I color on plans and play with other people's money all day, and build tools when the software pisses me off.
Ryan Cupples. Underground utilities by day — water, sanitary sewer, storm drainage, excavation, paving restoration. When I'm not in the dirt, I'm building the software and AI agents I wish existed. LSBL is just the name for that mix.
The Day Job
🚰Water & Sewer
Waterlines, sanitary sewer, service taps, main extensions. The stuff that keeps cities running underground.
🌧️Storm Drainage
Inlets, manholes, RCP, box culverts. Keeping water where it belongs when it rains.
🚜Excavation
Trenching, shoring, backfill, compaction. Moving dirt safely and putting it back right.
🛣️Paving Restoration
Fixing what we dug up. Subgrade, base, asphalt, concrete — leaving it better than we found it.
Bidding
📐Plans & Takeoffs
Reading civil drawings, counting pipe, measuring trench, figuring out what the specs actually mean.
💵Quotes & Pricing
Material quotes, labor rates, equipment costs. Building a number that wins work and still makes money.
🎯Bid Strategy
Knowing when to be aggressive, when to pad for risk, which jobs are worth chasing.
⚖️Risk Assessment
Rock clauses, dewatering, traffic control, utility conflicts. The stuff that eats profit if you miss it.
Tools I Build
AI Agents for Bidding
Teaching machines to read bid tabs, pull spec requirements, organize addenda, and catch the details humans miss at 2am before bid day.
Takeoff Automation
Tools to speed up quantity takeoffs. Less clicking, more thinking about whether the quantities make sense.
Whatever Needs Building
If existing software is slow, expensive, or annoying — I'll build something better. Or at least something that works the way I think.
Shop Tinkering
Not everything is underground or digital. Sometimes you need to build something with your hands.
- 🔧 Fabrication
- ⚡ Welding
- 🔩 Mechanical repairs
- 🛠️ Equipment mods
- 🧪 Random experiments
Why "Lone Star Bid Lab"?
It's not a company. It's just a name for the way I work — bidding underground projects in Texas, building tools to make that easier, and tinkering on whatever else needs fixing. The "lab" part is the experimentation. Sometimes it works. Sometimes you learn why it doesn't.