Company history
Our name has changed and the technology has changed a lot. The idea behind the work hasn't: help established businesses get more out of the tools they rely on.
Where it started
The work began in 2017 under the name Cedarwood Communications, building technology for businesses.
From the start, the clients were established businesses rather than startups: companies with real customers, existing systems and teams who needed technology to fit how they already worked.
The shift
When capable AI tools became available to everyday businesses, the questions clients asked changed.
Owners and managers were hearing big promises about AI but had no one on staff to separate what was useful from what was hype. Helping them do that, and then putting the useful parts to work, became the focus.
Today
Today we operate as Retrofit Labs, a technology and AI adoption consultancy in Irvine, California, founded and led by Ethan Wood.
We work with mid-sized businesses of roughly 20 to 500 employees. We help them decide where AI fits, build and connect the tools, train their teams, and keep things working. Alongside client work, we build and run a few products of our own.
On the record
An invoice, a public LinkedIn post, or a git commit stands behind each entry. Where the work belongs to another organization, we describe it instead of naming it.
Since 2023
Seven websites, six internal workflow apps, more than 40 social media reels, drone shoots, and work on two nationally broadcast film projects.
Nov 2023
Issued as Cedarwood Communications to a Southern California home and solar company, and paid the next morning.
Source: Stripe invoice and payment records
Nov 2023
Cedarwood Communications starts offering video editing to businesses at a published hourly rate.
Source: Cedarwood Communications post on LinkedIn, November 29, 2023
May–Jun 2024
Deposit invoiced May 14. The new site went live June 24, 2024. After launch came staff training over Zoom and ongoing article and page updates into 2025.
Source: Stripe invoice and project email thread
Apr 17, 2026
Built for a mortgage lender's loan-inquiry team. It now sends automated daily, weekly and monthly scorecards to leadership. 959 commits and counting.
Source: git history
May 2026
Multi-source lead sync (Bonzo, GoHighLevel, Dialpad), lead reassignment when staff leave, and source-by-source ROI reporting. 412 commits.
Source: git history
Jun 2026
All four started that month. LoanWick alone has 500 commits since its first on June 8.
Source: git history
Jul–Aug 2026
A control panel for an outbound calling system (in beta), and a small service that texts the team the moment a new lead arrives.
Source: git history
Sep 2026
LoanWick's first subscription payment is processed through Stripe on September 18.
Source: Stripe payment record
Sep 2026
The company page on LinkedIn becomes Retrofit Labs, and this site launches. More than 2,000 commits across 12 repositories so far.
Source: Retrofit Labs on LinkedIn and git history
Why the name
re·tro·fit verb
To add new technology to something that already exists.
It describes the job better than any tagline could. Most businesses don't need to start over to benefit from AI.
What hasn't changed
Tools come and go. These are the habits we've kept.
We work with companies that already have customers, processes and systems worth keeping.
We explain what we recommend and why, without jargon.
We start with the work that costs your team the most time.
A fixed-scope quote after a free call, before any work begins.
We train people so the tools keep working after we're done.
If technology isn't the right fix, we say so.
Where we are
Our office is at 36 Executive Park, Suite 200, Irvine, CA. We work with clients across Southern California in person and throughout the US remotely.
Free 30-minute call
Tell us how your team works today. We'll tell you plainly where technology can save time, where it can't, and what a sensible first step would be.
Prefer the phone? Call (949) 691-0086
