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STOA

You built a business. Now, your software is limiting what you can do with it.

Your customers, your jobs, your numbers are all in there. You ask for a feature and the answer is no. So your team does it by hand, every day.

And now everyone tells you AI changes everything. Nobody shows you where to start or help you to get there.

We do. We build the missing piece next to the software you already run, then teach your team to use it. You are never on your own.

what you asked your software

  • “Email our 7,000 customers.”Not supported
  • “One report on last month's jobs, by tech.”Not available
  • “Add one field to the job form.”On the roadmap

Whatever feature and outcome your business needs, built to deliver.

Done

STOA is the tech and software team for small businesses that don't have one

Growth is loud

More customers. More trucks. More people. More noise.

Growth should feel like progress. Too often it feels like chaos. Every new job adds a workaround. Every new hire asks where things are. Every answer lives in your head.

You want the business calm. You want to know what is happening without chasing it.

Illustration of an owner buried in paperwork and ringing phones

Sound familiar?

You asked your software for one thing. The answer was no.

  • You asked the vendor for one thing. You got a help article and "it's on the roadmap."

  • A customer asks a simple question. The answer takes two days and ten steps.

  • The one person who knew how to pull the report or use the feature left, and the result left with her.

  • You were told it could do everything. Then you met the implementation team.

  • License renewal is coming. You can't leave, and you're not sure you want to stay.

  • A new truck, a new location, a new service. The software didn't adapt.

  • The platform went down for a day. So did the whole company.

  • You tried ChatGPT. It was impressive. It still can't see your customer list or build the internal tool you actually need.

None of this
is your fault.

Your software was built for thousands of businesses, so it fits none of them exactly. Nobody can make it do more. Not your staff. Not your vendor. The gap gets filled by people, by hand, forever. That costs you revenue, not just time.

More revenue out of your operations, and confidence in every technology decision behind it, AI included. We guide those decisions like a CTO would, and we build what we recommend.
We don't sell software, so we've got no stake in which.

Trusted by
  • Addiction
  • Cross
  • Diversecity
  • Edular
  • FMN
  • GATC
  • Global Exportise
  • GW Law
  • Hidrau
  • Industrial
  • Meetwork
  • Injury
  • Innova
  • Julie
  • KlassApps
  • LawTech
  • LayerLogix
  • M2E
  • Meetflow
  • MyITGuy
  • NASS
  • SaaS
  • SCC
  • Uptown
  • Wildfire
  • WV
  • Seatons
  • Bahia Soliman

What we do

We build the missing piece next to what you already run.

Everything your business knows is already in there. Your customers, your jobs, your invoices. We get a live copy of it into a database you own. Then we build the piece you are missing on top of that copy.

Your software keeps running exactly as it is.

  1. 01

    Your software

    Keeps running exactly as it is.

  2. 02

    A live copy

    Your customers, jobs and invoices, copied out.

  3. 03

    A database you own

    The copy lives somewhere you control.

  4. 04

    The missing piece

    Built on top of that copy.

Illustration of a pet care front desk

Pet care

A pet care business had seven thousand customers sitting in their booking software with no way to email any of them. Now they can. The booking software did not change.

Illustration of a sales rep pulling a report in a warehouse

Distribution

A distributor's sales reps waited a week on the office for a report. Now they pull it themselves. The accounting system was never touched.

Where AI fits

Worried you're behind on AI?
With STOA, you're not.

76% of small businesses use AI. Only 14% run it in their core operations.

Source: Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses Voices survey, with Babson College and David Binder Research. 1,256 owners surveyed. Released March 2026.

The gap between those two numbers is not the tools. Everyone can buy the same tools. The gap is your data, and knowing where AI pays off. We close both.

  • Your data, ready for AI

    AI can only work on what it can reach. We put a live, clean copy of your customers, jobs and invoices in a database you own. Your software keeps running as it is.

  • AI that does real work

    Answers from your own records, in plain language. Requests sorted and routed. Documents read and filed. Research a person does by hand today, done by an AI agent.

  • The right calls, not the most calls

    We tell you where AI pays off in your business, and where it doesn't. Not every task needs AI.

  • Your team, brought along

    We train the people who use it every day. If someone inside your company leads technology, we back them up.

Why owners trust us with this

No surprises. You see everything in writing first.

  • A written spec before you pay

    What we build, what's out of scope, and the price. In your inbox within two days of the brainstorm.

  • One fixed price

    No hourly meter on the first build.

  • A way out

    If we can't connect to your systems, we stop after the first stage. You owe nothing further.

  • A fractional CTO, with or without a build

    Every technology decision, made with someone on your side.

  • No stake in your software

    We don't sell it, so we never push you to switch.

  • Local

    We're in Durham, NC.

Alejandro Morales, COO & Co-founder of STOA

Meet the person you'll talk to

I'm Alejandro Morales. I lead STOA.

I've had to start over more than once, far from home. It taught me to find a way when there isn't an obvious one. That's the job here: your software and your operations say no, and we find a way.

When you book a chat, you talk to me. I'll ask what your software won't do, and I'll tell you honestly if we can help.

The entry point

Two ways to start.

Need something built? · 4 to 8 weeks

A First Build. $7,500.

Fixed scope, fixed price, three payments. You get your data in a database you own, a server it runs on, and the one thing you told us was missing. Then we train your team to use it.

  1. On signature$2,500
  2. At demo$2,500
  3. At handover$2,500

If we can't connect to your systems, we stop after the first stage. You owe nothing further.

Need a technology lead first? · No build required

Fractional CTO.
From $4,800 a month.

We take the vendor calls, review the contracts, and tell you what to build, buy or leave alone.

  • Every recommendation in writing

  • A reply within one business day

  • Every renewal flagged 90 days before its notice deadline

The two questions

Two questions tell us if this is for you.

  1. Question 01

    What one piece of software would break your business if it went down tomorrow?

  2. Question 02

    What have you asked it to do that it can't?

Your answer to the second one is what we build first.

Can you answer both? Book the 45-minute brainstorm. Not yet? Book a 15-minute chat, and we will work out together whether there is anything here for you.

Not ready to talk?

Start with our free tools. No email needed.

Try them on your own time. Come back when you want help.

See the free tools

Next step

We are not your IT company.

An IT company keeps your systems running. We decide what gets built on them, and build it. With or without a build, we can act as your fractional CTO, so every technology decision gets made with someone on your side.