Services

Design & build

When the verdict is build, or when you already know what you need, I design the system and write the software myself. The person who sat in your operation is the person who builds for it.

Why that matters

Most software is built at a distance. An agency translates you to a project manager, who translates you to developers, who never meet you. Every translation loses something, and what arrives at the end fits the documents rather than the business.

I work without the layers. You deal with me. I spent ten years building systems for banks, lenders and retailers, the kind of software that makes lending decisions and cannot be allowed to fail quietly. Ten years of that teaches you something unfashionable: writing the code is the easy part. The hard part is building the right thing at the right size, then staying until it earns its keep.

It also keeps the price honest. A team of five has to build something big enough to justify a team of five. One senior person, building exactly what the assessment scoped, has no such incentive — and nothing gets lost between the person who understood your business and the person writing the software, because they are the same person.

What working together looks like

  • The system is designed around the way your business already works.
  • You see working software early and often, rather than a reveal at the end.
  • Anything that touches guests or patients is held to the standards of the regulated industries I come from.
  • When it is running, I stay long enough to prove it works in an ordinary week of yours.
  • If you have a technical team, I work alongside them and leave them able to carry the system without me.

The kind of systems I build

  • Assistants that answer questions accurately, at any hour, in your customers' own language — grounded in your own documents rather than guesswork.
  • Software that learns from years of your records and turns them into something your business uses every day.
  • Systems that watch themselves: when something drifts or breaks, you hear about it before your customers do.
  • The quiet plumbing that connects what you already have, so details are entered once instead of three times.

How a build unfolds

The first working version arrives early — weeks, not months — and it is small on purpose. It does one thing your business needs, end to end, and real people use it while the rest is still being built. Every build after that point is guided by what those people say and do, not by what a planning document guessed months earlier.

When the system is complete, it is not finished — it is watched. I stay through the first ordinary weeks of use: the busy Friday, the staff member who was never in the demos, the awkward question no one predicted. When the system has survived your ordinary life rather than my careful tests, the engagement ends, and you keep everything: the software, the source code, and documentation your next engineer can pick up cold.

The record

The technical history is public, and it is written for engineers. If you are one, or you employ one, they are welcome to inspect it: the case studies and the writing. You will never need any of it to work with me.

What it costs

Every build is scoped and priced as a fixed piece of work before it begins, sized by what the feasibility assessment found. Builds usually start with the assessment, from €9,500, because it is the cheapest mistake-prevention either of us can buy. If you already know precisely what you need, we can begin with a conversation about scope instead.

Questions people ask about the build

Do you take on fractional or part-time engagements?

Yes. Some clients need a fractional artificial intelligence architect: a senior technical mind a few days a month, steering the work of an existing team, reviewing designs and keeping a build honest. That arrangement is priced and scoped the same way as a build — fixed and agreed in advance.

What does a build cost?

Every build is priced as a fixed piece of work before it begins, sized by what the feasibility assessment found. There is no day rate ticking over and no meter running; you know the full cost before you commit.

How long does a build take?

Most systems I build are running in a client's ordinary week within a few months. I have taken a working assistant from first line of code to daily use by hundreds of people in three weeks; a larger platform takes longer. The honest schedule is part of the scope we agree up front.

Who owns the software when it is finished?

You do. The system, the source code and the documentation are yours, and I stay long enough to hand them over cleanly — to your own people if you have them, or running quietly on services you control if you do not.

How to start

Write to me about what you run and what needs building.

Start a conversation