Management consulting and custom application development for operating businesses.
Software shaped to how your company actually works — built by people who have run the operations it serves.
What we do
Operational & management consulting
We work with owners and operators on process, reporting, and systems decisions — scoped to one problem, done when it's solved.
Custom application development
Internal tools, workflow systems, and integrations between the systems you already run — built when off-the-shelf software doesn't fit your business.
Selected work
Production & scheduling system for a modular manufacturer
A 15-station line was scheduled in spreadsheets. The system we built now plans capacity, advances modules from the shop floor, and tracks each one by QR code to the job site.
Manufacturing · Scheduling · Field trackingEstimating platform replacing a spreadsheet workflow
Every bid was rebuilt by hand in Excel. Our versioned estimating engine goes from drawings to bill of materials to client-ready proposal — validated against the company's own historical bids.
Month-end close and job-cost automation for a construction group
Month-end close ran on weeks of manual journal entries. We automated WIP schedules, payroll allocations, and owner billing against the existing ERP — matching the controller's exact postings.
Accounting · ERP integration · AutomationClient names withheld. References available on request.
Design the system around the company — not the company around the system.
How we work
- Fixed scope, in writing. A signed MSA and SOW — you know the deliverables and the price before we start.
- Your IP, on payment. Deliverable IP assigns to you when the invoice is paid. No lock-in, no licensing tail.
- Working software over decks. Short feedback loops and something you can use — not a slide about it.
Engagement
Scope
A working session on the problem, then a written SOW: deliverables, timeline, price.
Build
Working software to react to every week or two — not a reveal at the end.
Ship
Deployed into your real workflow, alongside the systems you already run.
Handoff
IP assigns on payment. Documentation, training, and support if you want it.
Who
Michael Li
OPERATOR · INVESTOR · BUILDER
What makes Michael useful isn't one credential. It's that he has seen business from three seats that almost never meet — he has done the work, financed the work, and built the software that runs it.
Personal trainer. Restaurant server, and the kitchen behind one. A boba shop. Painter on residential job sites. He has worked the jobs most advisors have only modeled — so when an owner describes a problem, he has usually stood where it happens.
A decade in private equity across software, hardware, manufacturing, SaaS, and service businesses — then operating roles in modular construction and manufacturing, including two years leading a manufacturer's restructuring out of bankruptcy. He knows how different kinds of companies actually make and lose money.
The development practice began as software he built to run those businesses — production scheduling, estimating, and accounting systems used daily on factory floors and job sites.
Explain your operation to him once, and he knows what has to change on the floor, what it means for the numbers, and what the software has to do. That's the difference from finance people who never worked the work — and from AI builders who never ran a business. He studied Economics and Technology Management at UC Santa Barbara, works in English and Mandarin, and is based in California.
"Shape the OS around the company — not the company around the OS." From his design thesis, Li-OS — read it at michaelli.co
Contact
If you have an operational problem that software should be solving, call — or write a few sentences about it. We reply to every serious inquiry.