Custom software & automation · Overland Park, KS
We're a solutions architecture practice. We sit with you, work out what actually needs to happen, and then build the system that does it. Consultants leave you a plan. We leave you a working system.
Why people call us
Nothing is broken, exactly. It just takes three people, four spreadsheets, and a Tuesday to do something that should take a click. Sound familiar?
Someone re-types the same information into a second system every day. It works, until they're out sick — and it quietly costs more per year than the software that would replace it.
You're paying real money every month for a tool that fits you badly, and you've reshaped how you work to match it. The workaround has become the process.
Your pricing, your pipeline, or your reporting lives in a file one person understands. It's held together by their memory, and that's a risk nobody has priced.
Here's what most owners don't know yet: the cost of building custom software has collapsed. A system built around how you actually work is now frequently cheaper than a year of the subscription you're bending yourself around. That gap is the whole reason this practice exists.
How it works
Three phases. You'll know exactly which one we're in, what it costs, and what you get at the end of it.
We sit with you and ask what you're trying to do — not what software you want, what outcome you're after. Then we probe. What's stopping you? Why is that a challenge? We drill down until we hit the real constraint, which is almost never the one named in the first ten minutes.
"What are you actually trying to do here?"
Working backward from the target, we map the business logic: what has to happen, in what order, handled by which system or person, at what cost. We weigh build against buy against replace — and pick the most efficient, reliable path, not the most impressive one. Sometimes the answer is that you don't need us.
"Here is exactly what has to be true for that to work."
We create the infrastructure that executes the logic — applications, automations, pipelines, integrations, websites, calculators. We deploy it, we prove it works against the outcome we agreed to, and we train your people. Then you either take it over or we run it for you.
"It's live. Here's the proof it does what we said."
Proof
Every project gets told the same three ways: what they were trying to do, what we found, and what we built.
A partner needed field reps signing clients immediately. Every document had to go out for signature and every submission had to be tracked. The tool they were leaning on was about to start billing thousands a year.
The partner's need was signatures. The actual constraint was visibility: the controller had to see every new client, which rep signed them, and the live stage of each deal. We also renegotiated the incumbent e-signature vendor before switching anything — when the numbers still didn't work, we moved.
A shared link captures client data, pulls administrator records, prefills the firm's PDFs, and routes them for delivery and compliant e-signature. Every submission lands on a dashboard the controller runs day to day.
Card price and cash price, consistent on every terminal and every invoice their dealer-management system produced, across a multistate operation.
Dual pricing only works if the invoice and the card reader tell the same story. So the work wasn't hardware — it was defining invoice specifications and getting them into the DMS the staff already used, rather than bolting on a parallel process.
100+ physical and virtual terminals configured and deployed, with staff training at every site. When IT policy blocked the LAN and wifi couldn't reach the service lanes, we established a direct carrier relationship and re-specced hardware for dual-SIM redundancy.
How we work together
Nothing here is a retainer you can't see the end of, and nothing is billed hourly. You always know the next number before you agree to it.
Step 1 · Start here
Free30 minutes
A conversation about what you're trying to do. No pitch, no obligation. If we can help, we'll tell you how. If we can't, we'll tell you that and point you somewhere better.
Step 2
From $500credited toward your build
A paid working session that produces a written plan: the target outcome, the business logic to reach it, the recommended approach, and a fixed quote to build it. The plan is yours either way — even if you build it with someone else.
Step 3
From $500most land $2,500–$15,000
Fixed price, scoped from the Blueprint. Milestone delivery with a written update at every milestone. Change requests get re-scoped and re-quoted — never absorbed silently, never surprise-billed.
Step 4 · Optional
Monthlybilled annually
We host what we built, keep it healthy, support your team, and make small improvements as you grow. Priced inside every build proposal so it's never a surprise. Or take the whole thing in-house — it's yours.
The Blueprint fee is credited in full toward your build if you proceed within 30 days. Decide to move forward and the planning cost you nothing. Decide not to, and you still own a written plan you can hand to anyone. We think that's the only fair way to charge for thinking.
Who this is for
Small and mid-sized businesses where the owner can say yes in one meeting. You make money, you run well, and you're doing it on manual processes, spreadsheets, aging tools, or expensive software that fits you poorly. Also founders with an idea who need to see the first version actually working.
We're a bad fit if we can't get time with the people who make the call and the people who'll live with the solution every day. That access is the work, not a nice-to-have.
The line isn't company stage. It's whether you can tell us what you're trying to accomplish. You don't need to know how to build it, or even what should get built. Working that out is the job.
Where we work
We're based in Overland Park, Kansas and meet clients in person across Johnson County — Leawood, Lenexa, Olathe, Shawnee, Prairie Village — and throughout the Kansas City metro on both sides of the state line.
Everything we do also works remotely, and we have clients well outside the area. If you'd rather do the first call over Google Meet than coffee, that's the default.
Who you'll be talking to
I started Refract Spaces because I like talking to business owners. I'm genuinely curious about how people run things — the number of businesses out there, each running its own logic inside a niche I didn't know existed, is endless, and I've never got tired of learning about them.
Before this I designed payments solutions for merchants processing up to $30M a year. That's where I learned the interesting part is never the technology. It's sitting with someone long enough to understand what they're actually trying to do.
That's still the job. I'm the one on your intro call, the one writing your Blueprint, and the one you call when something breaks. And I don't count a project finished at launch — the best feedback always arrives after your people are in the thing, using it on a Tuesday. That's usually when it starts getting genuinely good.
Our job is to help you get what you want. Plain and simple — that's the business we're in.
Start a conversation
Pick a time that works. Tell us how you'd like to talk. That's the whole thing — you'll have a calendar invite in about fifteen seconds.
Times shown in your local time
When works for you?
These are real openings on our calendar right now.
How would you like to talk?
Either way it's thirty minutes and there's nothing to install.
Last step.
Two fields. We'll take it from here.
Rather just talk now? Call (913) 404-8527 — if we're with a client, our assistant takes a message and we call you back.
Questions
Builds start at $500 for a focused piece of work — a website, a calculator, a single automation. Most projects land between $2,500 and $15,000. You get a fixed price inside the Blueprint before you commit to anything, so the number is never a surprise and never improvised on a call.
Consultants study your business and hand you a plan. We plan, probe, and then execute. The engagement ends with working infrastructure, not a slide deck.
Often you shouldn't — and we'll tell you when buying wins. But the cost of building custom software has collapsed. Businesses that once had to rent generic software and bend their operations around it can now afford a system built around how they actually work, frequently for less than a year of subscription fees. We evaluate build, buy, and replace honestly and pick the most reliable path, not the most impressive one.
Thirty minutes, one question: what are you trying to do? We listen and probe until the real constraint surfaces — it is rarely the one named in the first ten minutes. The call ends with a clear next step: we book a Blueprint, we give you a clean no and a pointer somewhere better, or — if something genuinely needs checking first — we tell you exactly what we're going to find out and when you'll hear back. You are never left guessing.
Yes. We're based in Overland Park and work in person across Johnson County and the Kansas City metro. Everything we do also works remotely, and we have clients outside the area.
Two options, both priced up front. We hand it over entirely — it's yours, documented, with your team trained to run it. Or we Run it: hosting, support, monitoring, and small iterative improvements on an annual agreement. Every build proposal includes the Run option by default so you're never surprised by it later.