A short introduction
Hi, I'm Seth Forte. I build and run the automation behind growing businesses.
Who I am
I spent years keeping a national bank's critical systems standing. Now I build that same reliability for growing businesses.
Before Launch Forte I was a senior software engineer and reliability engineer at a national bank, on the team responsible for systems that could not go down. That work is where I learned the habits I still build with today: monitor everything, alert before the customer notices, write it down so the next person can run it, and never ship something you cannot explain in one sentence.
I started Launch Forte because I kept meeting owners who had bought good tools and were still doing the work by hand. Proposals, invoices, follow ups, reports, moving information from one place to another. The busywork that keeps you in the business instead of growing it. That is what I take off your plate.
I do this full time, I do not outsource it, and I keep the client list short on purpose. The person who scopes your build is the one who builds it.
Off the clock
I work from a small office in Dallas Fort Worth, Texas, with my wife and our daughter close enough to interrupt me at lunch. Off the clock it is the gym, whipping up meals, video games, board games, time with family, and a standing effort not to completely roast in the Texas heat!
What makes this different
The whole business first. Then the smallest build that moves it.
Most of what gets posted is a task. I read it for the business underneath: how the money comes in, where it leaks, which tool is the bottleneck, what has to run clean before anything else can. The task is usually one piece of a bigger picture, and the bigger picture is what I am building toward. We start with the smallest piece worth taking, prove it on real data, and stack the next one on it, so the system ends up running the business instead of becoming one more thing to manage.
Who this is for
Owners doing real revenue who are still the bottleneck in their own operation, with tools already in place that do not talk to each other, who want the work off their plate for good. Fixed price, tested on your data.
Before you compare bids
You will see all kinds of people and bids on Upwork, some at a fraction of my number. The difference is usually whether the person has put this in front of real customers before, or is about to learn on yours and your time, and the standard of professionalism and communication, with the intent of what you are asking matched to your vision.
Three ways in
Audit, build, or partnership. Start wherever the problem is.
Most owners start with the audit: a short call, a written read of what is broken and what it is worth fixing, and a number on it. The audit fee credits toward the first build. If the job you posted already names the build, we skip straight to a fixed price proposal.
I find what is costing you customers and put a number on it. Credits toward the build.
The system the audit points to, built and tested on real data before it goes live.
I stay at the table after launch, with a monthly review and a result you can read in dollars.
Everything before a contract happens in this Upwork thread. Send a message and a call gets set up.
Testimonials
Straight from the clients.
Six clients on camera, in their own words. Every one of these is a build that shipped.
"He stood out from the pack real quickly. We'll use him for any job we ever have."
Matt Juels, Six Months to Speech CRM build and automation for an online coaching program"10 out of 10 experience. Absolutely recommend."
Chelsea Juels, Six Months to Speech Full platform migration from Kajabi to GoHighLevelPricing
Priced by the piece, and you can add it up yourself.
No floors, no packages you have to fit into, and no number that appears without a line behind it. Here is exactly what each part of a build costs and how a few real systems add up.
The Rate Card
Every build is made of six kinds of part. Count the parts your job needs, add them together, and that is the price. Same arithmetic whether the job takes two days or two months.
A system is any app your business already uses that the build has to touch. Your CRM is one. Your accounting software is one. Your website forms, your phone system, your email, a spreadsheet you keep numbers in, each one is a system.
The tool doing the connecting does not count. Zapier, Make, or whatever runs the automation in the background is plumbing rather than a place your information lives, so you never pay a line for it.
Counting yours: a build that pulls website forms into your CRM and pushes paid invoices into QuickBooks touches three systems. The first two are already inside the prices above, so the third adds one line at $300.
Price It Yourself
Count the parts your job needs. The total updates as you go, and it uses the same six numbers from the card above, so you can check the arithmetic by hand if you want to.
Fixed once we agree the list. If your job turns out to have more in it than you counted here, you see the new list and the new number before anything starts.
How Real Systems Add Up
Five builds, smallest to largest, priced off the card above at the full rate. Every line is a thing that exists when the work is done. Any of these lands lower on a real quote when a part is something I have built before.
A single connection
"I am copying the same handful of numbers from one place into another every single day."
Or: "I need my Make scenario writing into QuickBooks."
Orders into the books, with a daily view
"Every order gets typed into the books by hand, and I never know where the month stands until it closes."
Or: "Shopify to QuickBooks sync with a sales dashboard on top."
A CRM that runs itself
"Our pipeline stages mean different things to different people, and follow up only happens when somebody remembers."
Or: "Rebuild our CRM stages and set up the follow up messages."
Speed to lead
"A missed call is a lost job. We call people back hours later and they have already booked somebody else."
Or: "Missed call text back with lead routing into the CRM."
An inventory and reorder system
"Tell me what to reorder and when, across every product and every warehouse, so we stop running out and stop over ordering."
Or: "Inventory coverage and reorder engine across all locations."
- Deciding what one unit even is, when the same item is counted as singles and as cases
- Coverage measured against real demand rather than the calendar
- Every item measured against its own lead time
- Netting products that pull from one shared pool
- Rolling a case up through its parts to the limiting component
- Purchase orders past their date, flagged and held out of the count
- Healthy overall but short at one location, with a transfer suggested
- Missing or broken data flagged rather than quietly dropped
- Items with stock but no forecast, left neutral instead of guessed
- The reorder recommendation itself
Two Fixed Products
The Audit
A full end to end workup of what you are running, what is costing you, and what is worth fixing, with every fix scoped and priced off the card above. It credits toward the build, so if you go ahead it costs you nothing. This is the right first step when the answer is not obvious yet.
