Hire The Wolf — Not Another Coder
Ship Faster. Spend Less. Own Your Stack.
Stop burning cash on bloated teams and AWS bills. I am a one-man engineering army who builds, fixes, and scales self-hosted SaaS platforms. One invoice. Zero overhead.
I work with founders, lean teams, and agencies who need someone to touch frontend, backend, and infra without turning the stack into a Frankenstein's monster.
I turn your idea, MVP, or unstable system into a production-grade platform that is fast, observable, and cheap to run.
- End-to-end ownership: backend, frontend, infra, monitoring, automation—one accountable partner
- AI-first delivery so you get the impact of a small team at the cost of one senior engineer
- Self-hosted, open-source stack so you own every component and keep cloud bills brutally low
- Systems hardened in motion—my moving office is the ultimate stress test for your cloud reliability
20+ years dev · Self-hosted SaaS in production · Platforms that run cheap and ship on schedule
Why Hire a Wolf Instead of a Team
You don’t buy hours of coding. You buy risk reduction, predictable shipping, and infrastructure that doesn’t fall over.
Solo-Dev Means Zero Excuses
When you work with me, there is nowhere to hide. No handoffs, no endless status meetings, no blurred responsibility. You get the speed of a senior in-house engineer without the full-time overhead. One person designs the system, writes the code, and owns the outcome.
Your Budget Is Not a Toy
I treat your budget like my own. That means self-hosted, open-source first. No unnecessary third-party SaaS, no gold-plated architectures that only look good in diagrams. Just the minimal, battle-tested stack that gets you to your business outcome with the lowest possible ongoing cost.
AI as a Force Multiplier, Not a Buzzword
I use AI to cut through boilerplate so I can focus on decisions that matter: architecture, edge cases, and cost. You don’t pay for my time to struggle with scaffolding; you pay for a partner who knows what to ship and what to cut.
Real-life Stories
From zero to production-ready SaaS on my own cloud
I built a full production-ready SaaS environment on a self-hosted cloud because I want to own my infrastructure. The same patterns let me spin up your MVP and move it to production in hours, not days—with CI/CD, monitoring, and authentication from the start.
New MVPs in hours, running on near-zero infrastructure
Most teams burn weeks designing an MVP and then discover the cloud bill. I routinely deploy new MVP projects and move them to production in hours, on self-hosted, open-source infrastructure that keeps fixed costs close to zero. You get speed now and breathing room later.
Code that survives motion, chaos, and bad networks
My office moves every day, but my systems don’t blink. I build architectures that assume things will go wrong: network partitions, node failures, misconfigured clients. If the stack can handle a rolling, moving life, it can handle your customers on a Monday morning traffic spike.
FOCUS AREAS
Automated Ops & Internal Tools
Turn manual work into reliable, observable workflows
I automate the glue work that is burning your team’s time. Instead of fragile scripts and one-off hacks, you get a proper backend, automated workflows, and dashboards that tell you what’s happening in real time.
Best For:
- Profitable startups drowning in manual tasks (spreadsheets, email follow-ups)
- Agencies that need reliable internal tooling to scale client work
- Companies where key processes live in one person's head
Business Outcomes:
- Outcome: Reduce repetitive manual work by 50–90%
- Outcome: Single source of truth instead of scattered documents
- Outcome: New hires ramp faster because the process is encoded in software
AI & RAG Systems Integration
Bots and AI systems that earn their keep, not just demo well
I design and ship AI-based projects—from chatbots to RAG systems—that are tightly integrated with your data. The goal is not to sprinkle AI on your app; it’s to create features that your users rely on every day.
Best For:
- Founders who want an AI feature that actually drives revenue
- Teams sitting on docs/data that could power intelligent assistants
- Agencies that need a senior partner to architect AI modules
Business Outcomes:
- Outcome: AI assistants that answer real customer questions using your data
- Outcome: Support deflection via integrated bots
- Outcome: Clear observability, rate limits, and cost control from day one
Cloud Rescue & Infra Upgrade
From fragile MVP to production-ready platform
I take your existing MVP or legacy system and rebuild the foundations so it can scale, stay up, and cost less. That means rewriting critical paths, tightening architecture, and deploying onto a self-hosted stack with proper networking.
