The spreadsheet can't take any more
Formulas nobody dares touch and a different copy on every computer. It works until the day that person goes on holiday.
Custom software
Custom software for the process that eats your day
There's a point where the business stops growing because of what it sells and starts jamming from the inside: the spreadsheet only one person understands, the orders in a notebook, three chats nobody knows who handles. Another tool doesn't fix that.
First things first: do you need software or will a website do?
Plenty of people write “software” when they want a website, and hiring the wrong one is expensive in both directions. The rule I use is this:
If the problem is outside
Nobody knows you, nobody finds you on Google, or what's out there about you isn't up to what you sell. That's a website: from $850,000 COP and ready in 5 days.
See website pricingIf the problem is inside
People write to you and you sell, but inside the process can't keep up: inventory that doesn't add up, a diary that double-books, branches that don't see the same thing. That is custom software.
And if what you want is for WhatsApp to answer and book on its own, that's cheaper than a system: WhatsApp chatbot. The site first, then the chatbot and only then the system: in that order it's cheaper, and that's how I recommend it.
When people actually hire this
Nobody wakes up wanting to buy software. People get here through one of these six, and almost always after putting up with it too long.
Real stock doesn't match what's on paper
You sell what you don't have, or you're sitting on what you thought you'd sold. Inventory that discounts itself when you invoice ends the argument about who wrote it down wrong.
You book several people at once
With three or four professionals on different schedules, the diary stops being a notebook and becomes a software problem.
You have two or three branches and none sees the same thing
Each site keeps its numbers however it can and consolidating them is Sunday's job. One of the processes that pays for itself fastest.
You pay for five tools that don't talk to each other
One to invoice, another for chat, another for the diary, and the bridge is you copying and pasting. What's missing there isn't another tool: it's integrations.
You have a product idea and want to launch with the minimum
You don't need the whole platform to find out whether anyone uses it: you need the smallest part that's already useful —an MVP— live, and then decide with data.
What I build, concretely
They aren't catalogue products: they're the shapes that repeat most, and almost every project is two or three of them together. Whether you look for it as custom software or as “a program for my business”, this is it.
A panel with roles, in two clicks
Switch the view and watch what disappears. That's what a commission-based salesperson sees.
8 negocios visibles
New3
- Client AVendedor 1
- Client BVendedor 2
- Client CVendedor 1
Contacted2
- Client DVendedor 2
- Client EVendedor 1
Proposal2
- Client FVendedor 2
- Client GVendedor 1
Closed1
- Client HVendedor 2
Example · sample data
Inventory and operations system
Ins, outs, stock by warehouse and the history of who moved what. Today's shared spreadsheet, with rules that can't be skipped.
Bookings and scheduling system
Several professionals, different durations, blocks, cancellations and reminders. If it also books over chat, it joins up with the chatbot.
Admin panel and internal dashboard
You change prices, products, copy or users without writing to me. With roles: nobody sees the whole till by accident.
Internal CRM and client tracking
Where each deal stands, who owns it and when to call back. It's the board up here.
Integrations with what you already use
With WhatsApp, with your accounting, with a payment gateway or with the spreadsheet you're not letting go of. As long as the other side has a way in.
A custom web platform, in stages
If the project is big it doesn't get built all at once: the part that's already useful goes out first and grows from there. Custom applications, not a template forced into shape.
A case that repeats in healthcare: scheduling several professionals, branch control and clinical records. There the site and the system are two different projects and it's better not to mix them —with examples, in websites for clinics and practices.
Price
What it costs: depends on scope, and this is how it's worked out
I publish the price of what has a known shape —a website from $850,000 COP, an online store from $2,500,000 COP—. Software doesn't: two projects described the same way can cost three times as much, and a pretty “from” here is the one that grows later, when you can't turn back. What I do give you is the list of what moves the needle.
