Prairie Birdhouse | Jon Piepho builds custom software for museums, nonprofits and local businesses

a tiny software studio in Afton, MN

I build custom software for organizations big enough to run real operations and too small to have their own developers.

Mostly museums, cultural institutions and nonprofits, plus some good local businesses.

Big institutions have IT departments. You have one valiant person holding it all together with sticky notes and spreadsheets.

Custom software used to be for big companies only. Not anymore.

Grab a coffee with me What I can help with

Tweet! Click me.

Stuff that eats your week

(check the ones that sound familiar)

The same customer, visitor and member questions, answered over and over
Scheduling staff and volunteers across shifts and sites, and the reminders nobody wants to send
School groups, field trips and room rentals booked by email and phone tag
Membership renewals, the lapsed list and donors who quietly fell through the cracks
Board and grant reports pulled together from four different systems
That one process only one person really knows how to run

Check a few. I'll tell you what I'd do about them over coffee.

Send me your list

Or dream a little bigger

A real system, not a band-aid.

Members, programs, donors and numbers in one place, with dashboards that answer the board's questions before they ask.

The thing you've always wished existed.

New tech, old problem, fun twist. Things that just weren't possible (or affordable) a couple of years ago.

If you had a magic wand, what would it do?

Tell me yours

So who's this Jon guy?

20 years at Target. I started as a merchant, then spent my last stretch there building new software tools for big teams. I know how large organizations make software fit the way they work.

20 years running art galleries, a pottery studio, a flower farm and a host of other oddities. Every one of them did its best work when it teamed up with other local small businesses. That's where the magic happens.

(both halves come to every project)

How we'd start

Coffee or a video call.

Tell me what's eating your week, or what you'd wish for.

I build a prototype, free.

Days or weeks, not a 40-page proposal.

If it works, we keep it going.

A fair price to sustain it. Simple.

Take a peek in the birdhouse

(three birds I've built so far. hover or tap to wake them up.)

wren always on the move live

A front desk assistant for a water heater company. She texts customers back, sorts new leads, drafts quotes and follows up, so nothing falls through the cracks.

got it: a signal no one else saw

kestrel always on the hunt live

A research platform. He scours the web and triangulates signals to find what couldn't be found before.

Hoo! Draw your own guide!

A kid's crayon drawing of a wizard with glasses and a pointy hat

The drawing, now a crocheted guide, walking around

Follow me to the dinosaurs!

A note from Questie next up

Questie always up for an adventure prototype

A museum guide kids create themselves. They draw him, and he comes to life to lead them on a quest through the exhibits.

Want to take him home? He goes on a t-shirt from the gift shop. Next up, he'll drop the family a note now and then to keep the adventure going. A whole new kind of connection between a museum and a kid.

The honest part

I'm just getting this off the ground: a couple of clients, a big stack of prototypes, and room for a few first partners. That's why the first build is free.

If that sounds fun, I'd love to connect.

jon@prairiebirdhouse.com 612.206.6820