Independent software engineer · remote, wherever your business is
Custom software for the parts of your business that still run on copy and paste.
I find the slow, manual work in your business and replace it with simple tools that do it for you. Then I keep them running. You get a real engineer who answers the phone, at a price that used to buy you a few meetings with an agency.
Sound familiar?
Most of the busywork has an easy fix.
- Someone re-types orders, leads or invoices from email into a spreadsheet every morning.
- Your bookings, customers and inventory live in three tools that don't talk to each other.
- The real system is a 40-tab spreadsheet that nobody wants to touch.
- One person knows how the monthly report gets made, and they're going on vacation.
- You pay for software built for someone else's business, and you work around it every day.
- You've thought "there must be an app for this" and there wasn't one that fit.
What I do
Three kinds of help.
Automate the busywork
I connect the tools you already use so information moves on its own.
For example: an inbox that sorts and summarizes itself, reports that arrive ready on Monday, forms that land in the right place.
Build the tool you need
When nothing off the shelf fits, I build a small web app that does exactly your job.
For example: a booking system, a stock tracker, a dashboard for the owner, a customer-facing search.
Keep it running
Hosting, backups, monitoring and fixes, from the person who built it and knows how it works.
For example: hourly off-site backups that I test every week, and a fix when something breaks on a Friday night.
Case study · Baby Ketten Karaoke
Sixteen years of software for a karaoke institution.
Baby Ketten started as Portland's legendary karaoke night (the New York Times called it America's greatest) and grew into private karaoke rooms. I've been their software person since 2010, when I built their iPhone app.
I built the app and the songbook behind it, then worked with a small team on the phone-to-TV system that runs their private rooms. I still look after all of it. This year I have been moving all of it onto one small server with hourly backups, keeping every bit of history along the way.
- Since U Been GonePriya
- Islands in the StreamSam & Lou
- Mr. BrightsideEveryone
Illustration of the room queue singers see on the TV.
Why this is affordable now
Custom software used to need a team. Now it needs one good engineer.
Until recently, a tool built for your business meant hiring developers or an agency, and that only made sense for big companies. AI coding tools have changed the math. I use them every day to do in weeks what used to take a team months.
The AI writes a lot of the code. I do the parts that matter: learning how your business works, deciding what to build, checking every line, and owning the result. Sometimes AI ends up inside the tool itself, like sorting email or reading invoices. Often the right answer is plain, dependable software that just works.
What you can count on
- You talk to me, the person doing the work.
- Remote by default, wherever you are. When sitting down together helps, I'll come to you.
- Plain-English updates, no jargon.
- Simple, low-cost hosting. Usually dollars a month, not hundreds.
- Backups I test, and monitoring that tells me first.
- The code and data are yours.
How it works
Start small. Keep what works.
A conversation
Thirty minutes over video, free. You walk me through where the time goes, and I tell you honestly what's worth fixing.
A first project
One clear problem with a fixed scope and price, delivered in weeks. You see it working before you commit to anything bigger.
Ongoing care
A simple monthly plan covering hosting, backups, fixes and small changes, so the tool keeps up with your business.
About me
Hi, I'm Chris.
I've been writing software for more than 15 years, at places like Apple (on the News app), Stripe, and a handful of startups. I've also spent a long time building tools for small teams: customer service staff, a bicycle company's engineers, a karaoke bar.
The part I like best is the people. Most of a good system comes from listening closely to the folks who'll use it. I work best with people who are kind and want to get something real done.
Get in touch
What's the most annoying thing your team does every week?
Send me a few sentences about it. I'll reply within a day or two with whether I can help and what it might take.