[Problem]
Small commercial aquaculture and agriculture operators were juggling six spreadsheets — pricing in one, enterprise budgets in another, cash flow somewhere else — with no shared engine tying revenue, COGS, overhead, and ending cash together.
[Approach]
- 01Designed two sister apps under one umbrella — Tides for aquaculture (RAS, ponds, raceways, net pens, shellfish, longlines, kelp, hatcheries, wild harvest) and Tilth for agriculture (mushrooms, market gardens, orchards, vineyards, pasture poultry, ruminants, apiaries, value-added kitchens).
- 02Built a single financial engine shared by both apps: per-product pricing with margin and break-even, system-aware enterprise budget templates, a rolling 12-month cash-flow forecast, and annual projections that back-solve from whichever driver the operator pins (sales, harvest, packaging, or units).
- 03Kept the platform deliberately quiet — no ads, no social feed, no messaging, no public UGC — so it's appropriate on school, workplace, and managed networks, with row-level security scoping every workspace's data to its team.
[Outcome]
A working two-app platform with a domain toggle, a guided site tour, and demo data for both salt and soil. Operators can move from pricing a single SKU to projecting an entire year without leaving the app or rebuilding a spreadsheet.
[Background]
Brackish Books is two sister apps under one umbrella. Tides serves aquaculture operators — RAS systems, ponds, raceways, marine net pens, shellfish bag-and-rack, longlines, kelp, hatcheries, and wild harvest. Tilth serves agriculture operators — mushroom rooms, market gardens, orchards and berries, vineyards, pasture poultry, ruminants, apiaries, and value-added kitchens.
Both apps share the same financial engine: per-product pricing with margin and break-even analysis, system-aware enterprise budgets, an integrated 12-month cash-flow forecast, and annual projections that tie revenue, COGS, overhead, and ending cash together. Pin one driver — sales, harvest, packaging, or units — and the rest back-solves.
The platform is designed for adults running real operations. No advertising, no social feed, no messaging between strangers, no public user-generated content — appropriate for school, workplace, and managed networks. Built on modern web infrastructure with row-level security so each workspace's records stay scoped to its team.
