Multi-discipline
operations
& product work.

Chris Baarstad runs events at national scale, ships EdTech for ELA teachers, trains Fortune 50 staff on AI, and builds the tools that hold it all together. Baarstad Consultancy is the workshop, based in Yorba Linda, California.

PILLAR 01
Events & Esports Operations

Live LAN events, league operations, tournament structure, from the schedule grid to the floor on game day.

PILLAR 02
People Ops

Multi-location hiring, scoring systems, compliance-aware terminations, employee management at SMB scale.

PILLAR 03
EdTech & Education

Classroom ELA teacher first, then Director of Innovation for three years, then operator. Currently shipping BookPulse (live reading platform), TpT annotation packets, and an LMS for multi-unit operators.

PILLAR 04
Tools, Automation & AI

Custom Next.js / Supabase builds, Claude-powered internal tools, Discord automation, plus AI professional development delivered to enterprise teams.

Behind the workshop

A short bio.

Ops · BizDev · Sales
EdTech · AI
Yorba Linda, CA
Chris Baarstad — Principal, Baarstad Consultancy
Chris Baarstad Principal · BCS

Five disciplines, one principal. Operations, business development, sales, EdTech, and AI, built across a fifteen-year arc that started in an ELA classroom and kept widening.

From teacher to Director of Innovation for three years, shipping EdTech at scale. The last six years are the headline: business development, event management, and tournament operations at the national level, closing partner deals, locking venues, and putting national LANs on the floor.

Now: three engagements running in parallel, plus the slower builds on the bench. National esports operations. Embedded HR and a custom LMS for a multi-unit operator in Orange County. EdTech I own and ship.

Disciplines
5 lanes
Ops · BizDev · Sales · EdTech · AI
Last 6 years
National events
Biz dev, partner deals, tournament ops at national scale
Based
Yorba Linda
Orange County, California
8 projects · 3 lanes

The Work.

Roles I hold,
products in the world,
builds on the bench
All under one roof
Current Roles
2 engagements
Active contractor work
Shipped & Running
4 projects
Out in the world
№ 03 · LIVESince April 2026
Gamer-centric Discord Bot

A Discord bot built for gaming communities, moderation, engagement, and ops automation in one extensible package.

  • Robust ticketing system with AI conversation summaries & cross-server admin dashboard
  • "Legends" engagement game. XP, leveling, progression for community members
  • Counting channels, NSFW filters, and full moderation toolkit baked in
Discord AI Read →
№ 04 · LIVESince 2018
TpT Store

My Teachers Pay Teachers storefront, @csbaarstad, print-ready ELA chapter guides for middle & high-school novels, with more educator resources on the way.

  • Written by a working ELA teacher, designed in the classroom, sold to other teachers
  • Cover, annotation, vocab, comprehension, and short-response pages per chapter
  • Grades 4–12 novel coverage, expanding catalog
EdTech Print Read →
№ 05 · DELIVERED2025
AI for J&J

AI professional-development program delivered to Johnson & Johnson staff, partnered through COAST Tactical Training.

  • AI fundamentals & practical workflows for knowledge workers
  • Fortune 50 audience, in-person delivery
  • Topics: where AI saves time, day-to-day integration
AI Training Fortune 50 Read →
№ 06 · LIVESince 2025
BookPulse

An interactive ELA reading platform for grades 4–12, my own EdTech IP. Live and shipping continuous updates.

  • Join-code student auth, teacher dashboards
  • Chapter-gated tasks, comprehension checks, short response
  • 7 launch novels, expanding catalog, weekly releases
EdTech Next.js Read →
On the Bench
2 projects
Currently building
Field notes from every project

Dev / Build Log

All lanes feed in —
tap a project to filter
Updated weekly
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