Nobody at your company actually uses your CRM. And the data isn't even yours.
I build custom CRMs around your company's real process: the 20% you actually use, no per-seat licenses, with code and data you own — in Europe. And if a standard CRM is enough for you, I'll tell you in the first call, for free.
30 minutes · If custom isn't worth it, I say so · Reply within 24 hours
The signs your CRM is working against you.
- You have a big-name CRM, paid per seat, and two people in the whole company use it — reluctantly.
- You bent your processes to the software instead of the other way round: useless fields, double entry, workarounds.
- The automations were written by a consultant years ago inside the platform, and nobody knows how they work anymore.
- Your customers' data lives on servers outside Europe, and you don't even know exactly what would happen if you cancelled.
- Every renewal costs more, and switching feels scary because "everything is in there by now".
The generic CRM bent you to its processes.
A standard CRM is built for the average company — which is to say, for none. To make it work you added fields, bought modules, paid consultants to write automations inside the platform. The result: a system your salespeople avoid, rules nobody can read anymore, and a contract that renews on someone else's terms.
The most delicate point isn't the daily friction: it's ownership. Your business logic — the company's operational asset — lives inside a platform that won't let you take it away, and often doesn't even protect it. I've written about this in detail with Zoho and its function backups: the data exports, the logic doesn't.
The good news: you almost never need to rebuild "the whole CRM". When I actually look at what a company's automations really do, they're almost always simple things — update a field, send an email, compute a total. Most of the value sits in the 20% you use every day: that's what gets built, properly, to measure.
A CRM that's yours, in the full sense of the word.
Built on your process
I don't fold your company into generic software: I start from how you actually work — the 20% you use every day plus the automations that matter — and build that. No ghost fields, no menus nobody opens.
Your code, your data
The code is version-controlled, with history and rollback, and it's your property. The data lives where you decide, in Europe, GDPR without asterisks. No vendor can hold you hostage.
No per-seat licenses
The cost doesn't grow with every hire. A custom CRM is paid to build and maintain, not per head: past a certain size, the math flips in your favour.
Starts from the data you already have
The export from your current CRM — modules, fields, relationships — is the starting point; nothing gets thrown away. Migration is gradual: no big bang, operations never stop.
Readable automations
Business rules live in code, documented and tested — not buried in a platform's functions. Whoever comes after me can read them and change them.
One senior, not an agency
I build it myself, with AI agents speeding up the grunt work and my review on everything. The same person who decides the architecture writes the code and answers for it.
When a custom CRM is NOT the right call.
If a standard CRM truly fits you
If you use the CRM as-is, without forcing it and without custom automations, keep it: it costs less and does its job. I'll be the first to tell you in the call, for free.
If the process doesn't exist yet
A custom CRM crystallizes a way of working. If your sales process changes every month, stabilize that first — then build the software.
If you're shopping for the lowest price
A well-built custom CRM isn't the cheap choice in year one: it's the one that stops charging you per seat and per renewal. If your horizon is short, it's not worth it.
Four steps, without stopping the company.
A 30-minute call
You tell me how you work and what's chafing. If custom doesn't make sense, I say so right there.
Audit of your current CRM
What you actually use, which automations matter, what migrates and what stays behind. Written report.
Build from the core
First the 20% you use every day, working and in production. Then the rest, by priority.
Migration without stopping
Data and automations move over gradually. Code, documentation and access stay with you.
Step two is the same method as the technical audit: a written report that's yours either way. If the project is bigger than a CRM, the path is building a software product.
The questions I get about custom CRMs.
How much does a custom CRM cost?
Less than you'd think, because you don't rebuild "all of Zoho": you build the 20% you actually use plus the automations that matter. Scope is defined after the audit and the price is agreed before starting, in writing. From there on, no per-seat licenses: the cost doesn't grow with every hire.
How long does it take?
It depends on scope, but the method is designed to show results early: we start from the core you use every day and put it in production, then expand by priority. The export from your current CRM is the starting point, and I use AI agents to speed up the repetitive part — data model, imports, basic screens.
What if you're not around anymore?
That's the right question, and the answer is in how I hand over: code you own, version-controlled, documented, with tests where they matter. Any serious developer can pick it up after me. The stated goal is to not be indispensable — the opposite of the lock-in you're escaping.
We have years of data in the current CRM: does it come along?
Yes, and it's the starting point of the work: the export of modules, fields and relationships defines the structure, and the data migrates gradually and verifiably. You don't throw away the company's sales history — you free it from the platform.
Isn't a big-name CRM safer?
Sometimes yes, and in that case I tell you in the first call — free, no strings. But "big-name" doesn't mean "yours": the automations stay inside the platform, the data on servers you don't control, and the contract renews on their terms. I've written about this with Zoho: your business logic is your most valuable and least protected asset.
The CRM should work for you. Not the other way round.
30 free minutes: tell me how you work and I'll tell you whether a custom CRM makes sense — and if it doesn't, which path does. Either way you leave with a clear direction.
30 minutes · No commitment · Reply within 24 hours