LocksmithFounderAI builderCoach

I've been the guy nobody bet on. So I built everything myself.

No father, an addiction, a felony at 19. Then a licensed locksmith company, AI agents that answer my phones, and the software that runs it all. Now I build for others and coach people who are starting where I started.

Austin, TX · In person or virtual anywhere in the U.S.

Robert Ramirez smiling
Won my license back pro seRepresented myself against the State of Texas in 2024, and won.
24/7Licensed lockout, car key and roadside company I founded and run
54K+Jobs dispatched through software I built
800+Google reviews on our Austin listing, zero left unanswered thanks to AI replies
140+Written specs behind everything I've shipped. No spec, no code.
About me

Robert Ramirez. Locksmith, founder, builder.

I'm a licensed Texas locksmith and the founder of 24 Hr Car Unlocking, based in Austin. I built the company on search traffic, one customer at a time, into a 24/7 lockout, car key and roadside operation with technicians across multiple cities.

When I couldn't afford a software team, I became one. I taught myself to build with AI and wrote the dispatch CRM, the apps, the AI phone agent and the automations that run the business today.

Away from work I'm a dad first, I'm on the basketball court, and I'm Biscuit's human. Now I coach and build for people who are where I was.

60K+Customers served
$5.2M+In sales
39K+Completed jobs
31 minAverage technician arrival time
$1.2M+Spent on Google Ads, my own money
10+SEO agencies hired, including Neil Patel's
Brands

One builder. Every brand.

The companies I've built and run, and the studio behind them. Whoever you hire, it's me and the same playbook.

Parent company · Consulting & software

Austin Web AI

My consulting, web development and software studio. It's the engine behind every brand on this page, and it builds for other businesses too.

  • AI voice agents
  • AI workflows & automations
  • Google Business Profile automation
  • Automated GBP posting
  • Review auto-responses
  • Lead capture & speed-to-lead
  • Facebook auto-posting
  • AI-powered dispatch CRM
  • Web development
  • Mobile apps
  • Business & AI consulting
  • Project management, spec-first
See the agency
Portfolio

Things I've built.

Real products running a real business, not mockups. Most of it I built with AI as my engineering team, using a spec-first process I can teach you.

My company · Locksmith & roadsideLive

A 24/7 locksmith company built on Google search

Where it started: no referral network and no investors. Just search traffic, my own ad money, and showing up fast.

$5.2M+in sales
39K+jobs completed
31 minaverage arrival
800+Google reviews
  • Car lockouts, car keys and fobs, and roadside help, day or night
  • Technicians dispatched by software I wrote myself
AI voice agentLive

An AI receptionist that never misses a call

The problem: every missed call is a job that goes to a competitor. Our old AI phone vendor charged a $5,000 setup fee, $500 a month, and 21¢ a minute in AI usage, and we couldn't change a word without paying them.

$11K+first-year vendor cost cut
≈5¢AI per call, was 21¢ a minute
24/7English & Spanish
  • Quotes the price, checks the service area and books the job
  • Hands off to a human when it should
Lead capture · Auto-responseLive

Every web lead called back in 30 seconds

The problem: most businesses call web leads back hours later. By then the customer has hired someone else.

46%of quote-form leads book a job
24K+leads captured last year
  • The form saves as they type, so half-finished leads aren't lost
  • Abandoned forms get a friendly recovery call minutes later
Review workflowLive

Reviews on autopilot, sent to the right city

The problem: happy customers don't leave reviews unless you ask at the exact right moment.

800+Google reviews
0 minstaff time per request
  • The technician taps Complete, and the customer gets a thank-you text
  • It routes to the nearest city's Google or Facebook page automatically
GBP automationLive

A Google Business Profile that posts itself

The problem: Google rewards active profiles, but nobody on a service crew has time to post.

0 minowner time per post
  • A technician snaps a job photo, and a privacy filter blurs plates and faces
  • AI writes the post and alt text from the actual photo
  • It publishes to Google and the website. Risky photos are held for review
Review auto-responseLive

Every review answered, for about 2¢

The problem: unanswered reviews tell Google and customers that nobody's home.

0unreplied reviews
≈2¢per reply
  • Personal replies built only from the review and the real job
  • Low ratings go to a human first
Social automationLive

A Facebook page that never goes quiet

The problem: our page went silent for months, because posting by hand never sticks.

6/dayposts, hands-free
  • Real job photos become captioned posts every 2 hours, 8am–8pm
  • Each post links to the matching city or service page
  • AI captions with a safety filter and a fallback template
Google AdsLive

Ads that bid on paying customers, not form fills

The problem: Google was optimizing for people who started a form, not people who paid.

