Who we're for

By industry

Title & escrow Insurance brokerages Property management Specialty trade contractors Used auto dealerships All industries →

By workflow

Client intake & status Job & claims tracking Internal operations dashboard Partner & vendor access Scheduling & pipeline Reporting See all workflows →
Pricing About Insights Book a free call
Custom operational software

Stop renting software that almost fits your business.

We design and build custom applications, workflow automation systems, and web-based management platforms for professional service businesses — architected around how you actually operate, and delivered end to end.

See pricing ↓

No cost, no obligation. Erick replies within a day to set a time. If it's a fit, the next step is a $1,500 Blueprint, credited in full toward your build.

Built, deployed, and supported Your system, your domain, no vendor lock Over a decade of enterprise systems experience

You know something's broken. You just can't always name the fix.

Payments you can't cleanly track. Onboarding that drags on for days. A job that doesn't move until you're on the phone. A status nobody can answer without asking you.

A platform we built, launched, and still maintain.

The fastest way to judge a builder is to look at something they own, maintain, and put their name on. DoulaFlow was built with its co-founder Megan, a practicing doula, for her own practice first, and no feature ships until a working doula approves it. It took two months to build and went live in June 2026, then spent two months in beta before its public launch in August. It's been hosted and maintained since, the same way the Care Plan runs for clients.

Live since June 2026

DoulaFlow

Practice management software for birth workers

mydoulaflow.com ↗
Scope equivalent Operations Platform Build + beta About 4 months

Before

Megan built her practice on six tools that didn't share data: Airtable, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, Canva, SignWell, and printed intake packets. Every client's details lived in several places at once, and asking a family for a late payment meant writing that awkward message herself.

After

Intake through signed contract is now one link. Every client's stage, documents, invoices, and appointments sit in one record, and each family gets a private portal she can open on her phone.

app.mydoulaflow.com/clients
The DoulaFlow clients list, showing each client's due date, next appointment, services, and stage.

Swipe to see the full screen →

Every client's stage, due date, and next appointment on one row, so the whole caseload fits in a single view instead of six tools.

Client records Scheduling & appointments Secure documents E-signature Invoices & payment reminders Client messaging Client portal Reporting

Recognize your own version of the "before"?

Built for businesses where the process is the product.

Each of these runs on workflows that live in email, spreadsheets, and one veteran's memory. We build around the software you already run, not in place of it.

Title & escrow Agents and lenders call all day asking where a file stands, and your escrow officer stops to answer. A file board and status links that sit alongside SoftPro, Qualia, ResWare, or RamQuest. Insurance brokerages Every policy change gets re-keyed onto a carrier form and waits in someone's inbox. A servicing layer: client requests with tracked status, one staff queue, and renewal reminders. Property management Maintenance, owner questions, and turnover run on a chain of calls across five inboxes. Work orders, turnover checklists, and owner status links beside your accounting software. Specialty trade contractors Inspections, certifications, and test reports live in a spreadsheet and a technician's truck. A job and compliance record for every site, with inspections that schedule themselves. Used auto dealerships Warranty claims turn into phone tag between the customer and three service shops. Customers start claims and self-schedule, shops update status, and staff see every claim in one place.
See every industry in detail → Not on the list? See the workflows we build for any business →

A five-figure build shouldn't feel like a leap of faith.

Every build, from a focused internal app to a full client-facing platform, runs in controlled stages. You see working software at each step and sign off before it moves forward, and the price is fixed at the Blueprint, so the number never moves on you mid-project.

01

Free call

30 minutes on the problem, what you've tried, and whether a custom build is the right fit.

No cost, no obligation
02

Blueprint

Usually 1–2 weeks. We map the process and lock a fixed scope and price before any build begins.

You approve the plan
03

Foundation

Architecture and data model come first, since everything else sits on them.

You see the shape
04

Built in stages

Features arrive as working pieces, and you test each one as it lands.

Demo & feedback each stage
05

Refine

We iterate on what you've seen until it matches how you work.

Nothing ships without sign-off
06

Launch & support

Deployed to your own domain, configured, and backed by a post-launch support window.

It's yours
Fixed price, set at the Blueprint

You know the full number before the build starts. No runaway budget, no surprise invoices.

Working software at every stage

You're never months in with nothing to show. Progress is visible from the first stage on.

Support without the lock-in

Every package includes 90 days of post-launch support. After that, the Care Plan is month to month, with no long-term contract.

Pricing

Every project starts with a Blueprint.

Before we quote a build, we map your process and define exactly what gets built. You own the Blueprint outright, so it is a build-ready spec you can execute with us or hand to your own developers.

Step one

Blueprint

A paid engagement, usually 1–2 weeks, that ends with a fixed scope, a recommended architecture, and a firm price. No guesswork, no surprise invoices.

