Work with me
I've spent 25 years building products and the businesses around them: as a founder, as a CTO, and as the person who picks up the project everyone else has given up on. If you have something to build, or something that's stuck, I'd like to hear about it.
What I can help with
Building a product
Deciding what's worth building, and what isn't, then building it. AI makes the building cheaper; it doesn't decide what to build, or how to get past the traps an old system sets. I don't stop at the code: support, sales and the roadmap are part of the job.
Product and technical leadership
A team, a roadmap and a codebase that still work in ten years. I've been CTO at Homestay.com and at Trojan Horse was a Unicorn.
Stuck Rails apps
When a vendor walks away, or an app is left on an old version nobody dares touch, I read what's there, tell you what it's worth, and finish it or bring it up to date. Rails since 2.0.
Three ways to work with me
Me, part time
A part-time CTO
Product and technical leadership for a company that needs a CTO's judgement, but not a full-time one. That's how I work with Homestay.com today. Or a consultant for a single project or question; a stuck Rails app is often where it starts.
For team-sized work
blko
Short for Blackorange: the software company I co-founded. Since 2001 we've designed, built and supported web and mobile products for Portuguese and international clients, from Páginas Amarelas to the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda. Today we work in Ruby on Rails and Hotwire, on the web and in native apps.
A platform you can use
The THU Platform
The platform behind Trojan Horse was a Unicorn, a community of 38,000+ creative professionals in 180 countries, built and kept current by blko since 2016. We offer it white label: community, events, jobs and mentorships, on the web and in your own iOS and Android apps, under your brand. If you want something like it, let's talk.
Worth reading
- Version Four: moving 22 years of this site onto Rails 8, with an AI doing most of the typing.
- Startup Life: why I work the hours I do on a startup, from the early Homestay.com days.
- Tech Talks London: a functional introvert on camera, talking science, technology and business.
Where I’ve done it
- 2021 – now CTO, Trojan Horse was a Unicorn
- 2012 – now CTO, Homestay.com
- 2009 – 2012 SAPO
- 2001 – now Co-founder, blko (Blackorange)
The longer story is on the About page.
Get in touch
No forms and no price list. Tell me what you’re building, or what’s stuck, and I’ll tell you straight whether I can help. I take on a small number of clients alongside my own work. My email is [email protected]. I work in English and Portuguese, remotely or around Lisbon and Setúbal.