Best For:
- Startups that found product/market fit but need a real platform
- Companies shocked by their monthly cloud invoice
- CTOs with a fragile system everyone is afraid to touch
Business Outcomes:
- Outcome: Predictable deployments instead of risky midnight pushes
- Outcome: Cloud costs cut by replacing managed services with self-hosted options
- Outcome: Infrastructure handed to your team with documentation
Full-Stack Technical Partnership
Not a freelancer. A technical partner who owns the stack with you.
You bring the business goal and budget. I bring architecture, backend, frontend, infrastructure, automation, and AI—as a single coherent system. Together we decide what matters now, what can wait, and how to ship in the shortest path without painting you into a corner.
What You Get:
- One accountable engineer who designs, builds, deploys, and monitors your system end-to-end
- A platform designed to be owned: your repos, your infrastructure, your data, your observability
- Clear communication in business terms: impact, risk, timelines, and cost—not jargon
- A pragmatic roadmap from where you are now to a production setup that your team can maintain
Engagement Scenarios:
New Product / MVP
You have a clear problem and a rough idea. I turn that into a shippable product with a small but powerful stack. Outcome: You launch fast without committing to massive monthly bills.
Stuck or Overpriced Platform
Your current system is slow, fragile, or expensive. I audit the architecture and carve a path to a leaner setup. Outcome: A stable, cost-effective platform and a clear roadmap.
Fractional Staff Engineer
Your team is good but missing deep experience in architecture or infra. I step in as a senior partner to unblock hard problems. Outcome: Stabilized deployments and raised engineering standards.
Signature Approach:
I don’t guess. I know. I combine a deeply optimized Quarkus backend, a fast Quasar/Vue frontend, and a self-hosted Kubernetes-based cloud to give you one integrated system. Everything is instrumented, monitored, and ready to scale—without hiding complexity behind overpriced managed services.
Proof of Ownership:
From Cilium networking to Kong API gateway, from Postgres clusters to self-hosted S3 and mail—I don’t rely on magic. I configure the stack so you can understand it, document it, and keep running it with or without me.
WHO BENEFITS
Non-Technical Founder With a Profitable Idea
Signals You:
- You have revenue/traction but no reliable technical partner
- You’ve tried hiring cheap devs and now sit on a fragile codebase
- You want one person who can translate business goals into a working system
What You Get:
- An MVP or full product built by someone who understands cost, runway, and risk
- Architecture that won’t need a complete rewrite in six months
- A clear handover path if you later hire an in-house team
CTO or Tech Lead With a Stuck Team
Signals You:
- Your team moves slowly because of infrastructure debt
- Critical features stall because no one feels safe touching the core system
- Your cloud costs are climbing and nobody can explain why
What You Get:
- A senior partner who can go deep into your stack, not just give advice
- Concrete refactors and automation that your team can build on
- A realistic roadmap that respects your current commitments
Agencies and Service Providers
Signals You:
- You need a 'fixer' for complex dev/devops problems
- You’re tired of fragile deployments that make your agency look bad
- You want to offer serious AI or cloud work without hiring a full-time specialist
What You Get:
- A white-label senior engineer who makes your projects stable
- Infrastructure and code that your internal devs can understand
- The ability to say yes to more complex, higher-margin work
Companies Moving From MVP to Production
Signals You:
- You built something scrappy users love, but it’s not production-ready
- Downtime, bugs, and performance issues are costing real money
- You know you need better infra but don’t want a huge vendor bill
What You Get:
- A structured migration from MVP code to a hardened production setup
- Monitoring, logging, and incident paths that don’t depend on heroics
- A lean, scalable architecture that matches your future needs
HR / Hiring Managers (Senior Roles)
Signals You:
- You’re hiring senior architects and need immediate impact
- You want a contractor who handles both architecture and implementation
- You need a safe, high-output option before committing to a full-time hire
What You Get:
- A senior engineer who integrates quickly and delivers from day one
- Production fixes and new features with minimal oversight
- Clear, honest communication about budget and timeframe
How We Work Together
I operate with an AI-first, production-focused lifecycle. Every step is designed to maximize speed, clarity, and long-term ownership for you.