$1.2M+of my own money spent on Google Ads
  • Every ad click is tied to the job it became
  • Real revenue goes back to Google, so bidding chases buyers
  • Real phone calls count as conversions. Hang-ups don't
Ad protectionRolling out

Click-fraud protection we own

The problem: we paid a monthly subscription just to block fake clicks on our ads.

$1K+/yrsubscription replaced
  • Watches every ad click, minute by minute
  • Repeat clickers get blocked in Google Ads automatically
AI content agentIn design

Weekly video plans from real jobs

The problem: every service business knows it should post video, and almost none know what to film this week.

51job clips already catalogued
  • Turns completed jobs into titles, shot lists and on-camera lines
  • Drafts ready-to-post videos for Google and Facebook
Field-service softwareLive

Phoenix: AI-powered dispatch CRM for field service

The problem: off-the-shelf dispatch software wasn't built for a 24/7 business that has to get a technician moving in minutes, so I built my own.

54K+jobs dispatched
31 minaverage arrival
24/7auto-dispatch
  • AI phone agent and web forms feed leads straight in, then auto-dispatch to the nearest technician
  • Live dispatch map with drive-time ETAs for every technician
  • Leads, jobs, customers, payments, payroll and reminders in one place
AI business analystLive

Ask your business anything, in plain English

The problem: owners make big calls on gut feel, because pulling real numbers means spreadsheets and hours.

Secondsto answer, not hours
54K+jobs of data behind it
  • "What did each technician make us last month?" answered from live data
  • Revenue, profit per technician, lead funnel and receivables
  • Private and read-only, so it can't change anything
Mobile app · TechniciansLive

The app our technicians run the day on

The problem: dispatching by phone call and text means missed jobs, no location and no proof of work.

39K+jobs completed
Same dayfixes, no app-store wait
  • Job offers, navigation, live location and payments in one app
  • Push notifications and appointment reminders
  • iOS and Android, updated over the air
Mobile app · CustomersLive

Uber-style ordering for a locksmith

The problem: customers locked out don't want a phone tree. They want a price and a tech on the map.

  • Request help and see up-front pricing in a few taps
  • Track the technician live on the map
  • Live in the App Store and Google Play
SaaS · PropertyBuilt

AmeniLink: roadside help as an apartment amenity

The idea: apartment communities compete on amenities. Lockout and roadside help for residents is one they can offer on day one.

  • Multi-tenant platform with admin and resident apps
  • Residents request a callback, and the AI agent already knows their name, vehicle and address
Legal tech · AILive

ProSeFiler: the tool I wish I'd had in court

The problem: people in court without a lawyer lose on missed deadlines and wrong forms, not on the merits.

Wonmy own case, pro se
iOSapp in beta
  • Deadline calculators and case organization, private on your device
  • AI drafting checked against real Texas rule and statute text
Website · Lead generationLive

A website that books jobs, not just visits

The problem: our old WordPress site was slow, hard to change, and built for visits instead of bookings.

46%of quote-form leads book
150+city and service pages
  • Instant quote form with bot protection and ad-click tracking
  • Edge-hosted, with a content studio anyone can edit
Website migrationLive

Off WordPress without losing a single URL

The problem: most site rebuilds break old links and throw away years of rankings.

100%of existing URLs kept
  • Moved mycarunlocker.com to the same fast edge stack
  • Every page imported and checked before the switch
Customer experienceLive

A live "on my way" tracker

The problem: a stranded customer's first question is "where's my tech?", and every call to ask it ties up your dispatcher.

  • A text with a live map, ETA and job status when the tech heads out
  • A review button appears the moment the job is done
ReportingLive

Technician scorecards, no spreadsheets

The problem: technician reviews were built by hand, and by the time they were done the numbers were stale.

  • Sales, average ticket, cancel rate and pay for every technician
  • Alerts when a market's lead flow suddenly drops
  • Self-serve and live, straight from job data
Payments · PayrollLive

Invoices and paychecks that write themselves

The problem: paying contractors by hand means disputes, because nobody can tie a payout back to the job.

39K+payments recorded
  • Customer invoices and technician paychecks generated as PDFs
  • Payroll audit tools that tie every payout to its job
Ads · TrackingLive

Conversion tracking you can actually trust

The problem: our Google Ads were counting the wrong things, so the bidding was learning from bad data.

14 → 2conflicting goals cleaned up
~52%of form "leads" were test traffic
  • Real phone calls and finished quote forms count. Noise doesn't
  • Each city page shows its own local, tracked number
Project managementDaily

How I ship software with AI without chaos

The problem: building with AI goes fast until it goes sideways, and nobody remembers why anything was built.

140+written specs
  • Every feature starts as a spec: requirements, design, tasks
  • Built, checked by automated gates, then closed out
Milestones

The receipts.

What I've actually done, starting from a felony record at 19.