  • Process & workflow mapping
  • Data model & recommended architecture
  • Feature scope & functional requirements
  • Fixed-price build quote
Flat
$1,500
Credited in full toward your build

Then we build.

One question sorts most projects: who logs in?

Launch
One focused application, live on your domain.
Starts at
$8,000
Typically 4–6 weeks
Best when Your team needs the system. Your clients do not log in.
  • One core workflow, built around how your team works
  • Secure login with user roles and permissions
  • Custom dashboard and reporting
  • Deployed end to end on your own domain
  • 90 days of post-launch support
Where most projects land
Workflow
Your whole process, running end to end.
Starts at
$15,000
Typically 6–10 weeks
Best when The process reaches outside your team, but your clients still do not need accounts.
  • Everything in Launch
  • Multiple connected workflows in one system
  • Automated documents, contracts, and e-signature
  • Clients and vendors respond through secure links, with no logins to manage
  • Automated reminders and follow-ups so nothing stalls
Operations Platform
A system your team and your clients both live in.
Starts at
$25,000
Typically 10–16 weeks
Best when Your clients need their own secure login.
  • Everything in Workflow
  • Client portal with its own secure login
  • Payments, scheduling, and messaging
  • Third-party API and system integrations
  • Role-based access enforced at the data layer

Custom Platform

Native mobile apps, multi-location architecture, and builds in regulated industries. Scoped individually from the Blueprint.

$40,000+

Care Plan

Ongoing support after launch, billed month to month. New features are scoped and quoted separately.

  • Managed hosting & uptime
  • Priority bug fixes
  • No long-term contract
From
$450/mo

Twelve years untangling Fortune 500 operations — now focused on yours.

Emberforge is led by Erick Quintanilla, who spent over twelve years as a developer and process consultant inside some of the most complex, heavily regulated organizations in the country, across banking, healthcare, and aviation. The work was the unglamorous core of how large enterprises run: mapping broken workflows by hand, automating the manual steps, and connecting systems that were never built to talk to each other. That same discipline goes into your business: understand the process first, then build the system around it. The only thing that's changed is speed: modern tooling now delivers in weeks what used to take enterprise teams months.

Founder
Erick Quintanilla · LinkedIn ↗
Based in
Chattanooga, TN
Background
12+ years in banking, healthcare & aviation
Email
Erick@EmberforgeWorks.com

Workflows mapped before code

Every build starts by documenting how the work moves today, step by step, the same way it's done inside large regulated operations.

Regulated-industry experience

Built for businesses where accuracy, security, and compliance aren't optional.

Analyst and builder in one

The person who maps your process is the person who builds the system. Nothing lost in the handoff.

Questions

Before you book a call.

What happens on the free call?

About 30 minutes. You walk through what's slowing the business down and what you've tried so far, and we work out whether custom software is the right answer and roughly where it would land on the pricing above.

If it's a fit, the next step is a $1,500 Blueprint, credited in full toward your build. If it isn't, there's no obligation.

Who owns the software when it's done?

You do. Once the build is paid in full, the system, its source code, and your data belong to you, running on your own domain.

Emberforge brings a set of reusable tools and components to every project, and your system includes a permanent license to use them. If you need exclusivity in your market, that's scoped and priced in the Blueprint.

How long does a build take?

The Blueprint usually takes 1–2 weeks. Builds typically run 4–6 weeks for Launch, 6–10 weeks for Workflow, and 10–16 weeks for an Operations Platform. Custom Platform builds are scoped individually.

Could an off-the-shelf tool or no-code app do this instead?

Sometimes, and when one fits your needs it will usually beat a custom build on cost, support, and reliability. Custom software earns its keep when your process is stitched together from tools that don't talk to each other, when you're bending the business to fit someone else's template, or when the real work lives in spreadsheets on the side.

The free call is a good place to find out which situation you're in. There's a longer breakdown in When Custom Software Makes Sense for a Small Business.

Why not hire a freelancer, an offshore team, or my own developer?

You can, and the Blueprint is written so you could hand it to any of them. Working with Emberforge means a fixed price before the build starts, working software to review at every stage, and one person who both maps your process and builds the system, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.

You work directly with the founder, based in Chattanooga, TN, on Eastern time.

If AI can write code, why not build it myself?

AI tools make writing code faster, and Emberforge uses them. They don't decide what the system should do, how your data should be structured, or who's allowed to see what, and they don't keep it secure and running once your clients depend on it. That judgment is what the Blueprint and the build are for.

What happens after launch?

Every package includes 90 days of post-launch support. After that, the optional Care Plan covers managed hosting and priority bug fixes from $450/month, month to month. New features are scoped and quoted separately. Your ownership of the system doesn't depend on it.

Start with a free 30-minute call.

Tell us what's slowing the business down. If custom software is the right fix, the next step is a Blueprint. If it isn't, you'll hear that too.

No cost, no obligation. Erick replies within a day to set a time.