I built Nudge because small businesses keep losing customers they could have kept

Most small businesses have a leaky bucket problem and they don't even know it.

A customer walks in, has a great experience, then life gets busy. Three months go by. Six months. A year. The business owner knows they should follow up, but between running the shop, managing staff, and actually doing the work, it never happens.

I started noticing this pattern talking to salon owners, massage therapists, and cafe owners. They all said the same thing: "I know my regulars used to come in - I just don't know how to reach out without it feeling weird or pushy."

No CRM. No automation. Just a mental note that slowly gets forgotten.

So I built Nudge.

Nudge watches for customers who've gone quiet and sends them a personalized re-engagement email automatically. Not a generic "we miss you!" blast, but something that feels like it came from the actual business owner: referencing the specific service they booked, the staff member they liked, how long it's been.

The AI handles the writing. The business owner just sets it up once and forgets about it.

Under the hood it's a Java/Spring Boot backend, a React frontend, and a Python AI server that uses Claude to generate the emails. I built in a sequencing system - three emails, spaced out, with tone and offer escalation built in based on whether the customer opened the previous one or not.

Where I am today:

- Core product is built and working end-to-end

- Onboarding flow, email sequencing, visit tracking, CSV import - all done

- Currently in the process of getting first paying customers

What's next:

- Landing page feedback and conversion optimization

- Getting real businesses signed up and running their first campaigns

- Seeing whether the win-back rates I expect actually hold up in the wild

If you run a small service business (or know someone who does), I'd love to hear whether this resonates. And if you've tried to solve the lapsed-customer problem before - what did you use?