Thomas Addison · Founder
I’ve been on both sides of this table.
The story
The founder story
I’ve spent 25 years around businesses at two extremes — deploying enterprise systems inside Fortune 500 companies, and owning small companies myself.
I’ve bought businesses, sold businesses, and lost $1.55 million on a deal that looked right on paper — which taught me what “not ready” actually costs.
Today I own an operating company that runs without me in the building, because I built it that way on purpose.
Addison Advisory is me doing the same thing for trades contractors: putting in the operating platform that lets the business grow without consuming the owner.
Why trades contractors
Because you’re the most underserved owners in the market.
The software vendors pitch you whatever they’re paid to pitch. The exit planners hand you a binder. The generalist consultants have never watched an estimate die because a gate swing wasn’t captured on the first site visit.
I work inside contracting businesses at your exact scale — documenting how estimates, installs, inventory, and invoices actually move, then putting in the platform that carries it. Plain words, specific numbers, no theater.
Credentials
The short version.
CEPA
Certified Exit Planning Advisor — Exit Planning Institute. The value lens behind the platform work.
Duke MBA
The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.
25 years in enterprise technology
Including strategic pursuit work at VMware with Fortune 500 accounts — systems that ran billion-dollar operations.
Owner-operator
Owns a company that runs without him in the building — built that way on purpose.
How I work
Five principles, non-negotiable.
One source of truth
The whole company trusts one system, or the system has failed.
Configure, don’t customize
Standard software, adapted process — never bespoke code someone has to maintain forever.
Paid by you, never the vendor
Certifications disclosed; commissions refused.
Sequenced around your season
The cutover horror story doesn’t happen on my watch.
You own everything
Every license, account, and dataset in your name from day one.
Next step
Find out where your business stands.
Three minutes online, or thirty minutes on a call. Either way, you’ll get an honest read — and if we’re not a fit, I’ll tell you.