Principles:
- AI-first: Use automation to remove busywork and maximize high-value engineering
- Monthly-accessible updates: Clear progress, risks, and next steps in plain language
- Low infrastructure cost: Self-hosted, open-source first
- High scalability and availability: Design for failure from the beginning
Phases:
1. Discovery & Triage
Goal: Understand your business, current stack, and where the real risk lies
What I Actually Do:
- Talk to you in business terms: goals, constraints, runway
- Review your current codebase, infra, and tools
- Use AI-assisted analysis to quickly surface tech debt and blind spots
What You See:
- A simple, written summary of where you are now
- A ranking of critical issues and opportunities
- Early sense of timelines and complexity
Key Deliverables:
- Technical and business snapshot
- Risk map and immediate quick wins
- Recommended engagement model
2. Architecture & Blueprint
Goal: Design the minimal, scalable system that will get you to your next milestone
What I Actually Do:
- Define backend, frontend, and infra architecture
- Pick the smallest set of tools needed to deliver your outcome
- Design observability and auth so the system is operable
What You See:
- A concise architecture diagram in non-technical language
- Clear decisions on what we are building now vs. later
- Rough sequencing of features and infra work
Key Deliverables:
- Architecture blueprint tailored to your budget
- Stack decision document (what we use and why)
- Initial backlog of milestones
3. Build & Automate (AI-First)
Goal: Ship features and infrastructure fast, with the right guardrails
What I Actually Do:
- Implement backend, frontend, and infra leveraging AI
- Set up CI/CD and environment promotion
- Integrate AI components (bots, RAG) directly into your product
What You See:
- Shipping cadence: features landing in staging/production
- Short, regular updates in language you understand
- Demos you can click through, not just screenshots
Key Deliverables:
- Running application in staging and then production
- Automated workflows and pipelines
- Initial documentation
4. Harden, Optimize & Scale
Goal: Make the system boringly reliable and cost-efficient
What I Actually Do:
- Optimize hot paths, database usage, and caching
- Tighten networking, SSO, logging, and alerting
- Tune your infrastructure for cost
What You See:
- Fewer incidents and support tickets
- Performance improvements visible to your team
- A clear before/after view of costs
Key Deliverables:
- Performance and reliability report
- Cost optimization summary
- Alerting setup tuned to real-world usage
5. Handover & Training
Goal: Ensure you can run the system confidently with or without me
What I Actually Do:
- Prepare documentation and runbooks your team can actually use
- Train your internal developers on the stack
- Optionally stay on as a fractional partner
What You See:
- No black boxes: you understand how things are deployed
- Your team starts to own parts of the system
- A clear path for continued collaboration
Key Deliverables:
- Handover docs and runbooks
- Architecture playbooks
- Optional ongoing retainer agreement
TECHNOLOGIES
I use a tight, battle-tested stack that lets you move fast now and stay lean later. You own it. You can keep running it without me.
