Building digital tools for physical operations.
I'm Jacob — a solo developer in Port Huron, Michigan, building software for the people who run things in the real world: venues, events, facilities, field teams.
Why BWstack exists
My day job is in IT leadership at a regional education agency in Michigan. Earlier this year my boss asked me to coordinate our IT department's response for a professional development day — the first one our agency had hosted in 12 years. He also asked me to present, for four of the five hours we'd be there.
I knew our team would carry the day, and I wouldn't be free to run it. So I built a small tool that let our techs check off presenter rooms as they prepped each one — confirm the laptop's connected, audio and video test clean, presenter's ready. Simple idea. The kind of thing that should already exist.
The event ran without a single tech issue. One attendee told my director it was the first conference he'd been to in 30 years where nothing went wrong. Another attendee — a former assistant superintendent now working in education technology — asked who built the tool and told me to sell it.
That tool became Ready Space.
“First conference I've been to in 30 years where nothing went wrong.”— Conference attendee
What I do
I think of myself as a translator. Most of my career has been spent between people who deeply understand technology and people who don't — figuring out what someone actually needs and turning it into something that works.
AI-assisted development changed what's possible for me. I can take a real business problem — the recurring task someone keeps doing manually, the communication breakdown that costs an hour every shift — and ship a working tool for it. Fast. Built for the actual job, not for a generic market.
If you run something in the Blue Water area (or anywhere) and the friction is starting to add up, I'd like to hear about it. I take on a small number of custom projects — if the problem is real and the fit is right, let's talk.
My Flagship Product
Ready Space
LIVEYour next event won't have a tech meltdown. Ready Space gives venues and event coordinators a live, map-based operations layer — upload a floor plan, drop pins for tasks and trouble spots, and your staff gets a magic link straight to the live map. No app installs. No walkie-talkies. No surprises.