You do not need eleven tools and a consultant to open your doors. You need one place the phone, the texts and the email land, a way to ask for reviews, a way to post, and somewhere the business remembers what it knows. We build all five, we are early, and we want the first customers who help shape them.
A new business needs five pieces of software: a CRM with one inbox for calls, texts, email and forms (Relay for most businesses, TradesBackbone if you send estimates and invoices for jobs), review requests (ReputeLift), content creation and scheduling (SynthPrism), and a business memory that ties them together (Mycel). All five are built by Martello Systems, each has a free plan or a free trial on its own site, and the early users get a direct line to the team that builds them.
Most software pages tell you the product is finished. Ours is not, and we would rather say so. Martello Systems is a small team, led by Artie, directing an engineering fleet. The five products below are live, they run our own business every day, and they are still young. Some corners are rough. Some features a bigger vendor has, we do not have yet.
What we do have is the thing a new business rarely gets from software: the people who build it, reachable. When an early customer says a screen is confusing or a workflow is missing, that lands with the team the same day, and the fix ships in days, not quarters. The right early users shape the product. If you are starting a business and you want software that bends toward how you actually work, that is the trade we are offering.
There is no special early-user price and no founding-member tier. Each product publishes its own pricing on its own site, and each has a free plan or a free trial you can start today without talking to anyone. We link to those pages below rather than repeating the numbers here, because the live page is the one that is true.
Strip out the dashboards and the things you were told to want. Before the first customer, a service business needs to be able to do five things, and nothing else is urgent.
Every product below is built, hosted and operated by Martello Systems. You subscribe on its own site, own your own data, and can export it. Pick the CRM that matches your work; the other three fit either one.
For plumbing, HVAC, electrical, pest control, lawn care, cleaning, handyman work and any business that sends an estimate, does the job and sends an invoice. Customer contacts and job history, scheduling and dispatch, estimates the customer approves by text, invoicing with card payments, automated follow-ups by text and email, and job photos. Office staff work it from a desk and technicians from a phone, on the same data. Web and Android today; an iOS app is built and going through App Store review. Every plan starts with a free trial and there are no annual contracts. TradesBackbone pricing.
For med spas, clinics, studios, groomers, agents, consultants and any business where the customer calls or texts, you talk, and they book. Contacts, companies and a pipeline view, email, SMS and chat in a single inbox, workflow automation and follow-up sequences, a public booking page, review requests, and full data export at any time. An AI front desk that answers calls when you cannot is an add-on; it answers our own line. Relay has a free plan to start. Relay pricing.
Asks every customer for a review by SMS or email, with your Google review link (and Facebook on the Pro plan) in the message, plus a QR code for the counter. No review gating and no sentiment filtering: every customer gets the same request, and do-not-contact and opt-outs are enforced on every send. ReputeLift does not pull your reviews in from Google or post replies for you; you add the reviews you receive and copy a drafted reply across (AI-drafted on its Pro plan). Month to month, free trial. ReputeLift pricing. See review automation.
Turns a prompt into images, video, voice and music, keeps them in a brand library, and schedules posts from one calendar. Bluesky publishing is fully wired today; Facebook Pages and Instagram connect over OAuth and switch on once each platform's publishing approval is finalised. If your plan is to post to Instagram from day one, read the FAQ on its site before you subscribe. Free plan with one brand and a daily generation limit. SynthPrism pricing.
The memory the business runs on, and the desk the owner opens. Connect your own TradesBackbone, Relay, ReputeLift and SynthPrism accounts and everything that happens in them files into one place, in plain markdown you can export as a zip. Each morning it shows a ranked list of what needs a person, each item linked into the product it came from. Once connected, TradesBackbone's and ReputeLift's AI answer from that memory; Relay's does after you approve it separately, because Relay talks to your customers. Free tier to start. Mycel pricing.
You can have the whole stack in an afternoon, but the order matters, because the first thing you need is the phone answered.
What can wait: accounting integration, a second location, team roles, white-labelling, an API. All exist in the products. None of them help you before the first job.
Each guide answers one question: what software does this kind of new business actually need, what can it skip, and what would we start it on. Each one links to the deeper page for that trade.
If your trade is not listed, the industry pages cover fifteen more, from HVAC and electrical to pet grooming and real estate, and the same five products apply.
Both doors are open. The self-serve door: sign up on each product's site, start on the free plan or the trial, and email or text the team when something is unclear. You keep your own logins and your own data, and you pay each product directly.
The done-for-you door: a small team, led by Artie, sets the stack up around your business, writes the first-reply and follow-up messages with you, migrates whatever contacts you already have, and runs it. That is the studio's automation service, quoted on a 15-minute call, month to month. Most new businesses start self-serve and call us when the volume outgrows the owner's phone.
Either way, the promise is the same: you are early, we are early, and you can reach the people who build the thing.
Fifteen minutes with Artie, the founder. Tell us what you are opening, how customers will reach you and whether you send estimates for jobs; you leave knowing which CRM to start on, what to switch on first, and where to send the feedback that shapes the next version.
Book 15 minutes with ArtieFive things, in this order: a CRM with one inbox for calls, texts, email and forms; a first-reply and follow-up system so no enquiry goes cold; review requests so you climb out of zero reviews; a way to post consistently; and a business memory the tools can read. Martello Systems builds one product for each: Relay or TradesBackbone, ReputeLift, SynthPrism and Mycel.
If you send estimates and invoices for work done at a customer's property, TradesBackbone: it has jobs, scheduling, estimates the customer approves by text, and invoicing built in. If your work is a conversation followed by an appointment, Relay: one inbox, a booking page, follow-up sequences and review requests. If you are unsure, the fifteen-minute call settles it.
No. There is no founding-member tier and no special price. What every product does have is a free plan or a free trial on its own pricing page, which you can start today without a call. We would rather be honest about that than invent a discount.
Live, running our own business every day, and still young. Some features a larger vendor offers we do not have yet, and some corners are rough. In exchange, early customers reach the team that builds it directly, and what they ask for shapes what ships next. If you want finished and polished, a bigger vendor is the safer choice and we will say so.
No. Each one is sold on its own site and works on its own. Most new businesses start with the CRM and review requests and add content and memory once there are customers to post about and things worth remembering.
Yes. Relay offers full data export at any time, Mycel's vault is plain markdown you can download as a zip, and every product has a data-deletion path on its own site. Nothing is held hostage.
Yes. The studio's done-for-you service sets up the stack, writes the messages with you, migrates your contacts by export and runs it month to month. It is quoted on a 15-minute call. Most new businesses start self-serve and move to done-for-you when the volume outgrows the owner's phone.
Pick a time and it lands on Artie's calendar directly. You will get a confirmation by email and, if you leave a mobile number, a reminder by text. That booking system is the same one we run for clients.
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