About

Physicist by training. Marketer and engineer by trade.

I'm Chris Sloane. I run Heaviside Group. Three niche marketing agencies, a white-label digital platform, and the software they all use. Most days I'm somewhere between the marketing team and the editor open on the codebase that runs it.

Chris Sloane
Chris Sloane
Founder
Builder
AI avatar summary

The short version of the background.

Physics trained me to care about measurement. Sales and agency work taught me where the messy business problems actually are. The software came later.

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Background

I started in academia, pursuing a PhD in plasma physics at the University of Iowa. I wrote particle-in-cell plasma simulations in FORTRAN and worked in a laser spectroscopy lab. Work that required rigorous quantitative thinking and the ability to translate physical systems into working code. I left ABD. The academic path wasn't for me, but the training became the foundation for everything after.

Then I spent 10 years in B2B sales. I carried a quota, managed enterprise accounts, and learned firsthand what it takes to close a deal and build a pipeline. That perspective shows up every time the work touches a sales team. I'm building for the version of me who wanted that software in 2009.

I started consulting on my own in 2011, and launched Heaviside Group in 2014 when I took it full-time. It grew into a portfolio of marketing brands and the software underneath them. In 2017, I launched Heaviside Digital as the white-label digital platform. The niche agencies followed: Paving Marketers (2020), Garage Door Marketers (2022), Electrician Marketing Agency (2023). Today I run those three, the platform, an AI consulting practice (Heaviside AI), an education arm (Digital Agency Growth Academy), and 30+ production software systems.

I also tend to get involved early when a technical wave looks useful. One example: I built one of the first 100 published OpenClaw skills back when the project was still called ClawdBot. It connected Microsoft 365 workflows into the agent layer before that category felt settled.

My current focus is building systems that run without me babysitting them. Revenue forecasting an owner reads on Monday morning. Data pipelines that don't break overnight. Agents that handle the third email in a follow-up sequence so I don't.

Early agent ecosystem

OpenClaw, back when it was ClawdBot.

I built one of the first 100 published OpenClaw skills when the project was still called ClawdBot. It connected Microsoft 365 into the agent layer: email, calendar, files, tasks, and Microsoft Graph workflows.

That matters because it is the same pattern I keep using. Find a useful technical shift early, wire it into real work, and make it useful before the market has a clean name for it.

See the purpose-built systems

The timeline

1998

Started Physics undergrad at Marquette University, Milwaukee.

2002

Moved to Iowa for a PhD program in plasma physics; wrote particle-in-cell simulations in FORTRAN and worked in a laser spectroscopy lab.

2005

Left academia (ABD) to pursue industry.

2006

Began B2B sales. Quota-carrying enterprise accounts.

2011

Started consulting on my own. Light work that became the portfolio.

2014

Launched Heaviside Group and took it full-time. First enterprise clients.

2015

Took a day-job role leading digital at a science education company.

2017

Launched Heaviside Digital as the white-label digital marketing platform.

2020

Launched Paving Marketers.

2022

Launched Garage Door Marketers.

2023

Added Electrician Marketing Agency and Digital Agency Growth Academy.

2025

Launched Heaviside AI and HG Market Report. Full ML production work shipped on anonymized client data.

2025

Built one of the first 100 published OpenClaw skills during the ClawdBot era: Microsoft 365 connected into the agent toolchain.

2026

Nine brands, 30+ production systems, focus on AI agents inside real businesses.

Publications & Research

My published research is from undergraduate work on crystal growth kinetics at Marquette. Indexed on Google Scholar.

Google Scholar profile

The day job

I have a day job leading digital at a science education company. It's separate from the Heaviside work. The two don't appear in the same paragraph by design. Anything I learn there that's anonymized or public shows up here as an anonymized case study, never tied back to the employer.

The rest of it

I'm originally from Wisconsin and still a loyal Wisconsin sports fan. Catholic, married, dad. I play guitar when I can. I read more about local-AI infrastructure than is probably healthy.

How I make decisions.

Owner language beats tool language

Nobody hiring me cares which JavaScript framework I picked. They care whether they can see their business more clearly on a Monday. That's the test.

Systems beat memory

Every Monday that depends on me remembering something is a Monday I'm fragile on. If I'm doing it three times, it should be software.

Internal first, public when it earns it

I run my own businesses on the same software I'm building. If it doesn't survive my own use, it doesn't earn a marketing page.

AI inside the work

The interesting AI isn't the chatbot on the homepage. It's the agent that handles the third email in a follow-up sequence and tags inbound calls before I see them.

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