Look, it's been a hell of a year for everyone.

I has changed the landscape in tech and digital dramatically.

I've spent the last nine months—12 hours a day—just in code, building different software, using different agent tools, using different AI tools. And I think it's time to share some of those insights.

I'm Darren, though everyone calls me Daz. I've been building software for 30 years, and I still absolutely love it. But something fundamental has shifted in how we work at DazLab. We're moving from a service-focused business to building our own products. Not because we don't love client work, but because AI has given us the tools to actually build the things we've always wanted to build.

Why AI Changes Everything for Builders

Here's the thing: I love building software. I like building anything, I suppose. I enjoy the process of building. That's always been true. What's different now is the speed.

AI has given me—someone who's been a software engineer for 20, 30 years, whatever it is, a long time—tools to be able to create products faster. You know, I don't need to wait for designs to be built, wait for engineering hours to go in. I'm able to get in and start really building software quicker and faster so I can test things.

That's not a small shift. That's a fundamental change in how product development works. Instead of AI being a secondary piece, it's now at the core of everything we're building.

What We've Been Building

So what have we actually built in these nine months? Six products, each solving specific problems we've seen in different industries:

Handl Billing is for our Digital agency owners. Aiming to help make the process of establishing project builds, proposals, and invoices schedules so that you can get paid faster . If you've ever dealt with billing linked to project work, or knowing if you are actualy making any money from projects weekly, or sick of chasing for payments, you know why this matters.

Arebo is an job application tracking system, so when you are hiring, you can sort through the applications easier. The hiring process is broken for most companies, and we're fixing it. ( No more google sheets, inbox applications or expensive ATS's ). Think application workflow, with AI at the heart to help.

mber is a content platform where it helps you find the content gaps and topics, then interviews you, so you can talk through your content and AI generates it. It helps create social and web content, as well as publish into your CMS and socials, plus growing through backlinks, monitor, research etc.... SEO is going to play a huge part in what AI is about. The importance on content is going to be larger than ever. ( hey this content was written by it! )

TaliCMS is a real estate association CMS product. Purpose-built for that specific industry's needs and the USA market. Integrates nicely with great AMS products like Tangilla.

And we're toying with one called Mortar Design, which is for interior designers to help manage budgets. Think pinterest, but with price workflows built in.

All of these tools have been built with AI. And we've had iterations of rebuilding them so that AI now is, instead of being a secondary piece, it's at the core. ( Some of which I have re-written multiple times, so that I can could that 1 extra layer into AI)

The Real Lessons Are in the Build

I don't really have any expectations around what I think people, what my readers think. I just hope they get some value out of some of the things that we do, that I've done.

There's lessons in the build. There's lessons in the products. There's lessons for business, hopefully. And that's what this newsletter is about—sharing those stories and learnings as we go.

I just hope people enjoy the story and feel that they've gone through similar sorts of things that I've gone through. We have all had a up and down year with AI really changing the tech landscape.
AI is changed the world, whether we like / accept it or not.

If anyone can learn from what I've learnt and shared that would be a great thing.

What's Next

This is the first edition of what I'm calling Daz Builds. We'll talk about each of these products independently as the newsletters go on. The intro is just to let everyone know we've got products and we're going to try and share our learnings through the products that we build and share what we've learned about AI during that process.

I have always struggled creating content, so with the help of AI I'm creating tools to help create content for the products that we're creating. Sure there are tools out there to use, but I have enjoyed building our own in a way that makes my life easier, and hopefully can help others as well.

We're putting this on LinkedIn so you can comment. or get me at darren@dazlab.io
This will go on our website so people can read it as well, AND each of our product websites will have their own stories to tell, hopefully weekly sharing the new features we are building and why

If you've gone through similar experiences with AI this year—if you've rebuilt your workflow, experimented with new tools, or just felt the ground shift under your feet—I'd love to hear about it.

Because that's the point: we're all figuring this out together.

Let's build.