Bespoke Software Solutions

Heavy on solutions, light on the fuss.

I excel at working with early-stage startups, getting them to market as fast as possible.

Let me worry about your development effort, you concentrate on running your business.

No singing, dancing or bullshit.

If you are looking for a slick presentation, filled with lofty promises, you are plain out of luck. This is the website of a guy that loves building bespoke software solutions, using things like JavaScript and Go, mixed with a little Rust, Python, Scala, Kotlin or, well, whatever gets the job done I guess.

I'm not an investor, founder or any of those business things. In fact, I suck at business and you should never take business advice from me. What I don't suck too badly at, is building software. In fact, people throw money at me for doing it, so I must have gotten it right at least once.

Building software solutions can be fun, when done properly. That implies that there's planning, lots of it, before the development ever kicks off. I absolutely enjoy working with people that know what they want, how they want it to work and are happy to put in the effort and commitment required to make things happen.

Naturally, it's also important to me that you will love and enjoy working with me, despite my crappy haircut! As a potential client, ask yourself - why are you here?

Working together

Mutually respectful client relationships are central to my work ethic. And an absolute deal breaker. Experience has taught me that true success requires collaboration, a partnership with shared goals.

Building software is hard work. It is often stressful, frustrating and fraught with challenges. Challenges which require team solutions. If we can not work as a team, we will fail. I hate failing, so let's not set ourselves up for that.

I will not be offended if this does not appeal to you right now.

Still here? Great!

I have created a little cheat sheet below that aims to assist you in making a decision regarding our business compatibility. I hope it will resonate with you.

Cheat sheet

Give yourself one point for every statement that you find true and agree with. We'll tally the score afterwards.

• You have a clear product vision and know exactly what it should look like, how it should work and where you want me to be involved.
• This vision is more than an idea, it's a passion and you are ready, willing and able to put in the hard work and effort required to make it a reality.
• You understand your business and its potential profitability.
• You have a clearly allocated and available budget for the project.
• You need a software developer, someone who will build the application and the background services. Not an investor or business partner.
• You know which 3rd party services you will use for integration and what is required to make this happen.
• There are wire frames and screen designs available for review, to better understand your goals.
• You've invested the time to understand your target market and which platform(s) will best serve them.
• You've been involved in software projects before and understand the various role players.
• You fully understand that software development costs money and that I do not work for free.

Check your score:

• 8+: Excellent, we should talk! Pick a slot so we can get started.
• 6+: We may have a potential issue or two. Feel free to review the cheat sheet once more.
• 5 or less: Sorry, our approaches are just too different. I just do not see us working together.

What if you need wire frames and screen designs?

A great User Experience (UX) is at the heart of everything I do. It is essential to the success of your project. Part of great UX includes screen designs and the look and feel of your solution. If you have not yet run your designs and requirements past a UX expert, I highly recommend speaking to Peter Koen from Pondo. Peter specialises in the creation of a frictionless, engaging user experience for web and mobile applications. A consultation with him will provide you with the output required to engage with developers, enabling the smooth communication of your vision and requirements.

Out of interest, judging by past experience, engaging an expert UX consultant saves a significant amount of time and redevelopment. This saves you valuable time to market as well as expensive development and design overheads. The more you plan before we start development, the higher the chances for success.

I firmly believe in a dedicated Project Manager for any project that anyone is serious about. You could do it yourself, of course, but your role should ideally be that of the Product Owner. Let someone else manage the project and the development team. Trust me, everyone will be happier!