---
title: "Our story · Woodshack"
description: "College roommates in Boston who went off and built things in very different places, and ended up solving problems together again."
url: https://woodshack.net/about/
site: Woodshack (https://woodshack.net/)
about_this_site: https://woodshack.net/for-ai/
---
Our story

# Roommates at Wentworth. Back in the shack.

College roommates in Boston who went off and built things in very different places, and ended up solving problems together again.

Where the name comes from

## The Woodshack was where the interesting projects went.

At DGS Energy, an HVAC service company, one corner took on everything that didn't fit anywhere else: building controls, electronic door locks, TV distribution and wifi. Then it got all of that talking to the front desk systems, built the analytics and savings reports on top, and sat in the middle of the owners, operators, IT and construction crews who all had to agree. Around the office, that corner had a name: the Woodshack. It grew into DGS's Energy Management & Controls division. Tim built it. Jason managed its projects, hotel by hotel.

Today the Woodshack is where we do that kind of work again, for businesses and nonprofits whose problems don't fit an off-the-shelf tool. And this time it's an actual shop, with real saws in it.

### Jason Neri

WAREHAM, MA · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonneri/)

Learned on the retail floor that a system is only as good as the shift that has to use it.

- **Best Buy, 2002 to 2005**: Home theater lead, PC repair and installation tech. Hired, trained and ran a 25-person home theater team, and built the hands-on system setup training the floor used.

- **Circuit City, 2005 to 2009**: District services manager. Ran home theater, in-home PC and car electronics installation across a district: about 50 in-house and 75 contract technicians, the schedules and capacity planning behind them, and training for up to 2,000 sales associates.

- **CVS, 2011 to 2013**: Store manager for two Cape Cod pharmacies and up to 35 people, including the Hyannis Mall store, one of the busiest on the Cape.

- **eCape, 2014**: Web developer. WordPress builds and customization.

- **DGS Energy, 2014 to 2020**: Project manager in the Energy Management & Controls division, the original Woodshack. HVAC and lighting controls for hospitality.

- **Web agency, CTO since 2020**: Runs the technology side of a web agency.

- **Sawdust and Coffee**: A real woodshop: custom woodworking, 3D printing, signs and stickers. [sawdustandcoffee.com →](https://sawdustandcoffee.com/)

### Tim Hodge

CLEVELAND, OH · [LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/thodge/)

Started a one-man controls company and kept saying yes to the problem nobody else wanted.

- **STG Systems**: Founded as a one-man building controls company in Las Vegas.

- **DGS Energy, to 2020**: Merged with Dream Green Systems outside Atlanta. Grew it to 45 people. Built the Energy Management & Controls division. Sold in 2019; stayed through the fall of 2020.

- **Cleveland Clinic, 2020 to 2022**: Technical security. Oversaw access control systems across the Clinic's northeastern Ohio hospitals and properties.

- **Telkonet, 2022 to 2023**: Back to energy management, briefly: senior project manager at a controls manufacturer.

- **Web agency, since 2024**: Director of operations. Hosting, WordPress, security and custom software for other people's businesses.

- **Woodshack**: Doing that directly.

> "If we're wrong and this all falls apart, we can start it again in the woodshack out back."