Page 9 - BusinessWest May 26, 2025

“I have a unique skill set in the
sense that I understand technology, but
I also understand business. So I can
talk to business owners about their
technology in a way that’s very differ-
ent than most technology people can,”
he explained. “Most technology people
are so focused on the bits and the bytes
and those kinds of things, but the busi-
ness people just want the technology
to work right. As somebody who’s been
on both sides, I feel like I can bring that
to the table more clearly than so many
other technology companies.”
He chose the name of his firm pur-
posefully. “I wanted to make it clear
that I’m not competing with those other
technology companies, those man-
aged service providers that come in to
fix your computer. I don’t want to do
that. I could fix your computer if that’s
what I needed to do, but I’m trying
to provide leadership and an under-
standing of technology.
two hours every payroll period to get it
into a format they needed. I was able to
automate that task and turn it into, like,
25 seconds. That’s a huge savings,” he
explained. “That’s not uncommon, and
it’s not his fault that he didn’t know how
to make those changes because he’s
not a technology person.”
Mindset Shift
One major focus with clients lately
— and for the foreseeable future — is
the role of artificial intelligence in myri-
ad businesses and industries.
“The biggest concern seems to be
understanding the data policy and what
is happening with their data. You have
employees who are scared of AI as
a concept. You have a lot of business
owners who don’t understand it, but
want to understand it, and they don’t
know who to turn to. So I’m providing
that level of knowledge and guidance
for them,” Weber explained.
“In terms of using AI, the easy ways
are using it to rewrite your email to
make it more clear and concise, or
using it to build your PowerPoint pre-
sentation deck that you need to pass off
to a client, or using it for data analytics.
All those things are really low-hanging
fruit, and we can show their staff how
to actually engage and use these things
in a productive manner that doesn’t
have gigantic bills behind it, and is
just there to make their day easier and
more efficient.”
After he conducts presentations on
current uses of AI in the workplace, he
noted, “they’re understanding it bet-
ter, and they’re saying, ‘oh that’s not
so scary,’ or ‘yes I can do that better.’
Because it is an amazing technology,
and it’s a whole mindset shift in how
you’re using it because it’s not just
a Google search window. There’s so
much more to it and so much more
feedback it can provide to you — if you
North
Continued on page 34 >>
“You have employees
who are scared of AI as a
concept. You have a lot of
business owners who don’t
understand it, but want
to understand it, and they
don’t know who to turn to.
So I’m providing that level
of knowledge and guidance
for them.”
BFS has acquired Napatree Capital of Westerly, RI and Longmeadow, MA
“I felt like part of doing that meant
I had to be sitting next to the CEO of
the company and not across the table,
and the only way I can do that is if I
don’t sell anything other than myself,”
he went on. “So I don’t sell any prod-
ucts, and I don’t accept commissions.
I’m not competing with that MSP
who’s already selling hardware and
software to the client.”
But the needs Weber does meet
are significant, particularly for com-
panies that don’t have a CTO. North
Star’s services fall into a few broad
buckets, including technology leader-
ship and management; technology
roadmap and alignment with busi-
ness objectives; technology staff and
vendor management; and risk, secu-
rity, and compliance management.
One example of a specific service
is a technology stack review. “That’s
just understanding what do they have,
and is it working, or is it not working?
Often, they’ve been doing a process
for 15 or 20 years because that’s how
they’ve always done it, and nobody’s
ever looked at it and said, ‘this is not
the efficient way to do it.’
“One of my clients was doing a
payroll export from their payroll soft-
ware into Microsoft Excel and then
manipulating that data file for about
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