Ex-Salesforce & PagerDuty · Solo Founder · Capital Allocator
Joshua Thacker — Founder & Fractional AI Officer.
Former Salesforce and PagerDuty exec. Now I ship production AI agents for operators and business owners, acquire cash-flowing assets, and document the entire process.
The retreat: August 28–30, 2026, 7 of 8 seats left. The audit: free for business owners — no fee, no deck.
For Builders
Build your first AI agent.
A weekend in Tahoe. Drive home Sunday with your agent running on a Mac Mini you keep. August 28–30, 2026 · 7 of 8 seats left.
See the retreatFor Business Owners
Put AI to work in your business.
A free one-hour audit. No fee, no deck, no pitch. You leave with your two to three highest-ROI places an AI agent would pay off.
Book the free auditJust Watching?
Follow the build.
One email per post: the AI systems, the acquisition screens, and the real numbers — including what didn't work.
Looking for a paid strategy session instead? Book time here.
15yr
SaaS Executive Career
$10K+
ARR in 60 Days
70%
Cash Flow Coverage
50
Countries Explored
The Thesis
Time is the only non-renewable asset.
Systems compound. Effort decays. Everything I build ladders back to one outcome: income that doesn't require more of my time as it grows.
Build with AI
Using Claude Code and OpenClaw to build enterprise-grade software as a non-technical solo founder. The leverage has shifted.
Acquire Cash-Flowing Assets
Strip malls, short-term rentals, syndications, and business acquisitions. Every asset evaluated on one metric: cash-on-cash return.
Engineer Autonomy
Replace rented leverage (salary) with designed leverage (systems). Goal: 100% of living expenses covered by asset cash flow by December 2026.
Currently Building
Three bets. One thesis.
SearcherOS
The operating system for business acquisition. A Salesforce-caliber CRM built for people searching to buy a business. Scrapes 100+ broker sites daily. Went from Idea to $10k ARR in <60 days.
AI Advisory
Fixed-bid diagnostics and shipped builds for operators and business owners. I find the workflows where AI agents compound into EBITDA. Then I build them. Operator-built, not strategy-built.
AI Projects
OpenClaw, my AI operating system. Hermes, an AI chief of staff built on a second brain. And a custom wealth tracker that replaced 5 subscriptions. The systems I built to buy back my time.
Work With Me
Fractional AI Officer for operators and business owners.
Fixed-bid diagnostic first, shipped agents second. It starts with a free one-hour audit.
New: A Build Weekend in Tahoe
The Tahoe Build Retreat
Fly in Friday, drive home Sunday with your own AI chief of staff running on a Mac Mini you keep. Two build days, a hike up Mt. Tallac, and a private charter on Emerald Bay.
From the Blog
Recent writing.
I Cancelled 5 Apps and Built My Own Wealth Tracker in an Afternoon
I cancelled 5 finance subscriptions and built one wealth tracker in an afternoon to handle a dozen entities and a stack of K-1s. The build-vs-buy line is moving, and here's the catch nobody mentions.
I Built My Chief of Staff Out of Markdown Files
My personal AI chief of staff runs on a folder of markdown files and a Telegram bot. Here's how the second brain is actually wired, and why it buys back my attention.
Code Where You Can, LLM Where You Can't
Why my best AI agents do as little thinking as possible. The design rule that turned Marcus from a sloppy, expensive deal-screener into a trusted one: deterministic code for the exact work, the model only for genuine ambiguity.
A Front Row Seat to the New Industrial Revolution
Why I left a lucrative SaaS executive role for a front row seat to the AI revolution, and how cash flow plus AI made the leap less risky than it sounds.
The Model Is the Cheap Part
AI adoption is stalling on process, data, and people, not on the models. Why the model is the cheap part of any real deployment.
Mapping the US Business Broker Market
I scraped hundreds of broker sites for 18 months. 17 firms list half of all US small-business inventory. Only 4 operate in all 50 states. Plus a free broker finder tool for searchers.
The Silver Tsunami Deal That Looked Like a Layup
A $1.25M manufacturing deal looked like a 33% return on paper. Then I checked what the owner actually did all day, and the math fell apart. A numbers-driven look at why most sub-$1M acquisitions are a job, not a business.
How to Build a Production App With AI
The exact 8-phase system I use to go from idea to production software. No coding required. Just clear thinking and AI agents.
Two Weeks of Work. Two Hours. Here's How.
A PE firm CEO sent me a long feature list. I shipped it in two hours. The secret isn't prompting. It's decomposition and agents grading agents.
I Built an AI C-Suite Out of Survival. Here's What Actually Works.
How I built a 6-agent AI operating system to run go-to-market, customer ops, and product maintenance as a solo founder. The practical lessons after months of tinkering.
Bob Is My CEO. Bill Handles Bug Fixes. They're All AI.
After 15 years in SaaS, I left corporate to build with AI and buy cash-flowing assets. Here's what happened in the first seven months.
Why 8% in Real Estate Is Not 8% in Stocks.
The real yield stack on a Texas strip mall acquisition. Purchase price, depreciation, rent escalations, and why the comparison to stocks is wrong.
Speed to No.
The most valuable skill in deal screening isn't finding the yes. It's how fast you find the no. A real deal teardown showing why.
Get New Posts
Follow the build.
One email per post: the AI systems, the acquisition screens, and the real numbers — including what didn't work.