Out of the box is out of time.
We think out-of-the-box software has five years left, and we want to be on the side that helps kill it. That's a bet, not a fact, so we put a clock on it. Come back in 2031 and laugh at us if we're wrong.
The bet
For fifty years, buying a box made sense. Building software around one business cost more than most businesses could justify, so you bought what was built for the average customer and you bent. You learned its words. You worked around the piece it was missing. You kept the real rules in a spreadsheet, or in your head.
That math broke. AI cut what it costs to build software for one business, and once exact is in reach of what close-enough costs, we don't think anybody keeps choosing close enough. The big companies will grab this first because that's where the money is. We'd rather everyone else not be last in line.
Nobody ever wanted software. They wanted their business to run the way it runs in their head. - Forecheck AI
What dies. What stays.
We think this goes
- The feature request portal
- The workaround everyone's been trained on
- Six logins to do one job
- The update that moves the button you use all day
- FINAL_v7_USE_THIS_ONE.xlsx
The rails stay
- Payment processing. A partner like Square still moves the money.
- Filing taxes. Your accountant still files.
- Email and text delivery
- Anything regulated or boring enough that nobody should rebuild it
- Your spreadsheet's ideas. That's the spec.
We aren't coming for the rails. We're coming for the box on top of them that makes you work its way.
The custom part
A business operating system is mostly the rules nobody else has. Here are a few from what we've built. Each card says whether it's live or a demo on made-up data, because that matters.
To the box
Two minutes for the things you've been putting up with.
Go ahead, argue
These are the good objections. We'd rather answer them here than pretend they don't exist.
- Who fixes it when you get hit by a bus?
- It's the real question, and the risk isn't zero. Forecheck is a company, and it continues without any one person. Your data is yours: ask and we send a full export. If Forecheck shuts down for good, nobody takes over and you're paid up, you get the code for your system, as is.
- Payments and taxes are regulated. You won't custom-build those.
- Correct. Rails stay. We build the part that decides how your day works, and it sits on top of the boring, regulated pipes.
- AI-written software isn't safe.
- It's a fair worry. Card numbers are typed into the payment partner's secure form and never reach our servers.
- Surveys say companies aren't switching.
- You may be right about today. It's a five-year bet, and we're early on purpose.
- The big vendors will just add AI.
- They will. Then the average customer gets a smarter average, and you're still not the average customer.
- Five years is hype.
- Could be. There's a clock. Come back and laugh.
“This is the system I've always wanted, but couldn't find or couldn't afford. All-encompassing, personalized, and very, very easy to use.”Valarie Unger, MMP, owner of Advanced Body Arizona. Her studio runs on the system we built for it. We built it at no charge. One of our founders is also a client of hers.
What's your weird rule?
Tell us what your software makes you work around. It comes straight to the founders, and we write back ourselves. The build fee and the monthly are both quoted in writing before anything gets built.
The clock is our opinion, not a forecast you should bet a company on. Five years is a long time, and we might be wrong.