The story behind Nrth Star.
Nrth Star exists because good automation was priced like a consulting project, and the agencies that needed it most were the ones least able to buy it.
Everyone needed it. Almost nobody could justify it.
I started an automation agency in early 2025 and spent the year working with marketing agencies, building the systems their businesses ran on by hand, one at a time.
Every one of them had work that could obviously be automated. Almost none of them could get it done, and the reasons were always the same four.
- Thousands of dollars for a single automation.
- Weeks of building before anything ran.
- A node-based builder nobody had time to learn.
- And no clear answer to which problem to solve first.
Founders are not short of ideas. They are short of the weeks it takes to learn a node-based builder, and short of the budget it takes to hire somebody who already knows one. And when they had both, they still often could not say which of their problems was the one worth solving first.
That is the gap. Getting quality automation installed costs what a consulting project costs, so the businesses with the most to gain from it are the ones least able to sign it off.
Nrth Star exists to lower the barrier to entry to an automated back office. Not everything in a business should be automated, but there is plenty you are doing by hand right now that you wish you weren't.
Harrison Smith
I started building businesses at 15. First a flyer distribution agency working with real estate agents, then a web design studio. Both taught me more than they earned.
I finished school in 2025 and started the automation agency the section above is about. A year of building other people's systems by hand, learning what those businesses actually need, which is rarely the thing that sounds impressive.
I'm 18, based in Sydney, and building Nrth Star full-time.
It's this and not something else because the manual version worked. It just didn't scale, and it shouldn't cost thousands of dollars to automate something that takes you an hour every week.
Before you ask.
What is Nrth Star?
Automation software for marketing agencies. You describe a job your agency does by hand, in the words you would use with a colleague, and Nrth Star writes back a plan in plain English. Once you approve it and connect the accounts that plan needs, it builds the automation, replays it against your last 30 days with everything switched off so you can see exactly what it would have done, and then hosts it and keeps it working. There is no canvas and nothing to wire together.
Do I need to understand automation to use this?
No, and that is the reason it exists. There is no canvas, no nodes and nothing to wire together. You describe the problem in the words you would use with a colleague, and you approve or correct a plan written back to you the same way.
Who is actually building this?
One person: Harrison Smith, full-time, from Sydney. You are not going to be handed to an account manager, because there isn't one.
Where are you based?
Sydney. Nrth Star is an Australian company with support running on Australian hours, so when something breaks the person who can fix it is awake rather than nine hours away from their desk.
What happens to my automations if Nrth Star stops existing?
Every automation you approve comes with a written document, in plain English, describing exactly what it does, and that document is yours. You can export what you have built and disconnect any connected account at any time, without asking anyone. None of that is a promise about how long we will be here. It is a list of what stays yours if we are not.
What does it cost to find out whether this is worth it?
Nothing. The audit is a conversation, it connects to no accounts, and you come out of it knowing where your week actually goes whether or not you build anything.
Why should I trust a company this new?
Not yet, and you shouldn't have to. Start with the audit, which costs nothing and touches nothing, and judge the plan it gives you. Nothing gets access to an account until you have read a plan and approved it, and you can take that access back the same day.
Ready to save your team time?
Tell Nrth Star what your week looks like. It works out where the hours go, builds the automations that get them back, and keeps them running.