Sheppard

What We Build

The marketing software inside the engine.

Lead operations infrastructure, attribution warehouses, and applied AI workflows — the production-grade marketing infrastructure PE-backed home services platforms actually run on. Owned by the portco, inherited cleanly at exit. We do not sell SaaS. We do not bill by the seat.

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Operating Thesis

The marketing engine is software now.

Five years ago, the marketing P&L was paid media and a few agencies. Today the function lives in dashboards, attribution systems, AI scoring, and operational tooling — and the portco that owns its software compounds faster than the portco that rents it.

We build that software. We don't sell it as a SaaS. The portco owns it. The sponsor inherits it. The next buyer pays for it on exit.

— 01

Lead Operations Infrastructure

Lead-ops platforms, built portco-grade.

The unified lead pipeline most portcos don't have — and most agencies can't build. Salesforce-synced, audit-traced, sponsor-facing.

What We Ship

  • Unified lead taxonomy across portcos (source, type, disposition, channel, DMA)
  • Salesforce / HubSpot / ServiceTitan / LeadSquared sync layer
  • Sync-health monitoring with failure alerts and replay tooling
  • Audit trail and reconciliation against financial system
  • Sponsor-facing dashboard with monthly EBITDA-contribution view
  • Multi-portco platform view for sponsors operating roll-ups

Stack

Next.js · Supabase · Postgres · Salesforce / HubSpot APIs · cron-based sync workers · Vercel

Recent Build · Multi-DMA home services platform

Built a Salesforce-synced lead operations dashboard with parallel cron-based sync, audit-grade failure tracking, auth revocation, and an admin sync-health UI. SQL aggregation tuned for sponsor-facing reporting cadence.

— 02

Performance Operations & Automation

The tooling layer that makes the marketing engine run.

Lead routing, attribution plumbing, segmentation, automation, content production at DMA scale, and the AI tooling woven into all of it. The connective tissue between the channels we run and the dashboards the sponsor sees.

What We Ship

  • Multi-touch attribution methodology reconciled to the financial system
  • Lead routing and disposition workflows across CRM, dialer, and dispatch
  • Marketing automation: segmentation, lifecycle triggers, win-back flows
  • Content production pipelines for local pages, GBP, and ad creative at DMA scale
  • Lead scoring and predictive LTV modeling (AI where it moves a KPI, not where it demos well)
  • Server-side tagging, consent management, and conversion API integration

Stack

Postgres · dbt-style transforms · CDP / segmentation tooling · marketing automation platforms · Claude / OpenAI APIs for scoring and content · evaluation harnesses

Recent Build · Performance ops across portcos

Attribution methodology, lead routing, lifecycle automation, and AI-assisted scoring built into home services and multi-location operators — sized to the portco's existing stack rather than imposed as a SaaS vendor's seat license.

Where We Build

Built with sponsors. Owned by operators.

Sponsor Engagements

  • Lower-middle-market PE sponsors

    Diligence, value-creation, infrastructure

  • Growth-equity operating partners

    Cross-portfolio marketing oversight

Engaged at the platform level — diligence, value-creation planning, and infrastructure builds across portfolio companies.

Platforms Built For

  • Multi-DMA home services platform

    Salesforce-synced lead ops dashboard

  • Multi-trade residential operator

    Attribution + AI lead scoring

Production infrastructure built inside the portco's perimeter, owned by the operator, transferable at exit.

Frequently Asked

On the systems we build for portcos.

What does Sheppard build for PE-backed home services portcos?

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Two core build categories: lead-operations infrastructure (Salesforce-synced lead pipelines, sync-health monitoring, audit-grade attribution, sponsor-facing dashboards) and performance operations tooling (attribution methodology, lead routing, lifecycle automation, content pipelines, and AI-assisted scoring where it moves a KPI). Builds are scoped to the portco's existing tech stack and deployed inside the portco's data perimeter — not behind a SaaS vendor's seat license.

Do you sell software as a SaaS?

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No. Sheppard does not sell SaaS, does not bill by the seat, and does not lock portcos into our tooling. Everything we build is owned by the portco, documented, and transferable to the next sponsor at exit. The buyer at exit inherits a working system, not a vendor relationship to renegotiate.

What's the typical timeline for a Sheppard build engagement?

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Most lead-operations and AI builds ship in 60-90 days. Larger multi-portco platform installs run 90-120 days. The Day-1-to-Day-100 cadence is intentional — sponsors need the system in production for the 100-day operating-partner reporting cycle, not delivered in month six.

What tech stack does Sheppard build on?

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Modern, portable, production-grade. Typical stack: Next.js or React for dashboards, Supabase or Postgres for data, Salesforce / HubSpot / ServiceTitan / LeadSquared APIs for CRM integration, Anthropic Claude or OpenAI APIs for applied AI workflows. We build in the portco's existing cloud environment when possible — Vercel, AWS, or GCP — to keep the data perimeter clean and the exit transfer simple.

Does the portco own what Sheppard builds?

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Yes. Source code, infrastructure, data, and documentation are all owned by the portco from Day 1. Sheppard retains no proprietary lock-in. This is structural — sponsors are buying assets that compound through hold and transfer cleanly at exit, not vendor dependencies that destroy negotiation leverage at sale.

Engage Sheppard

Have a system that needs to be built?

Lead-ops dashboard, AI workflow, or both. Most builds ship inside 90 days.

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