Chattanooga, Tennessee
James Gurtner
Builder.
About
I live in Chattanooga, Tennessee with my wife Rebecca and our dogs Kevin and Bella. I run with Rebecca and my mom Cláudia — we help Brazilian immigrants prepare for the U.S. citizenship interview and learn English.
Before any of this I ran a flooring and remodeling business in metro Atlanta. These days I spend more time in terminals than on job sites, but the instinct is the same: figure out how something works, then build it right.
I speak English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Working on
Aprenda Mesmo
Curriculum, student systems, instructor workflows, the whole operation. About 19 people now. My mom Cláudia is our lead instructor.
Contract Work
Automation systems, CRM architecture, and technical integrations for select clients.
Home
Slowly, on purpose. Kevin and Bella supervise.
Into
Rammed earth construction. Hydroponics. Bitcoin. Home automation — Home Assistant runs most of our house at this point. Plant-based cooking. Theology — I'm Seventh-day Adventist and think about this stuff more than most things. Saturday is for rest.
How I build
Most of my work lives in Notion, n8n, and Python. I self-host on Hetzner with Docker and Caddy. I've built automation systems with Make.com and GoHighLevel, AI integrations with Claude and the MCP, custom LMS pipelines with Playwright, analytics in Metabase, and more Home Assistant automations than I should probably admit.
I like systems that are simple enough to explain and sturdy enough to leave alone.
I occasionally take on referral-based project work — usually automation, Notion architecture, or technical builds. If something comes to mind, .