The team behind CostPatch
CostPatch is built and maintained by a small team operating under Wyoming-registered H19 Research Group LLC. Our backgrounds span economics, applied research, quantitative finance, and software engineering.
Ahmad Fatikhul Khasan
Founder · Research Lead
Ahmad is a researcher with a decade of work in applied economics, agricultural pricing analysis, and quantitative methods. His published research (10 papers, 132 citations, h-index 6 per Scopus) covers price-formation in agricultural markets, climate impacts on commodity costs, and statistical methodology — overlapping directly with the cost-research methodology behind CostPatch.
Academic profiles:
- ORCID 0000-0003-0209-834X — verified research identifier
- Scopus Author 57209855896 — h-index 6, 132 citations
Ahmad founded CostPatch in 2026 after experiencing first-hand the cost-research gap that affects most homeowners: receiving a $110-million-rupiah renovation quote in Indonesia, then sourcing the same scope at half-price through independent contractor comparison. The pattern — large quote-to-real-cost spread, opaque pricing, vulnerable consumers — exists in the US market at scale. CostPatch is his attempt to close that gap with rigorous public-data methodology.
Outside CostPatch, Ahmad runs research initiatives in agricultural economics and is currently writing for peer-review journals on commodity price formation.
Editorial team
Our editorial workflow combines AI research synthesis (Claude by Anthropic) with human verification, contractor surveys, and tradesperson review. Specifically:
- Research and drafting — AI-assisted, leveraging large language model capability to synthesize multi-source data into article structure
- Pricing verification — every numeric claim is cross-checked against primary sources (BLS, trade publications, lead-gen aggregates) before publication
- Tradesperson review — rotating quarterly review by working contractors in each trade vertical
- Tone audit — articles are scanned for AI patterns and reduced to direct, contractor-friendly Reddit-style prose
We disclose the AI assistance directly because we think readers deserve to know. See our editorial standards for the full workflow and accountability process.
H19 Research Group LLC
H19 Research Group LLC is a Wyoming-registered publishing company. We chose Wyoming for the same reasons many small independent publishers do: minimal franchise tax, clear separation of business and personal liability, and well-established LLC case law.
H19 publishes data-driven research sites across multiple verticals. CostPatch is our home-services cost-research property, focused on the US market. Other H19 properties cover real estate analytics, demographic data, and academic research — separate from CostPatch's editorial scope but sharing our research methodology and transparency standards.
How to reach us
For pricing corrections, media inquiries, or partnership requests, see our contact page. For methodology questions, see methodology or editorial standards.