01
The tool is mostly empty.
People have a CRM account but the data lives in spreadsheets, inboxes, and shared docs because the tool doesn't reflect the workflow.
03 · Custom CRM
A system of record built around the work.
Not around the tool's opinion of it.
Most CRMs ship with opinions about how a sales process should look. When those opinions match yours, off-the-shelf is the right answer. When they don't, you spend months bending your work to fit the tool — or worse, the tool fills with workaround data that nobody trusts.
A custom CRM is the third option. Built on a stack you control — Postgres and Airtable for most engagements, with a Next.js or similar frontend where the data needs a real surface.
Symptoms that point to a custom CRM.
02
The pipeline stages don't fit.
Your work has three or four distinct states the CRM doesn't recognise — and your team is hacking around them with custom fields.
03
The reporting is the bottleneck.
Every week someone spends half a day exporting, reformatting, and assembling a deck. The CRM was supposed to solve this.
04
You're paying for seats people don't use.
Because the tool doesn't actually fit the role. A simpler, fitted system often costs less than the seats you're carrying.
Discovery → data model → build → live.
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01
Discover
Sit with the team. Map how deals actually move. Identify the points where the current system falls down. Write a single document that everyone agrees on.
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02
Design the data model
The objects, fields, relationships, and stages. Drafted on a whiteboard, reviewed with you, committed to before any UI work.
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03
Build
Backend first (Postgres or Airtable, with the migrations and the integrations). Then the front surface — minimal, dense, designed for the work that happens in it daily.
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04
Live & owned
Migrate the existing data. Train the team. Hand over the documentation. Optional retainer for ongoing development once the system is in production.
When the off-the-shelf CRM doesn't fit.
Tell us how your work actually moves. We'll tell you whether a custom CRM is the right fix.