Sails & Syntax
Technical Insights From The Helm Of The Red Halyard
Welcome aboard Sails & Syntax, the official logbook of Red Halyard Consulting.
Here we chart our course through automation, custom tooling, and the occasional over-engineered metaphor. Whether you're wrangling rogue spreadsheets, tuning up a Rails app, or dreaming of smoother workflows, you’ll find ideas here to help you catch the wind—and leave the busywork behind.
This Is Your Sign To Build The System, Not Just The Product
If you're a scrappy founder or leader of a small business team, chances are you've already heard some version of “focus on product-market fit.” And yes—you absolutely should. But there's another piece of the startup puzzle that often gets sidelined until it’s nearly too late:
Your operations.
The Spreadsheet Spiral: How To Spot It—And Escape It
There comes a moment in every growing business where things just feel... off. Tasks take longer than they should. Data lives in ten different places. Everyone is constantly double-checking numbers or asking, “Wait, is this the latest version?” And somewhere at the center of it all—there’s a spreadsheet trying to do way too much.
Welcome to the Spreadsheet Spiral.
