I build software for a living, and I don't fully trust the software industry.

Where the suspicion comes from

I spent years in the Medicare and insurance world before this. If you want an education in what happens when systems grow past the point where anyone inside them can explain them, that industry provides it daily. Ordinary people navigating machinery nobody fully understands, dependent on institutions that answer to their own incentives first. I got a good long look at what dependence costs people, and I didn't want to build more of it.

So when I say I'm skeptical of software subscriptions that lock owners in, that isn't a marketing angle I picked because it tests well. It's the conclusion of watching the same pattern in a different industry.

The first client

Wild Kahuna's founding project was for family. My aunt runs a regional tourism network, and years ago her web developer walked away mid-relationship and left her holding a build she couldn't maintain. Her backup plan was renting a template, and I couldn't in good conscience let that happen, so I built her something myself. Then I watched my own clever workaround hit its ceiling, and replacing it properly is how this business started.

Nobody should need a nephew in the software business to get treated fairly by their developer. Building the version of this work where they don't is more or less the mission statement.

The whole story is here, including the parts where the old duct tape was mine

• You should own your toolsYour site, your data, your domain: yours, full stop. The admin that runs your day-to-day is my software, provided as a service, but a service is not a trap. I won't make you pay for a shelf of tools you'll never use, and if you ever want to walk away, I work with you instead of dropping you like a bad habit. You're never stuck.
• The system should reduce workIf a new tool means logging things in two places instead of one, it failed, whatever the demo looked like. I scope projects around your actual workflow, not a feature checklist.
• Owners need the whole pictureYou shouldn't need a developer to change a phone number or check who reached out this week. Everything I build is meant to be run by the person who owns it.
• Small businesses deserve durable softwareBuilt plainly enough to understand, documented well enough to hand off, and boring enough to keep working.