Custom software and SaaS platforms
New products from first architecture through to a running service.
Build · Hands-on engineering
Software and systems, built properly.
Bespoke products, SaaS platforms and internal systems, designed, engineered and taken all the way into production by the same person who scoped them.
What a build engagement covers
A build engagement starts with the commercial problem. The feature list comes out of it. We agree what the system has to do, what it must not do, and what “working” will look like when it’s live.
From there the work is engineering: architecture, data model, interfaces, integrations, infrastructure and the delivery pipeline that gets it in front of real users and keeps it there.
- Product design & architecture
- Full-stack development
- Desktop, browser-extension and chat clients
- APIs & integrations
- Cloud & DevOps
- AI-enabled features where useful
Typical work
What this looks like in practice
Internal tools and operational systems
The systems a business runs on: workflow, reporting, back office.
APIs and integrations
Connecting the systems you already have so they behave as one.
Desktop and browser clients, not only web
Where a browser can’t reach the work: hardware, extensions, chat tools. One record behind all of them.
Cloud infrastructure and DevOps
Environments, pipelines, observability and a sane path to release.
AI-enabled features
Language models and automation, applied where they earn their place.
Where it starts
The Leverage Diagnostic.
Two weeks, fixed, £7,500.
All prices exclude VAT.
Two weeks to find the costly constraint, prove the risky assumption, and price the right response.
If you can hand me a brief I can build from, you don’t need it: ask for a quote, which costs nothing. If the brief is still forming, the diagnostic is how it gets written, and the risky part gets proved before it lands on the critical path.
You leave with one agreed proof, and a decision you can act on.
Questions
The things people ask first
How long does a build take?
Six to twelve weeks is the usual shape, and it’s a range because the honest answer depends on what the thing is. The diagnostic exists to turn that range into a number before you commit to it, and to prove the risky part before it lands on the critical path.
What does a build cost?
It depends on the build, and the number comes from a specification. Either you bring one, or the diagnostic produces one: you pay £7,500, and two weeks later you hold a specification and a costing you can bring back to me or take to anyone else.
If that number is bigger than the problem is worth, you found out for £7,500 instead of three months into a project. And if you already know what you want built, skip all of it and ask me for a quote. That costs nothing. All prices exclude VAT.
What do you build on?
C# and .NET with MongoDB is where I’m deepest, and it’s what the platforms in the case studies run on. Python where it suits the problem, Avalonia for cross-platform desktop, Azure and local inference for AI.
I’ve shipped relational work too, but document stores are the honest answer for where my depth is. That matters when you’re choosing: if your data is strongly relational, with heavy referential integrity and reporting, say so early. Sometimes the right recommendation is Postgres and an engineer who lives in it, and I’d rather tell you that in week one than defend a choice I made out of habit.
Will you work on an existing codebase?
Yes, and it’s the more valuable job more times than not. The first work is reading rather than writing, because changing a system you haven’t understood is how expensive mistakes happen.
Who owns the code?
You own what you pay me to build, once it’s paid for. Anything I bring that existed before, such as my own tools, stays mine and comes with a licence for you to use and change it as part of your system. The handover includes the system, its infrastructure and enough documentation that you aren’t tied to me by anything except choosing to be.
Am I buying a team or a person?
A person. If you need a team of five starting next month, I’m the wrong call and I’ll say so on the first conversation, not the third.
Other ways to work together
Not quite the right shape?
Partner
Technical leadership
A technical co-founder or fractional CTO to own the technology function: what gets built, in what order, and on what architecture.
- Technical/product strategy
- Architecture
- Team leadership
- Roadmaps & execution
- Technical due diligence
Consult
Complex technical problems
Architecture reviews, AI strategy and technical advisory for difficult or high-value decisions.
- AI & automation strategy
- System architecture
- Feasibility & prototyping
- Technology due diligence
- Modernisation planning
Work with me
Losing time or money to something you can’t fix?
I reply within one working day to arrange a free 30-minute call.