Backend:
Super-optimized backend, built to be fast, small, and resilient
- Quarkus-based Java backends (native compiled for speed)
- Back-end for Front-end (BFF) patterns for clear API boundaries
- Mail sending automation with observability
- Cloud Native Postgres with automated backups
- Redis caching strategies
- Markdown content management
- Other framework and languages available on request
Infrastructure:
Production-ready cloud you actually own
Stack Components:
- Terraform for infrastructure as code
- Helm charts for repeatable deployments
- Kubernetes with Kong + Cilium for secure networking
- Authentik SSO as Identity Provider (IdP)
- Grafana + Prometheus + Loki (Full Observability)
- Self-hosted Mailu & S3-compatible storage
- CloudNativePG (Postgres) & Redis
Benefits:
- You are not locked into a single cloud vendor
- You avoid unnecessary recurring SaaS costs
- Everything is operable by a small team
Security & Reliability:
Systems built as if failure is the norm, not the exception
- Least-privilege network policies and API gateways
- Secure defaults and role-based access
- Architectures built to withstand network/node failures
Frontend:
Dynamic, responsive interfaces that feel native and ship fast
- Quasar on Vue 3 for a robust UI (SPA, SSR, PWA)
- Component-driven design so your product can evolve
- Mobile-ready from the first deploy
Automation & Workflows:
Orchestrated workflows instead of fragile scripts
- Self-hosted Jenkins for flexible CI/CD pipelines
- Self-hosted n8n for business process orchestration
- CI/CD pipelines from commit to deployment
- Automated backups and housekeeping
- Tilt for development in real Kubernetes environments
Payment Models Accepted:
Flexible options for serious projects
- Standard contracts and invoicing
- Partial equity arrangements for high-potential projects
- Crypto payments for aligned projects
SESSION FORMATS
Project-Based Engagement
Clear scope, clear price, clear outcome
Best For:
- New MVPs and greenfield products
- Infrastructure upgrades
- AI feature development
How It Works:
- We define the target outcome and constraints
- I propose architecture and a capped budget
- We ship in phases with demos
Fractional Wolf (Retainer)
A senior partner embedded in your operation, without a full-time hire
Best For:
- CTOs with a growing or stuck team
- Agencies needing ongoing senior oversight
- Companies evolving from MVP to mature platform
How It Works:
- We agree on a fixed level of involvement
- I handle architecture, hard problems, and reviews
- You get predictable availability and a trusted technical voice
Architecture & Cloud Review
A focused audit of your stack, with concrete fixes
Best For:
- Teams worried about reliability or cloud costs
- Founders preparing for a major launch
- Hiring leads needing a second opinion
How It Works:
- You give me access to code/infra/metrics
- I perform a deep review (experience + AI analysis)
- You receive a prioritized action plan
Emergency Fix / Incident Response
When your platform is on fire and you need it stable yesterday
Best For:
- Critical outages impacting revenue
- Production bugs internal teams cannot resolve
- Cloud bills spiraling out of control
How It Works:
- Immediate access via emergency engagement
- I stabilize, then trace root causes
- You get a fix and a report to prevent repeats
Tooling & Collaboration Stack
Visible progress, traceable decisions, and zero bureaucracy.
Project Management:
- Your existing tools (Jira, Linear) or lightweight boards if starting from scratch
Communication:
- Asynchronous-first: email/chat for routine updates
- Scheduled calls for high-impact discussions
- Short, regular written updates
Tracking & Observability:
- Dashboards in Grafana for system health at a glance
- Logs/metrics in Loki/Prometheus for deep troubleshooting
- Actionable alerts via email/chat
Documentation:
- Clear architecture overviews
- Runbooks for deployments/incidents
- Developer onboarding docs
DevOps Pipeline:
- Jenkins-based workflows
- CI/CD tailored to your risk tolerance
- Automated checks where they deliver value
PRICING
You’re hiring a senior partner, not a task-doer. Pricing reflects the value of shipping real outcomes—faster releases, lower cloud bills, more reliable systems.
Hourly / Time-Based
For exploration and audits
- Senior works billed hourly
- Best for short audits or emergency fixes
- Tracked and reported clearly
Project-Based Fees
Tied to a clear outcome
- Scope and deliverables defined up front
- Ideal for MVP builds or infra upgrades
- Performance-based options available
Monthly Retainer
Reserved capacity & partnership
- Fixed monthly fee for consistent involvement
- Priority support and guidance
- Best for growing teams needing a technical partner
Hybrid Compensation
Aligned incentives
- Partial equity for high-potential projects
- Crypto payments where it makes business sense
- Structured to keep incentives aligned
Guidelines:
- Every engagement starts with a triage call to understand goals
- Clear proposal before we start: scope, responsibilities, success metrics
- No surprise invoices
If You’re Serious About Shipping, Let’s Talk
Whether you’re upgrading a fragile MVP or launching a new product, you don’t need more noise—you need a partner who will own the outcome.
I work with a small number of clients to stay hands-on. Reach out before your next fire starts.