Sam Jennings
About

I started as an engineer, ended up running businesses, and never stopped building things.

Today I'm the COO of a multi-entity portfolio — and I build custom software for other owner-operators on the side.

What I am now

Three jobs, one person.

The operator.

COO across a multi-entity portfolio

A craft brewery, a real estate brokerage, and two junior hockey teams. I handle operations, finance, technology, and strategy across all of them. Different sectors, same fundamentals — people, cashflow, and the million small decisions that determine whether a business makes it through the quarter.

The builder.

Independent developer and consultant

Custom software, usually built in Next.js and Supabase, deployed on Vercel. Websites, internal tools, CRMs, portals, automation. I take on a small number of projects at a time — the ones where I can actually sit with the business and understand what's needed before I write a line of code.

The owner.

Co-founder and investor

I've got skin in the game in most of what I work on. That shapes how I think about everyone else's businesses too — building for the long term, not for the invoice.

How I got here

The short version.

I trained as a mechanical engineer in the UK and started my career project-managing large-scale engineering builds for the Ministry of Defence. Learned how to run complex projects with long timelines, tight specifications, and no margin for error.

Moved into hospitality next — ran a craft brewery taproom in Langley, BC for five years and grew the team from seven to thirty. That's where I learned that everything you think you know about operations from a spreadsheet is wrong until you've had to make payroll on a Friday after a slow week.

Today I oversee operations across the broader portfolio and build software for it all. Somewhere along the way I also picked up coursework from Wharton in business, AI, and entrepreneurship — useful background, but not the part of the CV anyone remembers.

The day-to-day

What I actually run.

Schreder Brothers Real Estate Group
Fraser Valley brokerage operating under Royal LePage Wolstencroft. Partner and COO.
Real Estate
2022–
Camp Beer Co.
Craft brewery and taproom in Langley, BC. Operations, finance, and long-range planning.
Hospitality
2019–
Westshore Wolves & Langley Rivermen
Junior hockey teams in the VIJHL and BCHL. Sponsorship, operations, and commercial strategy.
Junior Sports
2023–
Bow Valley Investments
Holding company and investment vehicle across the portfolio.
Investment
2021–

I don't build software as a vendor. I build it as someone who'll still be running their own businesses on Monday morning — and I think that shows up in the work.

The honest bit

I'm not doing anything exceptional.

Most of what I build, anyone could learn. Next.js, Supabase, ops automation, financial modelling — it's all out there, free, in documentation and forums and AI tools. The reason more people don't build this stuff for themselves isn't that it's hard. It's that no one sits down and does it.

What I do is sit down and do it. I think critically, get my head down, ask good questions, and figure things out. That's it. If there's a trick to what I do, that's the trick.

How I work

A few principles.

Ship first, polish second. Perfect is the enemy of useful. I'd rather have something live and imperfect than a beautiful deck that never becomes a product.

Understand the business before the code. Most of the software problems owner-operators have aren't actually software problems. They're process problems wearing a software costume. Figuring out which is which saves everyone a lot of time.

Small projects, real people. I work with a handful of clients at a time. You talk to me, not an account manager. I pick up the phone on Sunday if something's genuinely on fire.

Say no when it's not a fit. If your project needs a team of specialists or a six-month engineering build, I'll tell you and point you somewhere better. I'd rather lose the work than half-ship it.

Quick facts

The scannable bit.

Based in
British Columbia, Canada
Citizenship
British-Canadian dual national
Trained as
Mechanical engineer, UK
Stack
Next.js · Supabase · Vercel · Python · Claude Code
Currently
COO, Schreder Family of Companies

Think we might be a fit?

Thirty minutes, no pitch deck, just a conversation about what you're working on and whether I can help.