The rugby one
- Habitat
- Newcastle, New South Wales
- Known for
- Rugby league for Cronulla, South Sydney and the Newcastle Knights, 1996–2004. Now a Newcastle publican.
- Field mark
- Has been tackled professionally. I have taken pains to avoid it.
russellrichardson.com
Russell Richardson
There are a lot of us. I'm the one on Kauaʻi: I own Umi Sushi & Sake in San Francisco, run Techne Futbol, manage a vacation rental on the North Shore, and build the systems that run them.
Plate I · Identification
A field guide to Russell Richardsons
The common Russell Richardson is widespread and easily confused. All of the specimens below are excellent. Only one of them made this website.
The actor
- Habitat
- The credits of Iron Man and Tigerland
- Known for
- Film, television and Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.
- Field mark
- Appears in Iron Man. I have only watched it.
The novelist
- Habitat
- Binghamton, New York
- Known for
- The YA novel Level Up and Die! (2021), and children's books for kids with cancer.
- Field mark
- Has finished a novel, which puts him well ahead of most of us.
The one on Kauaʻi
- Habitat
- Kauaʻi's North Shore
- Known for
- A sushi restaurant, a soccer training app, a vacation rental, and the software behind all three.
- Field mark
- Will have built the app before you've finished explaining the spreadsheet.
Spotted a Russell Richardson that isn't listed? Report a sighting.
Plate II · Habits of No. 004
What this one does
A restaurant, an app business, a vacation rental and an alarm company's billing, run from Kauaʻi. Each one runs on software I built.
Owner
Umi Sushi & Sake
Sushi and sake in Potrero Hill, San Francisco, since 2008.
Fish filleted in house, Japanese specials, no omakase, and real crab in the California roll. Its website and back office run directly off Square: menu, specials, prices and payroll.
umisf.comApp business
Techne Futbol
The soccer training app designed by pros.
For players who train on their own: weekly guided sessions, skill tests, leaderboards and a belt-style sock system earned by the hour, from white to black. Used by players, families, clubs and schools, on iOS and Android.
technefutbol.comManages it
Mauna Kai, Princeville
A vacation rental on Kauaʻi's North Shore.
Three bedrooms, sleeps six, near Anini Beach, with air conditioning throughout, a private lanai and a pool. Self-managed, which is how Well Booked began.
staynorthshorekauai.comFounder
Well Booked
Know what your rental keeps.
Bookkeeping for owners of a self-managed Hawaiʻi vacation rental: bank and card feeds, itemised receipts, GET and TAT by filing period, turnovers and inventory, and a year-end package for the CPA.
wellbookedstays.comBilling and automation
Potomac Security Systems
A family-owned alarm company serving Montgomery County, Maryland, since 1984.
I built and run its billing: quarterly invoicing, card and bank autopay, late fees, collections and mailing. Voicemails from the monitoring centre are transcribed and matched to the right customer automatically.
potomacalarms.comPlate III · The work behind the work
Built properly. Lately, with AI.
Billing, bookkeeping, point-of-sale integrations, mobile apps: each of these businesses runs on systems I designed and built. AI has made me a great deal faster without making me any less careful. Well Booked went from an empty folder to a production app in under a month.
27
days from an empty folder to a production app
396
commits, shipped one small change at a time
1,877
automated tests keeping it honest
48k
lines of code doing real bookkeeping
Recent work
For the businesses above, built over the past year.
-
Umi
A restaurant website that runs off the till
The menu, prices, sold-out items and tonight's specials come straight from Square. A price changed on the website goes back to the iPad. Payroll fills itself in from timecards, California overtime and tips included.
-
Well Booked
Bookkeeping that mostly does itself
Bank feeds, payouts matched to the stays they pay for, Costco, Amazon and Home Depot receipts itemised line by line, Claude reading receipt photos, Hawaiʻi GET and TAT by period, and a tidy package for the accountant at year end.
-
Techne
An engineering team that lives in Slack
Ask for a change in Slack and it comes back as a pull request. Claude and Codex plan, build and review each other's work, and nothing reaches the app until they all agree. Scheduled AI reviews read App Store reviews, account health and accessibility.
-
Potomac Security
Voicemail that knows who's calling
Messages from the alarm monitoring centre are transcribed and matched to the right customer's account, even when the operator spells the name phonetically.
-
Potomac Security
Billing that chases itself
Quarterly invoices, autopay by card and bank, late fees and collections lists, printed and posted or emailed, with delivery tracked.
-
Techne
Robots that test the app
Automated runs through the iOS and Android apps, 34 scenarios at a time, taking screenshots for an AI to review for anything that looks off.
If your business runs on spreadsheets, inboxes and good intentions, I can help.
I take on a small number of projects. The first conversation is about your business, not a package.
-
01
Find where the hours go
Which work is worth a person's time, and which a system should be doing.
-
02
Build the real thing
Working software with tests and a deploy, connected to the tools you already use.
-
03
Hand you the keys
Set you or your team up to run it, and to keep improving it with AI.
Plate IV · Kin
Are you a Russell Richardson?
Then you found the right page after all. I'm keeping a register. There are no dues, no meetings and, as yet, no bylaws. Say hello and tell me which one you are.
1 Russell Richardson on the register so far. It's me. It's a little quiet.
Claim your membershipThe Russell Richardson Society
Est. 2026 · Membership by name only
- Name
- Russell Richardson
- Member No.
- 002
- Which one
- You tell me
Russell Richardson, founder (the one with the website)
Plate V · Correspondence
Say hi.
It comes straight to me, and I read every one.