AI and automation help for small businesses in Charlotte
I help Main Street businesses put AI and automation to work — so the shops that hold communities together can last.
I'm Matt Mahood, and cb+coop is my consultancy. I work with small and mid-sized teams across Charlotte, NC, on site or remote. You work directly with me, the person who builds the system. There's no account layer and no slide deck handed off to someone else.
Where I usually start in a Charlotte business
Most of the teams I talk to aren't short on tools. They have too many, and the work between them is still done by hand. The usual places:
- Intake. Requests come in by email, text, a web form and the phone, and someone retypes them into a spreadsheet.
- Dispatch and scheduling. Jobs, deliveries or appointments get assigned from memory or a group text.
- Follow-up. Quotes, reminders and "just checking in" emails that only go out when someone remembers.
- Handoffs. The point where one person's work becomes another person's problem.
I map the process as it actually runs, including the spreadsheet nobody mentions. Then I build the smallest working version, run it in production and hand it over documented.
Work that's running in Charlotte
- Moovr: a dispatch and partner-marketplace platform for large-item delivery, built and expanded partner by partner.
- South End Exchange: the first partner store on Moovr, the integration that showed the marketplace model worked.
- Oak Island Exchange: partner onboarding that took Moovr's delivery network beyond Charlotte.
More in all case studies.
Where AI fits, and where it doesn't
I put AI where it changes the work and leave it out where it doesn't. In practice that means things like drafting first replies from your own FAQ, sorting incoming requests, or turning a messy notes field into something a scheduler can use. A person still makes the calls that need judgment. Every build gets guardrails, a way to check its output and a way to roll it back. How I approach AI implementation →
Ways to work together
- A project. One process, mapped, built and handed over. Most projects combine two or three of my six services.
- On-site weekly. I'm on site with your team one day a week, with quarterly half-day planning workshops and hands-on lead on your technical projects. $3,000/month, 3-month minimum, then month to month.
- Inbox Lite. A bot for one channel (email or chat) that answers from your FAQ and first-touches within one business hour.
- Free tools first. The Lab turns a few sentences about your situation into an AI implementation map or an automation playbook. No account needed.
FAQ
- Do you meet in person in Charlotte?
- Yes. I cover Charlotte and the surrounding area, and On-site weekly means one day a week in your space. cb+coop is a service-area business, so there's no storefront to visit; we meet at your place or on a call.
- We're a small team. Is this too big for us?
- Most of my clients are small and mid-sized teams. I start with the smallest version that removes real manual work, not a platform rollout.
- Do we have to replace the tools we already use?
- Usually not. I connect what's already running the business, like your spreadsheets, inbox, calendar or monday.com boards (I'm a monday.com partner), before suggesting anything new.
- What does it cost?
- Projects are scoped after a conversation. On-site weekly is $3,000/month with a 3-month minimum. Inbox Lite's pricing is on its page.
- How fast do you reply?
- Usually within one business day.
Tell me what keeps breaking.
Send me the current process and where it falls apart. I'll give you a straight answer about whether it's worth fixing and how I'd sequence it.
Start a conversation →