Empty Bar

Brian Buechner, Hastings, Minnesota

Websites, data, and small tools for the people doing the work.

I spent six years as a school counselor. Now I build the sites, databases and tools that take paperwork off people's plates, so their time goes to the people they serve. Campaigns, nonprofits, schools, small businesses and households.

Tend's kitchen wall showing the next five days as sticky notes and a shared board, with the Today and Calendar screens on two phones in front. Board photos are blurred

Tend

Household app for iPhone, Android and a screen in the kitchen

A shared calendar and lists for one household. Everyone sees the same week on their phone, and a wall display shows it on any old tablet or monitor in the kitchen.

What I built
The apps, the wall display at tendwall.com, the subscription setup, and the store listings. I also designed the visual system: two themes, Paper and Evening, with colors checked for contrast at every text size. This site uses the Evening palette.
Built with
Expo and EAS, TypeScript, Supabase, RevenueCat, Cloudflare, Vercel, PostHog, Sentry
Where it stands
Version 2.0 is live on the App Store and Google Play.

tendwall.comRead the case study

The Jen Fox for House endorsements page, an early vote chart from the weekly brief, and the yard sign app on a phone, with sample data in the brief and the app
Brief and sign app shown with sample data

Jen Fox for House

Campaign for Minnesota House District 41B

Everything digital for a first-time state house campaign: the website, the weekly email, getting yard signs into yards, and a clear weekly read on where the race stands.

What I built
The campaign site and weekly newsletter, sent from the campaign's own address. A yard sign app that turns requests into delivery routes, maps and printable packets. VAN, Airtable and spreadsheet lists reconciled into one sign list. A weekly State of the Race brief in charts, rebuilt from the campaign's own counts.
Built with
Wix, NGP VAN, Airtable, Leaflet and OpenStreetMap, Next.js on Vercel
Where it stands
Running through Election Day, November 3.

jenfoxforhouse.comRead more

The Hastings Happenings editor portal shown with sample data, with the October 12 issue in front
Hastings Happenings. Portal shown with sample data
The Hastings Progressives homepage, with an issue of its email newsletter in front
Hastings Progressives

Hastings Happenings and Hastings Progressives

Two newsletters and a local organizing group, Hastings, Minnesota

Two ways of keeping a river town informed. One is a free email every Monday morning about what's going on. The other is a grassroots group's website, newsletter, voter guide and shop.

Hastings Happenings
The signup page and an archive of every issue, plus a private portal where the editor runs issues, listings, sponsors and subscribers without touching the database underneath.
Hastings Progressives
A website with events and a voter guide that gives every local candidate on the ballot their own words, an email newsletter from EveryAction, an online shop, and the group's brand. I do this one as the group's volunteer digital organizer.
Built with
EmailOctopus, Airtable, Cloudflare, Next.js on Vercel, EveryAction, Bonfire

hastingshappenings.comhastingsprogressives.comRead more

Three private client sites: a shared project workspace with a plan between two people, a pilot project portal with status, a field test and next steps, and a household workspace's Send page for sharing details with a vendor
Shown with sample names and data

Client workspaces

Private sites at emptybar.app, one for each client

A private site for each client, opened with a link and a personal code. Nothing to install and no account to create, so the people involved actually use it.

Household
Dates, routines and decisions across every property for an assistant who runs a busy household, and a Send page that gives a vendor exactly what they need as a link.
Pilot project
One place for a product pilot with a partner: where the app stands, the field test, next steps, open decisions and ideas.
Shared project
A plan for two collaborators: an ideas board, a living spec, and a decision log with each person's sign-off.
Campaign team
Weekly numbers, tasks and the State of the Race brief for the Jen Fox for House team.
Built with
Airtable, Vercel, Cloudflare
Caselo's upload screen, which notes that files stay on the computer, next to its results page for a sample school: 204 of 301 students have no flags, with tiers and a list of students to start with
Shown with sample students

Caselo

Open source tool for school counselors

Shows a school counselor which students may need support, and why, without student data ever leaving the computer.

