The Tahoe Build Retreat AI Advisory SaaS Go-To-Market Investing

OpenClaw Hermes Chief of Staff Wealth Tracker

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.

Build Your First AI Agent Free 1-Hour AI Audit

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.

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For 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 audit

Just 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.

AI Advisory Searcher OS Founder

Acquire Cash-Flowing Assets

Strip malls, short-term rentals, syndications, and business acquisitions. Every asset evaluated on one metric: cash-on-cash return.

Investment Thesis

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.

SaaS Product

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.

Learn more Visit site

Advisory

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 Systems

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.

See how an engagement works

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe at sunset

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.

Aug 28 to 30, 2026 South Lake Tahoe 8 seats

See the retreat

From the Blog

Recent writing.

The Daily Loop: Where the Second Brain Earns Its Keep

July 15, 20266 min read

The markdown vault was the memory. This is the loop that feeds it, queries it, and patrols it — the morning ingest, the 4-button brief, recall on demand, and the overnight patrol. With a starter version you can set up today.

I Cancelled 5 Apps and Built My Own Wealth Tracker in an Afternoon

June 25, 20264 min read

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

June 23, 20266 min read

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

June 17, 20264 min read

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

June 11, 20264 min read

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

May 28, 20264 min read

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

April 21, 20266 min read

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

April 16, 20265 min read

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

April 10, 20268 min read

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.

March 26, 20264 min read

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.

March 20, 20268 min read

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.

March 19, 20263 min read

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.

March 18, 20264 min read

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.

March 17, 20264 min read

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.

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One email per post: the AI systems, the acquisition screens, and the real numbers — including what didn't work.