Build with me
Most "AI builders" can't ship past the demo. I can.
You have the product idea, the customer, and the wedge. What you need is a technical co-founder who can take it from napkin to production. Auth, payments, deployment, scale. The boring parts that kill most AI side-projects. That's the job.
The honest version
The gap between "cool demo" and "product people pay for" is enormous. AI tooling makes the demo trivial and the product harder.
What vibe-coding gets you
A prototype that works on localhost. A demo video. A pitch that lands the first meeting. Enough to convince yourself the idea is real.
What kills the next mile
Auth. Payments. Data persistence. Multi-tenant. Background jobs. Observability. Compliance. Cost control on LLM calls. Customer support tooling. The unglamorous list.
What I bring
Thirty years of shipping production software. Two SaaS exits. A working knowledge of the entire stack, an Agile trainer's feel for feedback loops, and the operational discipline to actually finish.
How I work
The same playbook that took Synuma from $0 to $1M ARR.
01
Sketch the bet
We get on a call. You tell me the idea, the customer, and the wedge. I tell you what's hard, what's easy, what's already a commodity, and where the AI actually adds value. Honest. Sometimes the answer is don't build.
02
Ship a real slice in two weeks
Not a Figma. Not a demo. A working slice of the product, deployed to a real domain, with real auth, real data, and a real user flow. Enough to put in front of a customer and learn.
03
One-week sprints from there
Same cadence I used to grow Synuma from $0 to $1M ARR. Plan Monday, demo Friday, ship continuously in between. You're in every demo. Direction changes based on what we learned, not what we guessed.
04
Build for a handoff
Everything I write is meant to be picked up by someone else. Clean code, real docs, sensible defaults, no proprietary lock-in. If we win, you hire a team and I hand them a product they can actually run.
The stack
What I'll reach for. Pragmatic, not trendy.
I pick tools that have a shot at being maintainable for five years, not just shipping by Friday. Defaults below; happy to pivot for what your product actually needs.
Frontend
- Next.js · React · TypeScript
- Tailwind · shadcn/ui
- Mobile via React Native or Expo
Backend
- Node · .NET · serverless functions
- Postgres · Supabase · Redis
- Background jobs · queues · webhooks
AI layer
- Claude API · OpenAI · open models
- Embeddings, RAG, agents, tool use
- Prompt caching, evals, safety
Infra
- Vercel · AWS · Azure · Cloudflare
- Auth · payments · email · analytics
- CI/CD · observability · uptime
Good fit
You should reach out if…
- ✓ You have a real customer problem and an AI-native idea for how to solve it.
- ✓ You've hit the wall between "prototype" and "product" and need someone who's done it before.
- ✓ You want a partner who'll tell you when the idea is wrong, not just build whatever you ask.
- ✓ You're bootstrapping or seed-stage and need senior technical leverage without a full-time hire.
Not a fit
Probably skip me if…
- × You want a contractor who'll execute a spec without pushing back. I'm too senior to be cheap and too opinionated to be quiet.
- × You're building a thin GPT wrapper and racing for market. Someone faster and cheaper exists.
- × You need a co-founder to take 50% equity for years of full-time work. I'm looking for partnerships, not jobs.
Tell me what you're trying to build.
First call is free and honest. If it's a fit, we'll talk about how an engagement might shape up. If it isn't, I'll tell you that too, and probably point you at someone who is.
Start the conversation →