What I built
A tool that runs entirely in the browser. A counselor drops in up to four exports from the student information system and sees attendance, grade and behavior flags sorted into tiers, the reason behind every flag, and what changed since last term. Nothing is uploaded or stored.
Built with
Vite, React, TypeScript, DuckDB running in the browser, Vitest, Vercel. MIT license.
Where it stands
Live at caselo.org, starting with Infinite Campus exports.

caselo.orgRead the case study

The Foedera homepage: a lighthouse logo, a short description, and counts of 367 vetted organizations in 87 Minnesota counties

Foedera

Giving directory for community groups

A directory of Minnesota nonprofits for volunteer groups that raise money and give it away. 367 organizations across 87 counties, each checked against public records.

What I built
An organization is listed only after its EIN is confirmed with the IRS. Four public sources are then checked on a schedule and shown on its page with links and dates. It never rates or scores anyone. Groups browse by county and issue, share a filtered view as a link, print it for a meeting, and log what they give to a public ledger that never names them.
Built with
Vite, React, Leaflet and OpenStreetMap, Airtable, Vercel functions, Resend, IRS, ProPublica and Minnesota Attorney General data
Where it stands
Live at foedera.org.

foedera.orgRead the case study

Also built

A school counselor's site with a school picker and latest updates, shown with sample names

School counselor site

One site for a counselor who splits her week between two schools. Parents pick their school and see only what applies, and she posts and emails updates herself with one access code.

Shown with sample names

How I work

Six years as a school counselor taught me to listen for what someone needs under what they ask for. That is still most of the job.

  • Start with how the week actually goes

    The first request is usually a symptom. I ask about the week before I suggest a tool.

  • Less admin, more of the human part

    Data entry and chasing updates eat time meant for people. I build the workflow so that time comes back, with AI as an extension of you, never a replacement.

  • Links that just work

    Volunteers, parents and vendors open a link and see what they need. No logins, no new accounts.

  • The first no isn't the answer

    When a platform says something can't be done, I keep the goal and find another way there.

  • Design is part of how it works

    Every screen starts from who is reading it and what they need to do next. Colors are checked for contrast, not picked by eye.

  • One thing, done well

    Each tool does one job. If it needs a manual, it's doing too much.

Services

CRM and data

Records in one place, cleaned up, and set up so the next person can keep them clean. Imports, duplicates, and lists from different systems reconciled into one.

Salesforce NPSP, Airtable, DonorPerfect, EveryAction, Sheets and Excel, SQL

Seen in Jen Fox for House, client workspaces

Campaign and nonprofit tech

The tools a campaign or small nonprofit runs on, set up so volunteers can use them on day one. Voter file work, newsletters, donation pages, sign-ups and yard sign logistics.

NGP VAN, ActBlue, EmailOctopus, Wix, Leaflet, Bonfire

Seen in Jen Fox for House, Hastings Progressives

Websites and client portals

Public sites, and private portals that give one client a clear view of their own work. Built so you can update them without calling me, with domains, email and hosting handed over.

Design and UI, Next.js, Vercel, Netlify, Wix, Cloudflare, DNS

Seen in client workspaces, the counselor site

Apps and automation

Mobile and web apps from the first sketch through App Store and Google Play review, and automations that take repeat work off someone's plate.

Expo and EAS, TypeScript, Supabase, RevenueCat, Stripe, Resend, AI workflows

Seen in Tend, Caselo

Lab

Smaller things I'm building to learn new tools.

  • SortcererA panel inside Gmail that keeps track of what still needs a reply.In development
  • Derp & FetchEnrichment gear for high-energy dogs.derpandfetch.com
  • Thwip GardenA web-swinging jumping-spider game set in a backyard garden.In development
  • LamplightPersonalized bedtime stories, read aloud in a parent's voice.In development

Have something that's eating your week? Tell me about it.

brian@emptybar.app

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