Product engineering

From idea to engineered product.

We design, build, ship and run software across web, mobile, desktop, cloud, AI and the enterprise systems underneath. We are for founders who need a first product built properly, and for businesses and institutions that need existing systems rebuilt, extended or modernised.

Start a project →See what we are building
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Products in build
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Practices
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Platforms
WebReact · Next
iOSSwift · SwiftUI
AndroidKotlin · Compose
DesktopWindows · macOS
CloudAWS · Azure · GCP
AILLM · RAG · ML

Projects

What we are building right now.

One is our own product. One is a client engagement. Both run through the same four stages, because the process does not get easier when the name on the repository is ours.

Our productINSTRUMENTALIST

Available now

Record or import a performance and Instrumentalist writes out what was played: letter notes and tonic sol‑fa, the key, the tempo and the chords, one instrument at a time, so a part you can only hear becomes a part you can read.

  • Hears each instrumentAI separation lifts the trumpet, saxophone, bass, piano or guitar out of a full mix and transcribes each on its own.
  • The whole band in one passA single sweep reads every instrument at once and settles them on one key, so the parts agree.
  • Yours to keepA song library replays past analyses free, and any part exports to MIDI or a printable PDF.
  • Windows
  • letter notes
  • tonic sol-fa
  • chords
  • MIDI
  • PDF
See plans & download →

Client engagementNeuroNurture

Phase 1 in build

Built for Catalyst Health Initiative

A three-phase platform, shipped in order. Each phase is a working product on its own, not a milestone on the way to one.

Web application

The core platform on the web. Accounts, records, the primary workflow, built to stand on its own before anything else is added.

In build

What we do

Four practices, not a list of services.

Most engagements draw on more than one. They are staffed by the same team, so nothing is handed across a boundary halfway through.

P1

Product Engineering

One product across every surface it needs to exist on, built from a single core rather than three codebases that drift.

  • web apps
  • iOS
  • Android
  • Windows
  • macOS
P2

AI & Data

Applied AI that is evaluated, versioned and observable, so you can tell when it gets worse and not only when it looks impressive.

  • LLM systems
  • retrieval
  • pipelines
  • analytics
P3

Cloud & Platform

The infrastructure underneath: architecture, delivery, integration, and the automation that removes the manual step someone forgets.

  • architecture
  • CI/CD
  • integrations
  • automation
P4

Enterprise Systems

Line of business software, and the modernisation of what is already running and cannot stop running while you fix it.

  • internal tools
  • modernisation
  • security
  • compliance

How we engage

M1

Build

Scoped engagement, discovery through launch. Fixed team, weekly demos.

M2

Embed

Our engineers inside your team, in your repository, on your standups.

M3

Advise

Architecture review, technical due diligence, roadmap and hiring plan.

M4

Operate

Monitoring, maintenance, security patching and continuous iteration.

How we work

Four stages. You see working software in every one.

The order carries information, so the stages are numbered. Nothing moves forward on a document alone.

01

Define

The problem, the users, the constraints, and the number that says it worked. One week, ending in a written scope you can hold us to.

02

Architect

System design, data model, security model, delivery plan. You get the diagram and the reasoning, including what we chose not to build.

03

Build

Two week increments, each one tested, reviewed, instrumented and deployable. You use it as it is built, not at the end.

04

Operate

Monitoring, alerting, patching and iteration. Handover to your team whenever you want it, documented rather than narrated.

The standard

Built to survive its second year.

Most software does not fail because the idea was wrong. It fails because it was built to demo. A demo has no on-call, no migration path and no second engineer. We build for the state after the launch, and these are the commitments that follow from that.

  • You own everythingRepositories, infrastructure accounts, domains and credentials are in your name from day one. No hostage architecture.
  • Tests you can readCoverage that documents the behaviour rather than chasing a percentage, and a suite that runs in under ten minutes.
  • Deploys you can reverseEvery release is a versioned artefact with a rollback path we have actually executed, not one we assume works.
  • Written decisionsArchitecture decision records for anything expensive to change, so the next engineer inherits reasoning instead of archaeology.
  • Named engineersYou know who is building your system and you talk to them directly. No account layer between you and the code.

Stack

We name the technology, because you will have to live with it.

TypeScriptReactNext.jsSvelteSwiftKotlin.NETElectronPythonGoRustNodePostgreSQLRedisClickHouseKafkaAWSAzureGCPKubernetesTerraformGitHub ActionsOpenTelemetryPyTorchpgvectorLangGraph

Tell us what you are trying to build.

A 30 minute call. You describe the problem, we tell you what we would build, how long it takes and what it costs to run. No deck.

Book a call →hello@foundersidea.tech