I build the systems small businesses actually run on.
E-commerce platforms, marketing automation, analytics, and applications, designed, built, and operated end to end by a deliberately small firm. The founder does the work, with senior specialists on call when a project needs them.
You have revenue, customers, and a mess.
A platform you have outgrown, marketing that is not measured, data you cannot see, and a parade of vendors who each own one piece and none of the outcome.
Agencies
Hand you off to the junior bench the moment the contract is signed.
Freelancers
Build the thing, send the invoice, and vanish when it breaks.
AI consultants
Sell you a demo. The gap between the demo and your business is your problem.
There is another model.
Small on purpose. The whole system, still running.
A deliberately small firm
You work directly with the founder who designs, builds, and runs your system. When a project needs specialized hands, I bring in senior people I have worked with for years. What never changes: I own the outcome.
Built, then operated
I do not build and vanish. Systems I have shipped are running in production for clients right now, and I run them.
Business first, technology second
The pattern has not changed in thirty years: understand the business, find the leverage, build the system, execute.
Honest technology
AI where it earns its keep, skipped where it doesn't. Sometimes the right answer is a spreadsheet, a cron job, or telling you not to build the thing at all.
What happens if I get hit by a bus?
If you are considering a small firm, you should ask this. Here is the honest answer: you own everything, so my bus problem does not become your business problem.
I am not a firm pretending to be bigger than it is. I have senior specialists on call for work that needs them, and there is no proprietary stack, no hostage data, and no black box. If I vanish tomorrow, you hire any senior developer and they inherit a clean house, not a rescue project.
Ask an agency the same question and listen carefully to the answer.
Your accounts
When your system goes live, it runs in accounts you own. Stripe, Shopify, hosting, all of it, at the subscription level the system actually needs.
Your code
At production, the codebase is cleaned and delivered to your own GitHub repository.
Your runbooks
Every system ships with handoff documentation written for the next developer, whoever that is.
What I build and run
Commerce platforms and migrations
Stripe, Shopify, custom fulfillment, subscription billing, customer portals. Includes rescuing you off legacy vendors without losing your history.
Marketing systems that report to you
Lead-generation funnels, assessments, email automation, paid advertising with full attribution. You see what every dollar did.
Applications
Web apps and native iOS, deployed and maintained in production.
Analytics and financial reporting
Sales dashboards, income statements, survey analytics, quantitative modeling. Decisions from data you can actually trust.
Knowledge products from your content
Your videos, books, and expertise transcribed, fact-checked against primary sources, and turned into products that answer your customers' questions with citations. This is where AI earns its keep.
Content operations
Book development, live seminars, video production pipelines.
Systems in production, not case studies on a shelf
Complete commerce replatform for a nationally known retirement-income author
Migration off a legacy vendor to Stripe and Shopify with custom fulfillment, a customer account portal, and live financial reporting across a $5M+, 9,500-customer history.
Commerce and content platform for a youth sports choreography company
Storefront, membership delivery, a routine-building web app, video pipeline, sales analytics, and a native iOS app in the App Store.
AI sales-training assistant built from 27+ hours of one expert's video
Transcribed, fact-checked against primary sources, and delivered as a subscription product that answers questions with citations and the exact video moment.
Live lead generation for financial advisors
Landing pages, assessments, email automation, and Meta advertising with full attribution, in production and producing.
Community survey analytics for an Ohio township
Patron and vendor surveys with automated sentiment analysis and qualitative reporting for staff.
Market analysis built on Hidden Markov Models and Bayesian inference
Statistical regime detection running live for a private client.
The people who write the checks
Brian GriffinDirector of Communication, Cincinnati AFL-CIO Labor Council
"George is the rare intersection of business and technology - an amazingly effective bridge between two disparate skill sets. His ability to command both tech and business communication makes him invaluable where innovation meets execution."
Mary MurthaOwner, Cheer Builder
"As a startup, George provided me invaluable insight and guidance to launch my business. He continues to impact every aspect of our growth with positive energy and answers to all of my questions. His work ethic is unparalleled and any client will receive this same attention to detail."
Dr. Jon Cook, PhD, PMPFront End Innovation Diamond Leader, Procter & Gamble
"What sets George apart is his thorough approach to understanding business needs before proposing solutions. His attention to detail and focus on customer outcomes consistently exceeded our expectations in complex enterprise environments."
Bob RalstonQuality Rep, Ford Motor Company
"When it comes to transforming marketing into measurable business success, his expertise is truly unmatched."
Bob KellyPresident, KPG Creative
"I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with George for over 20 years. His professionalism is above reproach, and I would trust him with my most sensitive information."
Susan LawsonOwner, Word Wrangler
"Having worked with George for nearly 40 years, I can attest to his unwavering commitment to clients. He brings creativity and dedication to every project, providing innovative ideas and honest opinions."
I am George Farnell.
I have spent thirty years where business meets technology: co-founded a payment platform adopted by 80 of the top 100 US financial institutions, built data-mining systems on neural networks and genetic algorithms in the mid-1990s, thirty years before the AI hype, led sales and marketing for an omnichannel software company, and built more systems than I can count for businesses that needed them to work, not to impress.
Today I run Listening Glass LLC as a deliberately small firm: I do the work, senior specialists join when a project calls for them, and clients get the founder every time.
Most of my work is with financial services professionals, educators and authors with content worth productizing, and niche commerce businesses. If your business needs systems that produce revenue instead of promises, we should talk.
Tell me what's broken.
Email, phone, or the form. I respond within one business day.
- Emailgeorgemfarnell@gmail.com
- Phone(513) 417-3840
- LinkedInlinkedin.com/in/gfarnell