The story behind the company, the founder, and why we believe local AI matters.
The pitch from every vendor sounds the same: "Subscribe to our AI platform and watch your business transform!" But the fine print says you surrender your data, you pay forever, and you never actually own the system. For a small business owner, that's not a solution — it's a trap.
So we built the alternative. AI that runs on your own hardware. Your data stays in your building. You pay once for setup and a small monthly for ongoing support — or you self-manage and pay nothing at all after setup. You own it.
Colin (Cole) Sillaman is a seasoned IT professional with over 20 years of experience spanning enterprise software development, database architecture, team leadership, and AI-powered business and financial automation. He built TidalForge AI because he saw firsthand how enterprise-grade AI could be delivered locally — without the data theft, without the recurring SaaS bills, and without handing control to a third party.
Cole spent 12 years as VP of Software Development in healthcare, leading onshore and offshore teams to develop MTM (Medication Therapy Management), Coverage, and Rules-based AI solution sets. He achieved Surescripts certification in ePA with AI rules integration for response sets sent to providers. He architected a Rules Engine leveraging ML.NET for AI sentiment analysis, product recommendation, price prediction, fraud detection, and customer segmentation — integrated with mail and SMS components for real-time data capture. He managed 25 production servers supporting over 1,000 users across PHI, HIPAA, SOC, and Corel-compliant environments.
Cole designed, built, and operates a fully integrated business automation system under Ecowave Holdings Corp — running multiple e-commerce brands (TidalForge Nautical, EcoHarmony Essentials), an AI consulting practice (TidalForge AI), and IT consulting (YSMOS Consulting Services). No disconnected pile of tools — one continuous automation layer that keeps the entire group running. Every day it handles:
On the financial side, the system handles real-time revenue tracking, expense categorization, margin analysis, profit-and-loss monitoring, and bookkeeping across all business entities. It tracks ad spend ROI, product-level profitability, shipping cost analysis, and payment gateway fee reconciliation — with automated reporting feeding strategic decisions on pricing, inventory, and marketing budget allocation. Every financial action is human-authorized at a strict approval gate.
Cole started his career at Microsoft Australia and was promoted to the Microsoft Institute, traveling extensively across Asia — Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Hong Kong, and Vietnam — to work with Premier Partners and present the latest Microsoft technology stacks to large audiences. He spoke at the Microsoft Global Summit in Seattle, product launches, and Developer Conferences (MS Tech Ed) in Sydney and Melbourne. He was named Managing Director's Employee of the Month at Microsoft Sydney.
He left Microsoft and was immediately named a "Mover and Shaker" in the Sydney Morning Herald. Shortly after, he designed the database infrastructure for the Victorian Electoral Commission — 55 SQL Servers delivering the State Election live. He was recruited back by Microsoft Region, lived in Asia, and founded YSMOS (Your Success Means Our Success) in Malaysia, working with the Malaysian Electoral Commission, Western Digital, and Toyota.
Cole moved to the United States in 2002, established YSMOS in the US, and spent years traveling between Asia and America running offshore and onshore operations. He sold the Malaysian operation in 2006 and moved into consulting, earning CEO's Outstanding Employee of the Quarter at Alliance Global Services. His engagements have included CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia), Sears Rebates, Merrill Lynch, West Pharmaceuticals, DST Health, Bank of America, and Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware.
What sets Cole apart is that he remains completely hands-on — coding solutions from the ground up while bringing decades of architectural and managerial expertise to every project. Whether architecting enterprise healthcare systems or building fully automated AI-driven operations for modern e-commerce, he builds real, working systems and leads the teams that deliver them.
TidalForge AI is registered in Florida and fully insured: General Liability, Errors & Omissions, and Cyber Liability. We work with small businesses nationwide. Setup and support are done remotely — no distance limit, same hands-on quality.