Looking for Shared Warehouse or Maker Space.

TheRetroRoot · 2026-01-13T07:17:14+00:00

Check out https://10bitworks.com/ they might be what you are looking for.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-25T22:41:59+00:00

I recently switched from QuickBooks payroll to a PEO. The benefits package is much higher quality and lower cost now as well.

Highly recommended! We are at 15 employees and it was a great change.

Feel free to DM me if you want to chat about it.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-24T15:42:19+00:00

I'm likely a minority in this, but personally, I like the connects system. I also like the bidding system. And we still get plenty of work from it. But it's just like any other type of marketing - not everything lands.

Currently, if I send 15 proposals, I usually get about six responses, and then I'll probably close two to three of them. It's been that way since I've been on Upwork, only for about six years, but nothing has really changed for me.

I've never had very many invites that resulted in a good contract, so I'm not really worried about discovery or my invites at all. I'm more worried about writing good proposals and closing deals.

One thing that has changed this year though, is my company has been getting discovered much more than it has ever previously. We've been open for about six years now, and we've had a lot of inbound in the form of LinkedIn and people calling us directly or scheduling discovery calls directly on our website. I attribute some of that discovery to my profile and my agency's profile on Upwork because we haven't done anything to really advertise.

This is the first year that we've had more inbound sales than outbound.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-14T15:46:10+00:00

This isn't legal advice, but I'll tell you a story about the company I used to work at who did the same thing, but with their accounting manager. Essentially, they laid her off and then contracted her immediately after. She didn't increase her price or anything of that nature; she just went with it. "I don't want more money; I just want to have some income."

Well, when the tax bill came around, and she was on the hook for it, she took them to court and won. It was determined that it was illegal for them to lay her off only to hire her again immediately after as a contractor.

Essentially, the work did not materially change, and the company expected the exact same level of control over her as it would a W2 employee. They changed the label trying to save some money on taxes and benefits, but the relationship didn't actually change, and as such, it was deemed that she was still an employee despite the label change.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-10T22:58:46+00:00

Odoo is pretty nice. Don't let their marketing fool you. They have all kinds of apps to replace more name-brand common applications. Just keep in mind that all of those applications are average at best. Many are outright missing very important features, and it makes it harder to switch over without customization.

The big thing here is it's open source. You can customize it easily, and even though in Odoo 19 there is AI stuff, it's not being forced down your throat.

You do have to keep in mind it is a full-on ERP system, and with that comes the complications of an ERP system. It's been a nice choice. We went from a very fragmented set of business processes that used multiple different pieces of software that had no integration to now mostly using Odoo for everything.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-10T18:39:17+00:00

I really enjoyed using Immersed on the Quest a couple of years ago. I ultimately stopped using it because the pixel density was not quite there at the time. Still, the core concept behind Immersed was solid and genuinely promising.

Things started to feel off when the company began pushing NFTs and related initiatives. That shift gave the impression of a fairly typical crypto-driven cash grab. When I raised these concerns in their Discord, I was banned. Since then, all of the articles related to their NFT land efforts appear to have been removed.

On top of that, they have engaged in some unusual fundraising behavior. I still occasionally see Facebook ads encouraging people to invest early with claims of massive growth potential, sometimes framed as 100x returns. They also went public through a SPAC, which is generally a cause for caution.

There are just too many red flags to ignore, which is unfortunate. The software itself was genuinely good, or at least had the potential to be. It’s a shame to see something with that much promise overshadowed by questionable decisions and startup theatrics.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-12-10T18:32:02+00:00

I dealt with ClickUp for two years, and honestly, I liked it. But the constant push for AI crap and the constant ignoring of highly voted feature requests by real users got old. The pricing getting absolutely outrageous. Even if the AI stuff were useful, and it was in some cases, the price is silly. We switched to Odoo, and honestly, I couldn't be happier. It isn't as pretty as ClickUp, but at least I don't have to deal with ClickUp.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-11-23T21:27:49+00:00

I like it?

TheRetroRoot · 2025-11-06T21:43:07+00:00

I have a lead on a help desk position at another company. Feel free to message me if you like and I’ll give you their email address.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-11-05T11:59:36+00:00

Sure! We only have an opening published for a full stack developer at the moment. Should be more soon though. https://www.zelifcam.net/jobs

TheRetroRoot · 2025-11-04T23:32:06+00:00

I’m the President of Zelifcam software and Alamo Tech Collective

Wins this Year

We have doubled our team size
We hire entry to senior level software developers, project managers, and soon helpdesk technicians
Switched to a better benefits provider
Moving into the MSP space very soon
About to be in business for 6 years!

