Who we are.

Foundry Labs is a small, dedicated team based in the Midwest with over 35 years of combined experience in network engineering, information security, software engineering, and technical project management. We've spent the last two years testing and building AI tools and systems for organizations ranging from large enterprises to small businesses. We are dedicated to providing our customers tailored services to deliver the best value for their business, and only work with a handful of new clients each quarter to ensure a personalized experience and relationship.

We do not believe there is a one-size-fits-all approach to implementing AI systems. Every business is unique. We believe that successfully integrating AI into your business requires a comprehensive understanding of your operations, and knowledge of the current capabilities and performance of frontier language models.

We feel that small businesses have been ignored by traditional big-tech software providers, and modern AI solutions provide a new opportunity for many businesses to scale efficiency and throughput to compete at a new level. Most businesses struggle to find ways to implement AI at a deeper level than a standard chatbot. Foundry Labs is here to bridge that gap, provide clarity, and help you understand how to integrate AI in your operations to unlock the productivity results so many discuss, but few understand.

Philosophy

What we believe. Four convictions.

  • We are vendor-neutral.

    We tell you what tool fits, not what we sell. We don't get paid by Zapier, OpenAI, or anyone else.

  • We measure ROI before we build.

    Every service starts with a hypothesis we can prove or disprove with numbers in your business.

  • Service stays personal.

    We only accept a handful of new engagements each quarter so every client gets senior attention, not a junior hand-off.

  • We implement working systems.

    Not slide decks or shallow chatbots. Systems that become a workforce multiplier.

How we work

The Foundry Method. Four phases.

Every service runs the same four phases. The audit is phase one on its own; a full build runs all four.

  1. 01

    Assess

    Workflows mapped, tools audited, ROI hypothesis stated.

  2. 02

    Design

    System architecture, data flows, fallback paths.

  3. 03

    Implement

    Ship to production inside your existing stack.

  4. 04

    Maintain

    Take full ownership, or keep us on. We maintain, update, and tune to your feedback.

Tom Arnold

Founder

I feel truly fortunate to say I was born and raised in the state of Indiana. Growing up in the "small" university town of Bloomington provided me with so many great experiences and adventures, and helped shape who I am today. Bloomington is where I met my beautiful wife Carolyne while attending Indiana University in 2009, which is also the same year I enlisted in the Army National Guard.

I began working in the oil industry in North Dakota in 2011, and after several years, left the oilfield behind for Chicago to be closer to Carolyne and start a new career, and began studying network engineering and security. As a kid I loved computers, building or tinkering, playing games, figuring out how they work, anything. Making the leap into technology was a relief as I immersed myself into something I loved.

In 2019 I began working for Cisco Meraki, which at the time still had the startup energy that made it exciting to be a part of. Exposure to information systems spanning Fortune 50 companies down to local small businesses was invaluable. I specialized in security and joined a small team supporting Meraki's SASE solution, Secure Connect, and in 2024 became its product specialist, triaging bugs for our engineering teams and building serviceability tools for support and customers while testing the utility of AI in the workplace. The more I learned, the more I saw a major gap between what AI can do and how most organizations actually implement it. That gap is why I left to start Foundry Labs: to help businesses move AI from concept to asset. Information security remains a passion and a cornerstone of my experience I'm always eager to discuss, and I'm grateful to the many talented people I worked with building Secure Connect and Cisco Secure Access.

Carolyne and I made the decision to move back home to Indiana in 2023 to raise our family, although the Bucktown neighborhood of Chicago will always be a second home in our hearts. I believe we are entering a profound era of opportunity, and there isn't anywhere else I'd rather be than building Foundry Labs here in Indianapolis.

Currently accepting new clients

Ready when you are.

Let's have a call to see where AI fits in your operations.

Schedule a call