Web development for startups.
Build the first version properly, without building for a scale you have not reached.
Founders without a technical co-founder face a specific problem: every technical decision feels irreversible and you have no reliable way to judge advice. My aim is to keep as many of those decisions reversible as possible, be direct about trade-offs, and get something real in front of users quickly — because their behaviour will teach you more than any amount of planning.
What’s included
- A first version scoped to reach real users fast
- Honest advice on build versus buy versus not yet
- Accounts, billing and data modelled properly from the start
- Analytics so you learn what users actually do
- Infrastructure sized for now, able to grow
- Documentation and clean handover for when you hire
- Ongoing support while you build a team
What to spend money on early
Spend on the things that are expensive to change: the data model, accounts and billing, and anything touching money or personal data. Be ruthlessly cheap on everything else. Features are easy to add; foundations are painful to replace once you have customers depending on them.
Ship, then learn
The purpose of a first version is to produce information. It should be narrow enough to build quickly, real enough that people will actually use and pay for it, and instrumented so you can see what happens. Nine months of building before launch is nine months of guessing.
Handover when you hire
If it works, you will eventually hire engineers. I build with that in mind — standard technology, no unusual patterns, documented decisions — so a new team can take it on without needing to start again.
Common questions
We do not have a technical co-founder. Is that a problem?
No, but it means you need someone who explains trade-offs in business terms rather than technical ones. That is how I prefer to work anyway.
What if we raise and hire a team?
That is a good outcome. Everything is built and documented so an in-house team can take over cleanly. I have no interest in making myself hard to replace.
Can you advise on technical decisions we are unsure about?
Yes, and often the useful answer is that a decision does not need making yet.
Can you work with a small budget?
I can help you scope to a budget, which usually means being honest about what to cut. What I will not do is agree to a scope I know cannot be delivered for the money.
Have a project in mind?
Tell me what you're building and roughly when you need it. I reply to every genuine enquiry within one working day.