Tim Holum
Software Developer & Agent Systems Builder
Software Developer & Co-Founder, Coulee Tech · La Crosse, WI
Eighteen years, one company, and software still running on other people's factory floors. Tim Holum was Coulee Tech's first hire in February 2008 and has been its developer ever since — custom ERP for small manufacturers, the servers underneath it, and now the production agent systems the rest of the retreat talks about.
Save $500 — register by August 31, 2026
What Tim's Work Actually Produces
Almost everyone demonstrating AI agents is building on a clean sheet: no legacy ERP, no fifteen-year-old database, no client whose production line stops when the job scheduler is wrong. Tim's entire career is the other case — software that has to keep working for years inside businesses that cannot pause. If your AI question is really an integration question, he is the one to corner.
18 years
one company, the same clients' systems
Tim joined Coulee Tech in February 2008, the month after it started, as its first hire and its developer. He is still maintaining software he wrote for clients who are still running it.
2009
first custom ERP — still in production
Built for a small manufacturer whose production needs no off-the-shelf package could handle. It is still in use at that company today, and it became SlimApps, Coulee Tech's ERP for small manufacturers.
100+
governed tools in the agent platform he maintains
The AI employees Coulee Tech runs on its own operations call a shared registry of more than a hundred tools, each carrying a permission tier — a read runs on its own, a write waits for a human. Taking that architecture apart is the Builder Track.
The Long Version
He came up on the factory floor, not in a lecture hall
Before Coulee Tech existed, Tim and his brother Rod worked a string of factory jobs — zinc die casting, metal polishing, CNC operation, powder bag filling, adhesive cutting and packaging. He studied at Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College from 2003 to 2007 and spent his first professional years at Commworld as a computer and network technician. The order matters: he learned what a production floor sounds like before he learned to write the software that schedules it, which is why manufacturing clients get answers out of him instead of a discovery questionnaire.
Employee number one, in month two
Coulee TechLink started in January of 2008, with Rod working out of an uninsulated three-season porch. Tim was hired the following month — the company's first employee, and its developer ever since. Eighteen years later he is still maintaining systems for clients who are still running them, which is rarer in this trade than it sounds. Most developers never have to live with their own decisions for a decade, so they never find out which ones were wrong.
2009: the ERP nobody would sell them
A small manufacturer came to Coulee Tech with production needs that no off-the-shelf package could accommodate. Rather than telling them to change how they run their shop, the company wrote them one. It went into production and is still in use at that manufacturer today. Other clients asked for the same thing, so the one-off was generalized into SlimApps — Coulee Tech's ERP for small manufacturers, covering customer PO tracking, production scheduling, and inventory — which the company publishes on its software development page. Tim has been the developer behind that line of work since the first version.
The unglamorous half: the systems under the software
Application code is only part of the job. Tim also runs the infrastructure his software sits on — Linux web servers and virtualized server environments — and steps onto the support bench when a problem outruns everyone else's. Writing the thing and then being the person who gets the call when it breaks produces a particular kind of engineering: fewer clever parts, more parts that can be restarted at two in the morning by somebody who did not write them.
From ERP to agents
The current work is the AI platform Coulee Tech runs its own business on: recursive agent loops that analyze, decide, act, and learn; a shared registry of more than a hundred tools an AI employee is allowed to call; permission tiers that separate reading a record from changing one; cost budgets and exit conditions so a loop cannot quietly run away with the month's AI spend; and anti-fabrication rules that make an agent say “I don't know” instead of inventing a number. None of it is a demo — the chatbot on coulee.tech and the retreat pages you are reading right now run on it.
Where this came from
Tim has no speaker profile to quote from — he is the developer, not the front of the house. What is published about the work is on our own site, linked below; the dates, the company history, and the platform details are first-party, from Coulee Tech.
Credentials
- 18 years at Coulee Tech
- First hire, February 2008 — the month after the company started — and its developer ever since.
- Custom ERP for manufacturers
- First system shipped in 2009 and still running; generalized into SlimApps, Coulee Tech's ERP for small manufacturers — PO tracking, production scheduling, inventory.
- Production agent architecture
- Recursive tool loops, tool registries with permission tiers, cost budgets, exit conditions, and anti-fabrication guardrails — in production, not in a slide deck.
- Infrastructure, not just application code
- Linux web servers and virtualized server environments. He operates what he ships, and takes the support calls when a problem outruns the bench.
- Wisconsin Indianhead Technical College
- Studied there 2003–2007, then started out at Commworld as a computer and network technician before Coulee Tech existed.
- Factory floor fluency
- Zinc die casting, metal polishing, CNC operation, powder bag filling, adhesive cutting and packaging — the jobs he and Rod worked before 2008, and the reason the software fits the way a shop actually runs.
See Tim at the Retreat
- When
- Tuesday, Sept 15, 2026
- Day job
- Coulee Tech
- Speaks elsewhere
- Rarely — the retreat is his public date
- Where
- The Island · Spooner, WI (or attend live remote)
- Price
- In person
$995$495 · Remote $250
Save $500 — register by August 31, 2026
One registration covers the full retreat — every session, every track.
All 20 sessions
See the full retreat agenda →
What Tim Speaks On
Tim does not work a speaking circuit — he writes software. These are the subjects he can take apart in front of you, live, with the code open. The Builder Track is where that happens: real architecture, real deployment discipline, and the failure modes still attached.
- Anatomy of a Production Agent: Loops, Tools, Budgets, and Exit Conditions
- Multi-Agent Systems That Ship — and the Ones That Quietly Burn Money
- Old ERP, New Tricks: Putting AI on Software You Cannot Replace
- Tool Registries and Permission Tiers: Deciding What an Agent May Touch
- Anti-Fabrication: Engineering an Agent That Will Say “I Don't Know”
- Claude Code for Real Work: From a Live Database to a Working Dashboard
- MCP and Your Business Systems: Wiring AI Into What You Already Run
- When Off-the-Shelf Does Not Fit: Building the Custom System Instead
- AI on the Shop Floor: Where Manufacturing Data Actually Lives
At the retreat
Tim teaches the Builder Track — the room for developers, technical leads, and IT directors who would rather leave with working code than with notes. He is also the person to find in the hallway if you are the one who has to make AI work with what your company already runs: the ten-year-old ERP, the line-of-business app nobody wants to touch, the database that holds every number in the business and offers no way to ask it a question. Session-by-session assignments are still being finalized, and one registration covers all three tracks either way.
Retreat Sessions Closest to Tim's Work
One registration covers all 20 sessions across the Leadership, Sales & Marketing, and Builder tracks. These sit closest to what Tim does for a living.
Claude Code Bootcamp: Real Data to Live Dashboard by Lunch
Session detailsWire AI Into Everything: Your Data, Your Apps, Live
Session detailsOld ERP, New Tricks: Let AI Upgrade Your Line-of-Business Software
Session detailsLive AI Teardown: Bring Your Worst Workflow
Session detailsSession-by-session presenter assignments are still being finalized and will be announced closer to the retreat — this is a map of subject matter, not a teaching schedule.
Tim Holum — Questions & Answers
Spend a day in the room with Tim Holum.
Five instructors, three tracks, twenty hands-on sessions — and a written 90-day AI roadmap you leave with. Sept 15, 2026 · The Island, Spooner WI · or attend live online.
Save $500 — register by August 31, 2026