About
A notebook, a small advisory practice, and one person doing the work.
Runari, LLC is independently run. I write a weekly note here, and I take a small number of advisory and implementation projects each year. There's no team, no sales department, no account manager. Just the work and the writing.
The background
Who's actually here.
I've spent the last fifteen years as a senior technology strategist at large companies. In plain English: I was the person they brought in to figure out which tools to buy, what to build, and how to keep it all working together.
That work involved a lot of vendor evaluation, a lot of integration planning, a lot of telling executives that the expensive thing they wanted wasn't going to do what the sales deck promised, and occasionally a lot of telling them that the cheap, boring solution was the right one.
Runari is me doing the same kind of work for small businesses. Same job, smaller scale, more interesting people. I still have the day job. This isn't my whole income. It's how I help people I'd enjoy helping, on the side.
The reason this site exists at all: AI is moving fast, the marketing is loud, and small business owners are getting hit with sales pitches every week. They deserve someone who's done a few rounds of this at scale to help them think through it without an agency markup on the other end.
How I work
Six things I believe.
Boring beats exciting.
The boring tools win 80% of the time. They're also where senior judgment matters most, because no marketing department is pushing them.
Problem first, tool last.
Don't start with “what can AI do?” Start with what's eating your time. Then ask whether AI is the cheapest, dumbest way to fix it. It often isn't.
You own what we build.
Your domain, your accounts, your code, your data, your vendor relationships. Nothing is locked behind me. If you walk away tomorrow, everything keeps running.
Honest about cost.
I'll tell you what something will actually cost to run: month one, month six, month twelve. Most surprises in this space are not pleasant ones, so the cost conversation belongs up front.
Small projects, written-down scope.
Every engagement starts with a scope written in plain English: what you get, what it costs, when it ships. No hourly billing games, no scope creep as a revenue model.
Honest about AI.
I use AI where it removes real work. I don't use it where a boring spreadsheet is the right answer. You won't hear me selling magic.
Working on something?
Two short paragraphs about what's on your plate is enough. I'll tell you honestly whether I think I can help, and if not, who might be a better fit.