80%
less admin
Two bike rental businesses
Four disconnected tools replaced with one system, booking directly on their own site.
TAKING ON NEW CLIENTS
Ten years doing this. Eight of them at IBM.
I'm Jack. I spent most of my career on platforms for companies you've heard of. Now I do the same work for businesses small enough that I answer the phone myself.
LONDON · WORKS ANYWHERE
The record
Who I've done it for2026 →
Independent
Working directly with owner-run businesses. One person, start to finish, doing the same engineering on a budget that fits a business with a handful of staff.
8 years
IBM — Solution Architect, then CTO
The last three years as Solution Architect and CTO. Three engagements, all in automotive:
2025–2026BMW
2023–2025Ford
2019–2023Audi — led a 70-person platform team
2025
AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional
What I do
Three ways people start01
Building the thing
Bookings, payments, the website, whatever the business actually runs on. Handed over working, with the keys to all of it.
Usually four to eight weeks
02
A second opinion
You've already got a system and something about it worries you. I'll go through it and write you a report in plain English about what to fix and in what order.
About two weeks
03
Sticking around
Hosting, monitoring, updates, and the small changes you'd otherwise sit on for six months.
Monthly, cancel any time
Pricing
We agree a price before I start, and that's the price. I don't bill by the hour, so a slow week is my problem and not your invoice.
What it costs depends on what you're running. Twenty minutes on a call and I can usually give you a figure.
You get me. Not a team you never meet.
How I workOne price, agreed first.
I don't bill by the hour, so a slow week is my problem and not your invoice.
The awkward conversation early.
If a job turns out bigger than we thought, you hear it before I do the work, not after.
You keep the keys.
Your code, your hosting, your accounts. Nothing held hostage if you want to walk.
I'm still here afterwards.
A monthly plan if you want one. If you don't, it all still works without me.
Things I've actually shipped
Not just advised on500+
teams
Exercise Challenge App
My own product, and a profitable one. I built it, launched it, and still run the support inbox.
exercisechallengeapp.com95%
saved
A cloud bill, cut to a twentieth
Rebuilt so they only pay when it's running. I can't name them, but I'm happy to walk through it on a call.
The booking work runs on Setout, a platform I built and run. If it fits what you need, I'll say so. If it doesn't, I'll build you the thing that does.
The whole business, not just the code
Business designUsually nothing is broken. The website works. The booking tool works. They just don't know about each other, so you're the bit in the middle copying between tabs.
I design the whole picture, then build the parts that are missing.
CRM & follow-upMarketing & analyticsBookings & paymentsAutomationReporting
How business design works Your business
Website & bookings
Marketing
Payments
Reporting
Automation
CRM
What's under the bonnet
For the technical readerCloud architecture
- Solutions design
- Well-Architected reviews
- Terraform / IaC
- Cost optimisation
Full-stack engineering
- React / Next.js
- Node.js / Python
- REST & GraphQL
- CI/CD
Technical leadership
- Fractional CTO
- Code review & mentoring
- Hiring & team structure
Architecture review
- System design audit
- Performance & scale
- Security posture
TypeScriptNext.jsNode.jsAWSTerraformPostgreSQLStripe
Tell me what's slowing you down.
Twenty minutes, no slides. Tell me what you run and where it hurts. You'll get a straight answer about whether I can help, and if I can't I'll say so.