against.
If your team spends 14 hours a week re-typing and chasing, at $42 an hour loaded, it costs you $30,576 a year.
14 h
$42
Loaded hourly cost means salary plus taxes, benefits, and overhead. For most office roles it lands well above the hourly wage. The math and a worked example
How a build goes
Five steps, and you always know the next one.
The same five steps on every engagement, so you always know what happens next and what it costs before it happens.
- I
Discovery call
Thirty minutes on how the business actually runs. What the team touches by hand, what breaks, and what nobody has time to fix. No slides and no pitch deck.
- II
Process mapping
We sit with the people doing the work and write down what actually happens, step by step. The real bottleneck is usually somewhere nobody flagged on the call.
- III
Proposal with hours
A fixed scope. Every piece listed with the hours it takes and what it costs. You approve the number before anything gets built.
- IV
Build with approval gates
Work ships in pieces and you sign off on each one. No multi-month black box, and no finding out at the end that it solves the wrong problem.
- V
Handoff
You get the code, the accounts, and written documentation covering how it works, what it touches, and what to do when something looks wrong. It runs without us.
Then, if you want it, a retainer. Most clients keep us on a flat monthly retainer after handoff for monitoring, fixes, and small changes. It is optional, and everything is built so you are not stranded if you skip it.
AI training
“He met me where I was, no technical background needed, and built everything around the work I actually do.”
Brent Piepenbring · Soleo Health
How the training worksQuestions
Before you call.
What if the system breaks after you leave?
You own the code, the accounts, and the documentation from day one. Nothing runs on a login only we have, and nothing is hosted somewhere you cannot reach. Every build ships with a written handoff covering how it works, what it touches, and what to do when something looks wrong. Most clients also keep us on a monthly retainer, which means a break is our problem to fix, not a scramble for your team.
Do you work with our existing IT vendor?
Yes, and it usually makes the build go faster. Your IT vendor owns the network, the devices, and the accounts. We own the automation and the data layer sitting on top of them. We get on a call with them at the start, agree in writing on access and boundaries, and they stay in the loop on anything that touches their systems.
How do you price?
Fixed scope with an hours estimate, not an open-ended hourly bill. After the discovery call and process mapping you get a proposal listing exactly what gets built, the hours behind each piece, and the cost. You approve before anything starts. If the scope changes mid build, you get a new number before we touch it. You will never open a surprise invoice. Ongoing monitoring and small changes are a flat monthly retainer.
How long does a build take?
Most first builds land between two and six weeks from the discovery call, depending on how many systems have to talk to each other. You see working pieces at every approval gate along the way, so you are never waiting months to find out whether it does what you wanted.
We are not sure what should be automated. Is that a problem?
That is the normal starting point, and sorting it out is most of the value. The discovery call and process mapping exist to answer exactly that question. We sit with the people doing the work, map what actually happens, and come back with a list of what is worth automating and what is honestly not.
Octavian became Augustus
Bring us the idea.
The name comes from Octavian, who became Augustus. It points to the moment an ambitious idea gets a structure strong enough to last. Bring us yours.
Client testimonial
“Matthew took me from barely touching AI to using it in my day to day.”
Book a 30-minute call