01 / Studio

Focused software products. Operator-grade consulting.

Steady Grade Studio builds and operates small, useful software products for high-friction workflows. We also take on select product, design, web, and automation work for founders, operators, and small teams.

Currently shipping PrePA Navigator — a source-backed application platform for pre-PA students.

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02 / Active Product

PrePA Navigator

Your PA school application, finally organized.

A structured platform for pre-PA students researching programs, tracking prerequisites, managing deadlines, writing essays, and navigating the CASPA cycle. Built around source-backed program data and maintained every cycle.

333 Programs 2026–27 Cycle Source-backed data
Visit product Status: Shipping
PrePA Navigator dashboard showing 333 PA programs for the 2026–2027 cycle
03 / What We Do

Build. Operate. Advise.

Three modes, one discipline. We build our own products and bring the same product, design, and engineering muscle to selective client work.

01

Build

Focused web apps, SaaS tools, data products, and internal systems. Clean foundations, source-backed data, maintainable code.

02

Operate

We run our own products, improve them every week, and stay with problems long after launch. Software is not done when it deploys.

03

Advise

Product strategy, UX, technical planning, automation, and founder support. A senior operator in the room when you need one.

04 / Consulting

Senior product help
without the agency circus.

For founders and small teams that need a product-minded builder — not a full-time hire, and not a bloated agency process.

  • 01

    Product strategy & scoping

    Turning fuzzy ideas into clear product plans, MVPs, roadmaps, and build specs.

  • 02

    Websites & launch systems

    High-quality marketing sites, landing pages, product pages, conversion flows, and analytics.

  • 03

    Internal tools & automation

    Dashboards, admin panels, AI workflows, data cleanup, scraping, reporting, and ops tooling.

  • 04

    UX & product design

    Interface audits, wireframes, design systems, interaction patterns, and product polish.

  • 05

    Technical & product due diligence

    An operator lens on products, markets, teams, roadmaps, and execution risk.

Start a project Send the messy version — Loom, spreadsheet, half-formed idea.
05 / Principles

The work is simple.
The standards are high.

  1. 01

    Narrow beats broad.

    The best products start with a sharp user, a painful workflow, and a clear job to be done.

  2. 02

    Shipping beats theater.

    A working product teaches more than a perfect plan. We launch, learn, and improve.

  3. 03

    Maintenance is part of the product.

    Software is not done when it deploys. It has to keep working, keep improving, keep earning trust.

  4. 04

    Source-backed whenever possible.

    If a product depends on information, that information should be structured, traceable, and maintained.

  5. 05

    Small systems compound.

    A clean database, a reliable workflow, and one less manual task can change the trajectory of a business.

06 / Founder

Built by Clay Coffman.

Clay is a founder, product operator, and software builder.

He has worked across startups, software sales, product, investing, due diligence, and open-source, and is currently finishing a second degree in Computer Science. Steady Grade is the studio vehicle for building, operating, and advising on practical software businesses.

About Clay
07 / Contact

Have a weird software problem?

Tell us what you're trying to build, fix, automate, or ship. If it's a fit, we'll map the shortest path from messy to working.

Start a project [email protected]