About
We’re Justin and Lukas Johnson
A father and son who both write software for a living. We started Porch Labs to put that work to use for businesses close to home.
Why we started this
We both spend our working days building software, and over the last couple of years we’ve watched AI change how quickly that work gets done. Things that used to take a team months can now be built by two careful people in a fraction of the time.
Most of that change has gone to big companies. We think the businesses around us, the restaurants, shows, shops and outfitters that make this part of the Ozarks what it is, should get some of it too. That takes people nearby who understand both the software and the business, and who will tell them honestly what’s worth doing.
So that’s what Porch Labs is. We started it in late 2025. We’re in Boone County, Arkansas, about 35 miles south of Branson, and a good deal of the work really does happen on a porch.
What we try to hold to
Be honest, even when it costs us work. If you don’t need us, or a cheaper product would do, we’ll say so.
Fair prices. We want to earn a fair living and keep customers for a long time. Those go together.
You decide. We’ll lay out what you could do and what each choice costs. You decide.
Software should serve people. Tools should make good work easier and leave room for the relationships that make a business worth running.
How we’d approach your business
You know your customers, your season and your trade. We know software. A good answer usually needs both.
Remove the problem before adding software. If the phone rings all day with the same question, the first fix might be your Google listing, not a chatbot.
Keep what already works. If your booking system does its job, we’ll connect to it. Replacing a tool your staff knows has a real cost.
People make the decisions. Tools can read, sort and draft. You and your staff decide, and you keep talking to your customers.
Software that stays out of the way. A good tool fits the job and the people doing it. If your staff needs training to use it, we built it wrong.
No surprises about cost or leaving. Before we start, you’ll know what it costs, who handles what, what keeps billing, and what you’d take with you if you left. You can always leave
Less than you might expect. We use the same kind of tools we’d build for you to run our own back office. Lower overhead lets us charge less, and we’d rather do that than charge agency rates.
The name
The porch is where a lot of our best conversations happen, between the two of us and with friends and neighbors. It’s a place where people slow down enough to think a problem through.
The lab is because we like to try things. Some of what we try turns into work for clients, and some of it is how we learn and get better at the craft.
More to read
- Your marketing package, line by line
- Software you can stop paying for
- Seasonal business, year-round bills
- Your hours are wrong somewhere
- When customers ask an AI
- The spreadsheet nobody’s allowed to touch
- The thing you type twice
- You can always leave
- What AI is good for, and where we’d keep it out
- Have an idea other businesses could use?
- How working with us goes
- What we can help with
- Help and how-tos
We’d be glad to hear from you
Whether you have a specific problem or just want to know if we could help, send a note. You’ll hear back from one of us.