About
I spent twelve years doing that. It meant finding permittable ground, researching land records, approaching owners, negotiating leases, running survey, title, environmental and geotechnical due diligence, applying for permits, standing up in front of a jurisdiction and arguing the case, and handing off a site that was ready to build. 865 sites. 23 states. Several hundred public hearings, and three denials.
Where the method came from
I co-founded the firm that did that work and ran it for eight years. I recruited and managed staff and subcontractors, and on every site I directed a technical bench: surveyors, title researchers, environmental and geotechnical consultants, architects, engineers, and power engineering. I still do that work today under contract.
In late 2024 a client handed my firm a relocation portfolio and 60 days to return feasibility and permitting recommendations on every one of them. It was not achievable by hand. I asked for three days, taught myself to code from nothing, and built the pipeline that delivered it.
That is when I understood that the discipline I had been applying to land could be applied to the systems a business runs on, and that most organizations are carrying their process around in a few people’s heads.
Synergistic Solutions Unlimited is what came out of that. SSU designs operating systems for complex work: data foundations, workflows, production controls, and human-directed AI that keeps judgment with the person accountable for the outcome.
The point of going hard is to create a process that is repeatable and makes future work more efficient and higher quality. Handing others the tools to get their time back is the best part of this work.
The infrastructure record in fullThe record
Twelve years, one continuous practice. The firm I co-founded is not named here. The clients are named on the infrastructure page.
2025 – present
Operating systems for complex organizational work: data foundations, workflow applications, production controls, and human-directed AI. Chicago and Seattle, and often in Indiana. What has been built
2025 – present
Joined to build the operating backbone of a growing business, first full-time in operations and now under a continuing engagement. Delivered the expense management and monthly reporting system the company runs on, drafted commercial and management agreements, and established build and release governance. What changed for them
2024 – present
Full-cycle site development for the firm following transition of ownership: feasibility and due diligence, land and jurisdictional research, ground lease negotiation, permitting, hearing presentation, and construction handoff. Same scope as the ownership years, executed as a vendor, which keeps the jurisdictional relationships and the permitting practice current. The hearing record
2016 – 2024
Co-founded and led the development organization delivering ground infrastructure across 23 states, growing from two partners to a standing team of full-time staff and subcontractors. Portfolio work from search-ring identification through permitting and construction-ready handoff, peaking at nearly 100 sites in a single year. Ownership transferred to my business partner in December 2024. The practice in full
2014 – 2016
Site acquisition end to end across Midwest and Southeast markets: search-ring analysis, jurisdictional and land records research, landowner identification and outreach, ground lease negotiation, and zoning and building permit applications, including rooftop installations. I joined without pay to learn the discipline, was hired within six months, and progressed to carrying sites independently from search ring through permit.
Education
Indiana University Indianapolis. Previously Wabash College, 2007 to 2008.
What SSU actually does
Listed by their real names rather than described, because the person reading this either recognises them or does not need them.
Site development. Site acquisition. Search-ring analysis. Land acquisition. Entitlements. Zoning and land use. Permitting strategy. Authority having jurisdiction negotiation. Public hearing testimony. Land records and title review. Easement verification and curative work. Ground lease negotiation, renewals and amendments. Colocation applications.
ALTA and boundary survey management. Phase I and Phase II environmental site assessment. NEPA and SHPO review. Geotechnical investigation. Floodplain and wetland screening. Utility coordination and service. Power engineering coordination. FAA and FCC compliance. Construction document and constructability review. Code compliance.
Multi-project portfolio management. Consultant and vendor management. Multidisciplinary team direction. Recruiting, training and mentoring. Schedule risk identification and mitigation. Executive and client reporting. Stakeholder management. Process standardization. Playbook and workflow authorship. Public speaking.
Operating model and data design. Workflow automation. Python. Word VBA. GIS and Google Earth. Web applications and progressive web apps. TypeScript. Cloudflare Workers and D1. Google Workspace authentication. Schema versioning. Staged QA gates. Release control and rollback planning. Audit and approval workflows. Retrieval systems and human-directed AI.
Across sectors
Whether the deliverable is a permitted tower site or a monthly expense close, the question is the same. How do you build something that works efficiently, is reliable, is reputable, and is backed by sound methodology. And how do you make it survive being handed to someone else.
I have now answered that question in land development, in software, and in back-office operations. That is what tells me it is a method, and not something I only knew how to do in one industry.
Where SSU starts
SSU begins with the people, decisions, exceptions, and source material already in motion. Every operation has an existing logic: who owns which decision, which source is trusted, what happens when something goes wrong. Automating before that logic is understood just makes the confusion run faster.
So the first work is modeling. Which source controls each kind of information, how conflicts get resolved, what states the work moves through, and where handoffs happen. Make the work understandable before making it automatic.
Working principles
Keep claims connected to the information that supports them. One source for each fact, with pointers instead of uncontrolled duplicates.
Make consequential actions reviewable and leave authority with the responsible person. Automation reduces repetition without turning the operation into a black box.
Preserve context, decisions, and handoffs so work can continue across sessions and collaborators without starting over.
The bar
This is written down and SSU works to it. Quoted as written:
A fix that works but fails these tests is not done. “Elegant” means one mechanism expressed consistently rather than parallel special cases; “beautiful” applies to deliverables and to the artifacts the owner reads: reports, prompts, and dashboards are part of the product.
“Beautiful” is on that list because the report you read every month is as much the product as the system that generates it.
In practice
How SSU will ask you for decisions
When SSU needs something from you, you will get the decision stated in one line, what is blocked without it, two to four options with their cost and reversibility, and its recommendation with a default.
You will never be asked a vague question, and you will never be asked for something SSU could have looked up itself.
Accountability
Every system should make it possible to answer: What is current? Where did this information come from? Who owns the next decision? What changed? How was it tested? What happens if it needs to be reversed?
In practice that means event records instead of silent edits, version and review states instead of guesswork, evidence for completion claims, and backup and rollback readiness before changes go live. Important actions carry visible responsibility and human approval, not just an automated result.
In development
SAGE, the Synergistic Agent Guidance Engine, is a local-first operations platform SSU is building. It is installed and in active internal use while development continues. It is not commercially available.
It brings together source-grounded retrieval, project state, decision support, reviews, handoffs, and provider-flexible AI assistance, while keeping consequential actions under human control.
It grows out of the same operating patterns as the client work: one source for each fact, explicit roles and authority, evidence before completion claims, durable handoffs, visible quality checks, and recoverable change.
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