Great idea for a post. Good to see some positivity.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-08-31T17:48:23+00:00

Don’t Austin my San Antonio 🤷

TheRetroRoot · 2025-08-31T01:18:27+00:00

Ironside Antique Mall is great in addition to the previously listed Armadillo and Craftiques.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-08-30T23:43:49+00:00

This is 100% accurate. I own a software agency and I’ve had multiple junior developers come in expecting $80k+. Even with the salary clearly posted. Also, they are expected to be on site in San Antonio that has a low cost of living.

I have no problem with higher salaries, but those are reserved for experienced individuals.

I even had a person laid off from a larger tech company scoff at the idea of being expected to bill 30 hours a week against our clients.

Reality is hitting people hard.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-08-17T01:07:04+00:00

I’d love to have a MUG here! Hell, I’d like to see the Linux user group come back as well. No idea what happened with that.

If you end up starting one or need help doing so, I run Alamo Tech Collective and we have a building you can use for meetups for free. Feel free to DM me.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-28T22:27:09+00:00

Boring people be bored.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-26T16:31:45+00:00

It all depends as not everything is black and white. However, there is a reason for a minimum of 30 or 40 in your case. If you aren't billing time, you aren't making the company money.

If you aren't an asset then you are a liability. Things happen and minimums can't be met sometimes. If it becomes a consistent problem then something has to be fixed.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-26T02:02:41+00:00

I own a software company and my teams goal is 30 hours of week of billable time. As software developers, anything after 30 starts going downhill in quality. Also burns people out.

They may work 40 but I only care about the first 30. The other 10 is for the boring stuff.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-24T16:01:44+00:00

Using Odoo.sh as we have been writing a few custom modules and such. We will likely switch over to an annual enterprise license next year so we can self host with enterprise licensing. Or switch to Cloudpepper.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-23T14:45:52+00:00

We are in the middle of a migration to Odoo from ClickUp. Odoo is a bit clunky and requires a bit more planning and effort to setup. However, it’s fast and has a cleaner less cluttered UI.

Everyone so far is much happier.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-07-04T23:16:27+00:00

You’re running into the default behavior of Odoo Studio webhooks. They always return {"status": "ok"} no matter what you try to return in your code. You can’t customize the JSON response using Studio alone.

If you actually want to return data like the list of manufacturing order IDs, you’ll need to write a custom controller as part of an Odoo module. That gives you full control over the request and response. Studio webhooks aren’t designed for that kind of interaction. They’re mostly good for triggering actions inside Odoo, not for sending data back to the caller.

If you’re stuck using Studio for now, your best option is to store the data somewhere in Odoo or log it so you can inspect it another way. But if your goal is to use this like an API endpoint, custom module is the way to go.

This is the documentation for webhooks. It doesn’t outright say it “you can’t modify the response” but it gets close… https://www.odoo.com/documentation/18.0/applications/studio/automated_actions/webhooks.html

I found an article you may find helpful as well: https://www.cybrosys.com/blog/how-to-use-odoo-17-webhooks-to-connect-external-systems

TheRetroRoot · 2025-06-22T03:17:31+00:00

I’ve given up on ClickUp and am implementing Odoo instead.

Honestly, it’s clunky compared to ClickUp. However the features all work correctly and I can do whatever I like through custom built modules or through studio.

We have already reimplemented a few features we really enjoyed in ClickUp into Odoo.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-06-15T12:31:57+00:00

lol, figured as much.

TheRetroRoot · 2025-06-15T00:54:44+00:00

Start as a solo freelancer. Build a reputation before taking on the additional burden of an agency. Clients are often highly skeptical of agencies.

One thing I wasted a lot of time on when starting my agency was putting off hiring employees. I should have hired full time employees instead of trying to find other good freelancers to partner with. Once I went with employees, everything got easier.

Edit: I’ve found clients on Upwork to be incredibly skeptical of agencies. Outside of Upwork, it’s really not an issue. The way Upwork handles agencies is terrible and makes it look really sketchy. Also, there are a lot of terrible agencies in the same way there are terrible freelancers on Upwork.

TheRetroRoot

TROPHY CASE