About

About Brett Burbidge

I'm Brett Burbidge, founder of CheLabs, which replaces the pile of SaaS tools a small business pays for with one piece of custom software the business owns. I live in Alpine, Utah, work with clients anywhere, and you can reach me at 702-372-2373.

Twenty years of building software for other people's businesses

CenExel Clinical Research

VP of Platform Enablement · 2 years

The platform I supported ran billing, recruitment and business development for about 2,000 users across 18 clinical research sites. We were building the operations piece, called Pulse, when I left.

In my last year I launched the Platform Enablement function. It ran training and onboarding, a network of site champions, support and triage, a knowledge base, adoption metrics, planned change management, and a feedback path from the sites into the roadmap.

Foundations United

SVP, Product & Engineering (contract) · 6 months

When Nerd United ended, I was brought on as SVP to lead engineering and product strategy for Foundations United, an early-stage blockchain company. I ran the full engineering group, 60 engineers, and reported to the President.

I built the engineering leadership team from scratch, ran product delivery across engineering, design and go-to-market, and set up the development process and architecture for investor readiness.

Nerd United

VP of Engineering · 2 years

I ran engineering for two startups, Smart and SetPowerFree.

Unique Communications

CTO · 15 years

Most of my work there was Department of Defense enterprise deployments. I built Traffic and Alarms, which monitors a voice network over SNMP and IP traffic, runs live capacity calculators on Erlang C, and shows the whole network on one dashboard. It was deployed at every US Air Force and Air National Guard base in the world. I built it on my own time; Unique sold it and paid me commission.

I also gathered the requirements for and delivered a billing system for the US Army in Germany. It replaced a pile of spreadsheets and two financial systems: 10 users billing 100,000 phone lines, over $1M a month, across 26 Army sites.

Wash A Bin

Founder and owner · 5 years

I founded, ran and sold a bin-cleaning business in Las Vegas. For five years I was the owner paying for software that almost fit, and re-typing what it could not do.

So I built BinBird, SaaS for route-based bin-cleaning operators. I was the customer first.

Everything I've shipped, from these jobs and my own products, is on the work page.

Why I do fixed-price, client-owned builds

Most small businesses pay for ten or more tools and use 10 to 15 percent of each. The other 85 percent is rent on features nobody touches.

In my view, owning your software is cheaper than renting it after year two. Mostly because of the hours: the re-typing, the workarounds, the spreadsheet in the middle that only one person understands.

The owner should hold the keys, so you get the code, the data and the cloud accounts in your name from day one. Fixed prices come from the same place. I have been the owner watching an hourly meter run, and I would rather carry the risk of my estimate than hand it to you.

How I work

I lead every engagement and run discovery myself, so the person you explain your business to is the person responsible for the build. A product manager works with me on every build, and developers join when a project is big enough.

Claude Code is in the build loop on every project. I review what it writes and test it, and it is a big part of how a small team ships in weeks.

I take three Consolidate, two Replace and one Exclusive at a time, with Connect in a rolling queue. We meet weekly, bi-weekly or only when a question comes up, whichever suits you. See how a project runs, what it costs, or the questions people ask first.

Outside of work

Outside of work I ride and fix dirt bikes, snowboard, and hang out with my awesome kids. My newest love is live Phish shows and every year I am a dusty Playa dweller.

Get in touch

Phone: 702-372-2373 (my cell)
Email: brett@chelabs.io
Book: 30 minutes on my calendar
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brettburbidge
GitHub: github.com/BrettBurbidge github.com/BlueHoss

Want to talk about your setup?

Thirty minutes, free. Tell me what you're running and I'll tell you honestly whether I can help.

I take 6 build clients at a time. When they are full, you join the waiting list.

Start with a free 30‑minute call

Or call me

702-372-2373