From zero AI experience to building their own software
How Derek Madon took his team from no AI experience to running two companies on tools they built themselves — websites, CRMs, a sales-intelligence dashboard, and AI workflows — saving $300K+ a year.
Two companies, one AI operating system
What started as cancelling a few software subscriptions became a full rebuild — the team now owns the tools both businesses run on.
A stack of software that didn't fit
Two businesses, held together by tools that never quite worked. One CRM for the dealership, a different system for insurance, a marketing platform bolted on top, and two outside vendors for websites the team couldn't update themselves. Six figures a year, and climbing, in software, vendors, and lost time — and the tools still didn't do what the team actually needed.
Train the team to build, not just buy
OneWave trained Derek's team on Claude and Claude Code, then built alongside them — a new website, a custom CRM, a GovSpend sales-intelligence dashboard, and consolidated workflows — until they could scope and ship their own tools without us.
How it happened
Five months from first training session to full independence.
AI foundations
We started with hands-on training across the team — operations, sales, marketing, and leadership — moving everyone from curiosity to daily use of Claude.
From using AI to building with it
The team moved into Claude Code. A team member who had never written code built and deployed an entirely new company website — no agency, no outside developer.
Their own CRM and dashboard
They built a custom CRM tailored to how both companies actually work, plus a GovSpend sales-intelligence dashboard — and cancelled Pipedrive, GoHighLevel, and two vendor contracts.
From client to builder
OneWave shifted from builder to advisor. Derek's team now scopes and ships their own AI tools and calls us for a second opinion, not to do the work.
We came in with zero AI experience. Five months later my team builds our own websites, our own CRM, our own dashboards — and we cancelled a stack of software we'd been paying for for years. OneWave didn't sell us a tool. They taught us to build.
What changed
Your team can build this too
We train your people, build alongside them, and hand it over — until you own the tools your business runs on.