  1. Won my locksmith license back, pro seRepresented myself at the State Office of Administrative Hearings in 2024 and won.
  2. Founded a licensed Texas locksmith company24 Hr Car Unlocking: 24/7 lockouts, car keys and roadside, with a team of technicians.
  3. Built three brands24 Hr Car Unlocking, Rescue Rob's Roadside and ProSeFiler.
  4. 800+ Google reviews, zero unansweredEvery review gets a real reply, drafted by an AI workflow I built.
  5. Fired our AI phone vendorReplaced it with my own 24/7 bilingual voice agent.
  6. Wrote the company's whole software stackPhoenix, our AI-powered dispatch CRM, plus the technician app, customer app, portal and automations.
  7. Moved the platform to the edgeMigrated everything from Heroku to Cloudflare Workers without losing data.
  8. Apps in the App Store and Google PlayTechnician and customer apps live; ProSeFiler's iOS app in beta.
  9. Rebuilt two websites off WordPress24hrcarunlocking.com and mycarunlocker.com, now fast and edge-hosted.
  10. $1.2M+ spent on Google AdsMy own money, so every lesson about what converts was paid for in full.
  11. Hired 10+ SEO agenciesIncluding Neil Patel's agency. I know what agencies sell and what actually moves rankings.
  12. 140+ written specsEvery feature planned, built and closed out on paper first.
  13. Started Project 1342Turning my second-chance licensing win into a path for others.
Case study

Firing our AI vendor and building our own phone agent

The problem
Our phone leads ran through a third-party AI voice service. Every change meant paying them. We couldn't see inside it, and it was the last thing tying us to our old servers.
What I built
Our own AI agent, "Ace." It answers every call, talks naturally, and uses the same tools our dispatchers use: checking the area, quoting, finding jobs, saving leads, and texting a location link.
The hard parts
Keeping a call alive when the server restarts mid-conversation. Stopping a callback loop that dialed people more than once. Matching how people actually say services out loud to what we sell.
The ROI
The vendor cost us a $5,000 setup fee, $500 a month, and 21¢ a minute in AI usage: $11,000 in the first year before usage. Now each call costs about 5¢ of AI in total, we own every line of the script, and we change it the same day for free.
  1. Caller dials our numberTwilio turns speech into text in real time and handles interruptions.
  2. One live session per callA Cloudflare Durable Object holds the conversation and survives restarts.
  3. Claude decides what to doIt streams its reply and calls tools when it needs facts.
  4. Tools hit our own APIService area, price, job lookup, lead save, SMS. Same rules as the website.
  5. Human handoff when neededTransfers to a person, or texts and calls back.
$11K+First-year vendor cost cut
≈5¢AI per call, was 21¢/min
24/7English + Spanish
Project 1342

1342

Named for Texas HB 1342 (2019), the law that let me fight for my license.

Second chances, built into a pipeline.

Texas denied my license because of my record. I read HB 1342, represented myself, and won. Project 1342 turns that into a path for other people with records: get trained, get licensed, get to work.

Train

Licensed trades like locksmithing, towing, HVAC, electrical and barbering, plus a tech and AI track.

License

Guidance through the licensing process, built on how I won my own case.

Work

Real jobs and business ownership, starting with my own dispatch network.

In development. Not affiliated with the State of Texas. This is not legal advice or legal representation.

Coaching & mentoring

I'll help you do it faster than I did.

Every program is 1:1. No group calls where you hide in the back. You get a real plan, weekly sessions, and someone who won't let you quit on yourself.

Why

Where you start doesn't decide where you finish. Nobody is too far gone.

How

Brutal honesty, a simple plan, weekly reps. Systems beat motivation.

What

1:1 coaching and mentoring in Austin or over video.

01 · COMEBACK

Life & comeback coaching

Rebuild structure, purpose and self-respect after addiction, prison, or a life that fell apart. Break the fatherless cycle.

For: anyone starting over who wants someone in their corner who's been there.
02 · BUSINESS

Business coaching for service owners

Leads, Google Ads, SEO, pricing, dispatch, contractors and systems, so the business runs without you.

For: locksmiths, towing, HVAC, plumbers, cleaners and other service owners.
03 · AI BUILDER

Build with AI mentoring

Learn how I ship real software with AI: specs first, agents and automations, deploys. Bring your idea and we'll build it together.

For: founders and career-changers who want to build, not just prompt.
04 · SECOND CHANCE

Second-chance careers

A plan for licensed trades and starting a business with a record, and telling your story so it works for you.

For: justice-impacted people ready to work. Coaching only, not legal advice.
Work with me

Pick your lane.

Everything starts with a paid 1:1 session, so you get real work done in the first hour. If we keep going, I'll tell you exactly what the next step costs before you commit.