Ongoing
Optional after launch. Things drift as your tools update and your business changes, so this covers maintenance, tuning, and a report each week on what the system caught. You own everything either way, and this is a choice rather than a contract you are locked into.
Three Rules I Hold Myself To
The prices never move, only the count does
A bigger job is more pieces at the same rates. If your build turns out to have more in it than the job description said, you see the full list and the new number before any work starts, never after.
The number is fixed before I start
No hourly billing, no meter running, no invoice at the end that is larger than the number you agreed to. If the scope genuinely changes, that is a conversation before it happens rather than a line item after.
If I cannot price it honestly, I will not price it
Some jobs do not have enough detail to quote without guessing. When that happens I will tell you exactly which two or three things I need to know instead of putting a made up number in front of you.
See how I work.
What I Build
Engineering engagements, built to last.
Most Upwork projects get scoped as a task. I scope mine as an engineering engagement, ex: CRM builds that survive volume, lead systems that hold every contact, reporting your team trusts, and AI agents that earn their place. Same rigor whether you come through Upwork or direct.
Revenue Infrastructure
The operational foundation everything else compounds on. CRMs that match how the team sells. Payment infrastructure that closes the loop back to attribution. The architecture decisions most growing businesses skipped.
Lead and Customer Systems
Turning marketing spend into revenue you can see. Instant response on every form, routing that puts the right lead in front of the right person, follow up that never drops a contact, and conversion that happens before the lead loses interest.
AI Agents and Orchestration
AI that replaces the part of the work the team can't afford to do manually. Voice agents that qualify callers. Chatbots configured with the real sales process. Engineering past what the platform gives you.
Reporting and Dashboards
The capability to make decisions from clean data. Pipeline visibility, ad attribution, operational dashboards from data the team trusts. Built on architecture that holds up under scrutiny.
Custom Builds and Integrations
When the off the shelf answer doesn't fit. Standalone apps, financial data pipelines, dispatch systems. The integrations that connect platforms that don't otherwise talk.
Engineering and Reliability
Monitoring, alerting, error handling, documentation. The operational rigor that separates a build that works on day one from a build that survives volume and team turnover.
Recent Engagements
Engineering work that moved businesses.
A handful of recent builds across different industries. Outcomes are real.
Court records automation
Replaced manual court records pulls with one automated pipeline. 130+ hours per month recovered. Roughly $52K per year in labor costs eliminated.
Shopify to Xero product sync
Engineered a Shopify to Xero sync that replaced a discontinued integration. Bulk fetch reduced 157 API calls to 2. 60 hours of manual data entry per month, eliminated. Hasn't required intervention since launch.
GPS gated dispatch system
Four phase dispatch system for a mobile commercial tire service. Dynamic pricing, GPS arrival verification, proof gate with photos and DOT verification, automated balance invoicing. Replaced manual phone dispatch.
AI booking agent
AI booking agent integrated with the clinic's practice management system. Patients book, reschedule, and cancel without staff intervention. 24/7 availability across 10+ locations.
Multi client ad reporting
Automated monthly ad spend reporting for an agency managing multiple clients with different fee structures. Replaced a one day per month per client manual process. The visibility layer they couldn't get from the platforms directly.
What Clients Say
"Seth is my go-to for all of my automation projects now. His process in defining the project scope ahead of time ensures that I get everything I need and we're on the same page throughout."
"Extremely knowledgeable and patient. He thought outside the box to offer solutions we did not consider. Highly recommend and we will use him again."
"Seth is an amazing rare breed. He is not just focused on what is asked of him, he actually scopes the need to make sure the work meets your need to the maximum level. Brilliant Developer and the kind of man you wished was your neighbor."
"If you need an automation specialist, stop looking right now and hire Seth. He will blow your mind with his knowledge and his ability to take your idea and not only understand what you want to achieve but also build on it without ever overwhelming you with jargon. His communication is phenomenal, and you will always know the next steps for your project. I was absolutely blown away by the experience working with Seth, and I highly recommend him!"
How It Works
How every engagement runs.
Discovery
We talk through what's going on. What tools you have, what's broken. If there's a clean build here, I'll tell you. If there isn't, I'll tell you that too.
Architect
I design the system before writing code. Data flow, integration points, failure handling. The architecture decides whether the build survives volume.
Build
I write a clear scope, build it, test with real data, and keep you in the loop. Fixed timeline, fixed price.
Handoff
Every build includes testing on your real data, handoff documentation, one walkthrough session, and thirty days of support after go live. You own everything I build. Partnership picks up here if you want it.
Where the work lives
Launch Forte is my company.
The audits, the builds, and the partnerships all run through it, and Upwork is one door in. If you are ready to start, an Upwork message is the fastest way, and the full practice is at launchforte.com when you want the bigger picture.
Visit Launch ForteFound me on Upwork? Reach me either way.
This page exists so that anyone who found me on Upwork can find me here too. If the platform is where you are comfortable hiring, use it. If you would rather book the audit or just email me, that is the same engineer and the same standards, with no platform in between. Your call which door.