Heyelab.
A private AI lab helping small and medium businesses put AI to work — without handing their data to the big clouds.
We design and run AI tools on our own private infrastructure and operate them for you. No hardware to buy, no cloud provider in the middle, no per-seat SaaS tax, no frontier lab training on your business. You get the workflow, we handle the rest.
The Opportunity
AI's biggest opportunity isn't at the frontier —
it's on Main Street
The headlines focus on the trillion-dollar AI labs. The real story is what the technology can do for the 33 million small and medium businesses that run the U.S. economy — distributors, contractors, clinics, law firms, shops, manufacturers.
These businesses run on tribal knowledge, PDFs, spreadsheets, email threads, and senior employees who've been there twenty years. That's exactly the kind of work modern AI is best at: reading messy documents, drafting structured responses, summarizing meetings, pulling answers out of a decade of files, and automating the repetitive parts of skilled work.
The catch: most SMBs can't use the off-the-shelf cloud tools. Their data is sensitive, their workflows are bespoke, their margins don't stretch to per-seat enterprise SaaS, and their customers don't want their information sitting on a frontier lab's training pipeline. And almost none of them want to buy hardware or hire an AI team.
That's where Heyelab fits. We host the AI on our own private infrastructure, tailor it to your business, and run it for you — for a flat monthly cost.
20–40%
Time recovered
On the repetitive desk work — quoting, intake, reporting, scheduling — that quietly eats your team's week.
Days → Minutes
Faster turnarounds
Quotes, takeoffs, proposals, and customer responses that used to wait on one person can now move the moment they hit the inbox.
0
Headcount required
We don't sell you on hiring a data team. We deploy tools your existing staff can use on day one.
Private
Your data, isolated
Models run on our own infrastructure — not on AWS, not on OpenAI. Each customer gets a dedicated environment, and your data never trains anyone else's model.
What We Do
AI that works for your business,
not the other way around
Small and medium businesses are sitting on years of expertise, relationships, and process knowledge. We build the tools that let your team move faster — without handing your business over to a SaaS company or a frontier AI lab.
Workflow Automation
We map your highest-friction processes — quoting, takeoffs, intake, scheduling, reporting — and replace the repetitive parts with AI that runs in the background. Less clicking, more closing.
Custom Internal Tools
Purpose-built software for the way your business actually runs — not a forced fit into someone else's SaaS. Built with your team, deployed on your infrastructure.
Private AI Infrastructure
We host and operate AI models on our own private infrastructure — not OpenAI, not the big clouds. You get the benefits of modern AI without buying GPUs, hiring an MLOps team, or sending your data to a third party.
Document & Data Intelligence
Make your PDFs, drawings, spreadsheets, and historical records searchable, queryable, and useful. Decades of institutional knowledge become a tool your whole team can use.
How It Works
We run the AI.
You run your business.
Most AI tools fall into two camps: either you wire your business into a frontier-lab API (and hand them your data), or you go build your own infrastructure (and hire a team to keep it alive). Neither one is a fit for a small or medium business.
Heyelab is a third option. We own the hardware, we tune the models, we keep them running, and we deliver a working tool to your team. You don't see GPUs and we don't touch your accounting software. Just the workflow, on a flat monthly cost.
We host the AI — you just use it
No servers to buy, no GPUs to babysit, no IT department required. We operate the infrastructure end-to-end, your team works through a simple interface.
Off the big clouds
Our models run on private infrastructure we own and control — not on AWS, Azure, or the frontier AI providers. Your data isn't joining anyone's training pipeline.
Each customer is isolated
Your business gets its own dedicated environment. Documents, prompts, and outputs from one customer never touch another's.
Predictable monthly cost
Flat pricing per business, not per token, not per seat, not per API call. You always know what AI costs next month.
Now Piloting · Port Aransas, TX
Starting where we live
We're launching Heyelab as a hands-on pilot with small businesses in Port Aransas — realtors, property managers, restaurants, rental shops, and the local service operators who keep the island running. The plan is to embed with a few businesses, learn what actually moves the needle, and turn that into a repeatable offering for SMBs everywhere.
If you run a business on the island and want a seat at the table early, get in touch below.
Where We Help
Built for the businesses that
actually make Main Street work
We start with the workflows you already do every day — and quietly take the repetitive parts off your team's plate.
Real Estate
Listing intake, comp research, automated showing summaries, contract Q&A, lead follow-up. Turn a stack of inquiries into a prioritized list overnight.
Property Management
Maintenance ticket triage, tenant communication, vendor coordination, lease and inspection summaries. The repetitive 70% of the job, automated.
Restaurants & Hospitality
Reservation handling, review responses, menu and inventory analysis, staff scheduling support, multilingual customer service after hours.
Electrical & Trades
Plan takeoffs, quoting, project intake, BOM generation. The proven model behind EMMA at 2M Electrical Reps — now offered as a service.
Local Services & Retail
Rental coordination, scheduling, intake, recurring customer comms. The kind of work that ties up a front-desk person all morning.
Professional Services
Document review, client intake, scheduling, drafting standard correspondence. For firms where time literally is the product.
Join the Port Aransas pilot
We're working hands-on with a small group of island businesses to deploy private AI into real workflows. Tell us about your business and we'll be in touch within a couple of days.
Who We Are
A small team with deep operating experience
Heyelab was founded in 2025 by Nick Merrill — a 6th-generation Texan, electrical engineer, and operator with 20+ years building businesses in the electrical industry. We are headquartered in Texas and work with customers across the U.S.
We're not a typical AI consultancy. Our team has actually run the kinds of companies we build for — from $2M to $200M+, from warehouse floor to data center deployment. That's the perspective we bring to every engagement.
Contact
Bring AI to your business
If you run a small or medium business and you're curious what AI could actually do for your team — on your hardware, with your data — we'd like to talk. No deck required.