What pushes the price up
- How many different roles there are and what each one can see
- How many integrations with third-party systems, and whether those systems cooperate
- Whether old data has to be brought across, and what state it's in
- Whether, beyond the internal panel, a part for the end customer is needed
- Whether the process is written down anywhere or has to be reconstructed by asking
- Whether obligations are involved: sensitive data, traceability, auditing
What brings it down
- Starting with a single stage, the one that's already useful on its own
- Having the process clear before the call, even if it's on one sheet
- Accepting that the first version is ugly inside and correct outside
- Leaving out what isn't used today, even if “some day it might be handy”
- Using what already exists where it exists: not everything has to be built
How it's paid: in stages and against deliverables. The deposits, the milestones and the balance are written in the proposal before starting, and the general conditions are published in the terms of service. If a stage wasn't delivered, it isn't charged.
What's always included
- Scope in writing before anything is charged: what gets built, in which stages and what's left out
- The code in YOUR repository from the first commit, not at the end of the project
- The credentials and accounts in your name: server, database, domain and email
- An admin panel so you don't depend on me for the day to day
- Documentation of how it deploys, how it restores and what each part does
- Backups configured, and tested by restoring them at least once
- Handover training and 30 days of adjustments at no cost
What I don't do
This list is worth more than the one above. Everyone says yes to everything in the sales meeting; the problems start afterwards.
- A native app for Android or iOSI build web apps: they open from the browser, install as a shortcut on the phone and update themselves. I don't publish on Play Store or App Store, and I'd rather tell you than learn it with your money.
- Off-the-shelf software: accounting, payroll or POSIf what you're after is a program that already exists to invoice or run payroll, buy it. It's cheaper than commissioning one and thousands of businesses have already tested it. What I do is connect it to yours.
- Hourly work inside your teamYou don't hire me as an hourly freelance developer and I don't join anyone's payroll. I work by project, with written scope and deliverables. If what you need is a person sitting in your office, that isn't me.
- Open-ended “we'll see as we go” scopeChanges that show up mid-way get written down, estimated and put into a following stage. They don't get slipped quietly into the current one: that's how a project doubles its timeline without anyone knowing when it happened.
- Migrating old data, by defaultBringing across ten years of a dirty database is a project in itself. It gets looked at first, how much can really be salvaged gets said, and it's quoted separately. It's never promised that everything will come across.
- Integrations with systems that won't let you inIf your provider has no API and no way to export, no integration is possible however much you want it. That gets found out in the diagnosis, not three months later.
- 24/7 support with a response in minutesI'm one person. I answer within 24 working hours and for outages there's a maintenance plan with its scope written down. Promising you a support centre that doesn't exist would be lying.
How it's done
Before stage 01
A 20-minute call. If a website suits you and not software, I'll say so right there.
Stage 01
Scope in writing: what gets built, what doesn't, in how many stages and what each one costs.
Stage 02
First useful version, live. The smallest part that's already useful, with your real data.
Stage 03
It gets adjusted through use. Each stage comes out of what got in the way in the last one, not out of an old list.
Stage 04
Handover: code, credentials, documentation, training and 30 days of adjustments at no cost.
The timeline comes out of the scope and is written into the proposal, with dates
What you can open right now
The question to ask anyone offering software development is this: show me something of yours that's still running in production. Not a mockup: an address I can open. Here are two, on their own domains.
And I'll say what they are: they're my own products, not client commissions. I built them, on my own and with my money. They don't prove somebody paid me to make them: they prove I can build and keep a complete system standing, which is what you're buying.
What I build it with
Nothing exotic, on purpose: any developer on the market reads all of this, so the day you change hands you don't find a system written in a language only I speak.
Frontend
- TypeScript
- React
- Next.js
- Tailwind CSS
Backend
- Node.js
- NestJS
- Express
- Prisma
Data
- PostgreSQL
- Redis
- DynamoDB
Infrastructure
- AWS
- Docker
- Terraform
- GitHub Actions
The questions to ask before signing
They separate whoever is going to deliver from whoever is going to improvise. Ask them in the other quotes you get too.
Because there's no honest price to publish. A website is a product with a known shape and that's why its price is published; software isn't: two projects described the same way in one sentence can cost three times as much depending on how many users, how many roles, how many integrations and how much old data is involved. What I do give you before charging anything is the written proposal with the number in it and the stages separated, so you see where each peso goes.
Tell me about the process that eats your day
Twenty minutes is enough to know whether this is solved with software, with a website or with nothing. If something cheaper suits you better, I'll say so right there.