Nobody starts a business to do the admin.
TAO is where a whole business runs. It was built in Sydney by a business owner who was tired of the work between the work, and an engineer who builds like he has to use it. It gives a business one place to run from, learns how the business does things, and does the day’s work the way the owner would. Built for your team, by our team. Proudly Australian, working in Sydney and Singapore.
An owner who lived the problem. An engineer who builds like he has to use it.
Shaun Paul
LinkedInShaun runs Chandeliers To Die For, a Sydney events hire company. He joined in 2021 to run its operations and finances, and became managing director in 2023. He is a Certified Public Accountant in Australia and the United States, and studied economics, finance and econometrics at UNSW, graduating with distinction. In 2023 he wrote the first code for what became TAO, to run his own company, and in 2026 he co-founded TAO so other businesses could run the same way.
Jeffrey Ren
LinkedInJeffrey builds TAO. He is a full-stack engineer working in React, Next.js, TypeScript, Node and PostgreSQL, with the deployment, security and testing discipline to match. He studied information technology at UTS, where he made the Dean’s List with a high distinction average, and before that he spent five years as director of his own company, so he builds software the way someone who has had to use it every day would want it built.
I came into Chandeliers To Die For to run its operations and finances, and I loved the work. What I did not love was what arrived every morning before a single dollar did: email, quotes, invoices and chasing. The work between the work was slowly taking the place of the work.
As an accountant I could see exactly where the hours and the margin were going, and every tool we bought to fix it added one more place to type the same thing. So in 2023 I wrote something for the business myself, mostly to give the team their days back. A week of admin became a day. People stopped asking me where things were, because it already knew. That feeling, of a business that finally looks after its own, is the whole reason TAO exists.
One place where the whole business lives.
TAO gives a business one place to run from. It sits on top of the tools you already use, learns how your business does things, and does the day’s work the way you would. Our team builds all of it, then stays.
Your tools, connected
Accounting, inbox, calendar, your job or rental tool. Kept doing their jobs underneath, never replaced.
Windows on top
Email, calendar, tasks, contacts, opportunities, WhatsApp and Instagram ready on day one. Custom windows when nothing off the shelf does the job.
A company brain
Your documents, your history and your decisions, learned first and kept learning, so every answer is your answer.
Andy, the assistant
Does the doing in every window, the way you would. Everything it sends or changes waits for your approval.
- Plain English over jargon.If a heading needs explaining, it is the wrong heading.
- Andy drafts, a person approves.Nothing reaches your customers or your tools invisibly.
- Your data is yours.Every client in their own private space. Nothing you tell TAO trains anything for anyone else.
- Connect what works.We would rather make the tools you already pay for work together than sell you another one.
- We build everything, and we stay.If it breaks, we fix it. If the business changes, we change it.
- Security is not a feature.Two-factor sign-in, an audit trail on every action, SOC 2 in progress.
Questions people ask about us
Who is TAO for?
Businesses with a team, a real load of day-to-day work and tools that have never been connected: trades and construction, events and hire, cleaning and field services, professional services, health clinics, real estate, retail and more. If questions keep landing on the owner and steps keep getting missed between tools, it fits.
Do you work outside Sydney?
Yes. We’re based in Sydney and we work with businesses across Australia, including Perth, and in Singapore. Discovery and training happen on a call or on site, whichever suits the business.
What happens on a discovery call?
It is a short video call where we walk through how the business runs today: the tools, the people, where the hours go and where steps get missed. You leave with a clear picture of what TAO would do first and what it would cost. No slides and no obligation.
One conversation about how your business works.
Then a proposal for exactly what TAO should take off your plate.