Coaching

1:1 coaching session

Life, comeback or second-chance coaching. Leave with a plan, not a pep talk.

  • 60 minutes, Austin or video
  • Written next steps after
  • Option to continue weekly
Book coaching
AI & automation

AI build strategy

Map the AI agent or automation your business needs, from phones to reviews to posting, and how to build it.

  • Audit of your workflows
  • Agent and automation blueprint
  • Build it with me, or hire me to
See the AI agency
Software & apps

Websites, apps & software

From a fast lead-gen site to a dispatch platform or mobile app, built spec-first so it actually ships.

  • Scoping session and written spec
  • Fixed-scope builds
  • Mentoring if you want to own it
Book a scoping call
Business coaching

Business coaching for service owners

How I built a 24/7 locksmith company to $5.2M+ in sales: licensing, pricing, leads, dispatch and techs.

  • Business teardown
  • Lead-gen and pricing plan from $1.2M+ in ad spend
  • Dispatch and hiring playbook
See business coaching
Speaking

Book me to speak

No father, addiction, a felony at 19, then a licensed company and a license won back without a lawyer. A real comeback story with a plan attached.

  • Schools, recovery and reentry programs
  • Trade associations and business groups
  • Keynotes, workshops and panels
Ask about speaking
My story

Real story. Real demons.

I'm not a coach who read about hard times. I'm telling you all of it, because the parts I used to hide are the parts that qualify me to help you.

  1. The beginning

    A small town and no father

    I grew up in a small town without my dad. I went back and forth between my mother and my grandmother, and never really knew where home was. When you grow up like that, you learn to survive before you learn to plan.

  2. The fall

    Xanax. OxyContin. Alcohol.

    I found things that made the noise stop for a while. Xanax, OxyContin and alcohol became how I coped, until they were running my life instead of me.

  3. Rock bottom

    A felony record at 19

    By 19 I had a felony record. A lot of people looked at that and decided who I was going to be for the rest of my life.

  4. The turn

    Deciding I wasn't finished

    There was no single magic moment. It was a decision I had to make over and over: show up, tell the truth, do the next right thing. The demons didn't disappear. I just stopped letting them drive.

  5. First startup

    HomeTownHero Vapors

    My first real business. It taught me what no class could: customers, cash flow, inventory, and what it feels like when everything rides on you.

  6. Building

    24 Hr Car Unlocking

    A 24/7 lockout, car key and roadside company with technicians across multiple cities. Paid search built it, and I learned Google Ads and SEO with my own money on the line.

  7. Building, part two

    Software, AI agents, apps

    I couldn't afford a dev team, so I learned to build with AI: the dispatch platform, the apps, the phone agent, the automations, and ProSeFiler.

  8. 2024

    Won my license back, without a lawyer

    Texas denied my locksmith license because of my record. I read the law, built my own case, and represented myself at the State Office of Administrative Hearings. The judge recommended my license be granted, and it was.

Read the full story →

"Your past is a reason. It's not an excuse, and it's definitely not a life sentence."

Robert Ramirez
Off the clock

The life I fight for.

Dad first

I grew up without a father. My kids won't. Everything else on this page comes second to that.

Basketball

The court is where my head gets quiet. Same lessons as business: reps, film, and getting back on D after you miss.

Building

I build with AI every day. If the tool I need doesn't exist, I build it.

Biscuit

Head of morale. Biscuit doesn't care about my past or my revenue, just whether I remembered the treats.

Questions

Straight answers.

Why is the first session paid?

Because you get real work in it, not a sales pitch. We dig into your situation and you leave with next steps you can act on, whether or not we keep working together.

Do you meet in person or online?

Both. I meet clients in person around Austin, TX, and work with anyone in the U.S. over video.

Can you build an AI agent or app for my business?

Yes. We start with a strategy or scoping session, write a spec together, and agree on a fixed scope before anything gets built. You can also have me mentor you so your team owns it.

Is coaching therapy or addiction treatment?

No. I'm a coach, not a therapist, doctor, or counselor. Coaching works best alongside treatment and support, not instead of them. If you need clinical help, I'll tell you and help you find it.

I have a record. Can you help me get a license?

I can coach you on the plan, the mindset and staying organized, because I've been through it. I can't give legal advice or represent you. For legal questions, talk to an attorney or legal aid.

Do you still do locksmith and car key work?

Yes, through 24 Hr Car Unlocking. For a lockout or a car key, go to 24hrcarunlocking.com so the nearest technician is dispatched right away.

Your move

Stop waiting to feel ready.

Book a 1:1 session for coaching, mentoring, or an AI, software or app build. One hour, real work, clear next steps.

Prefer to text? Same number. I answer my own phone.
Work with me Call