About
Zayn.
A developer and automation engineer who believes the best software is invisible — it just works, gets out of the way, and lets people do what they came to do.
Hi, I'm Zayn — I build the boring half of your software so the interesting half can ship.
I'm a one-person studio for founders who want a senior engineer in their corner without the overhead of an agency. Five years in, I've shipped 50+ projects spanning marketing sites, SaaS platforms, AI agents, and the messy in-between glue that holds modern businesses together.
Before going independent, I led engineering at a Series A fintech and consulted for two YC-backed startups. The lesson I took with me: most products don't fail because the engineering was wrong — they fail because the engineering took too long to find out. Speed of learning is the only edge that compounds.
So I optimize for that. Clear scope, weekly demos, working software in your hands within days. No black boxes, no surprise invoices, no slide decks where a Loom would do.
When I'm not at the keyboard, I'm reading more than I should about thermodynamics, brewing single-origin coffee with too much precision, and getting wrecked at chess online by people half my age.
Operating
Principles
Ship Weekly
If you can't see progress in seven days, the project is in trouble. Every engagement runs on weekly demos — working software, not status updates. Momentum is the cheapest asset a project has and the easiest to lose.
Write Less
The best code is the code I didn't write. Every line is a future bug, a future invoice, a future onboarding pain. I lean on platforms, off-the-shelf tools, and proven patterns — reserving custom work for the parts that make your product yours.
Hand Off Clean
You shouldn't need me forever. Every project ends with documentation a junior engineer can pick up, a stack your team can actually maintain, and an explicit list of what I would not do next. Endings are part of the deliverable.
How I
Think.
Boring is good.
Proven patterns, predictable dependencies, zero surprises at 2am. Novelty is a cost. I spend it only where it buys something real.
Ship, then improve.
A working V1 in the hands of users teaches more than six months of planning. I optimize for learning velocity, not theoretical perfection.
Your users are the real client.
I work for you. But I design for the people who'll actually use what we build. When those two goals conflict, I say so — early.
Clarity is the deliverable.
The best thing I can give you after a project isn't just working code — it's a system someone else can understand, maintain, and extend without me.
Journey
So Far
AI Automation Practice
Expanded the practice into AI-driven workflows. Currently shipping intelligent agents, internal tools, and document pipelines for two SaaS clients and a mid-market law firm. The fastest-growing part of the work.
Scaled the Solo Studio
Brought on two trusted collaborators (design + DevOps) as project partners. Doubled annual capacity without taking on overhead, and started accepting equity engagements with select founders.
Left the 9-to-5
Wrapped up a five-year run at a Series A fintech as a senior full-stack engineer. Set out solo with three clients lined up and an aggressive bet that working from anywhere with anyone would be more valuable than a title.
First Engineering Role
Joined a fast-growing fintech as employee #11. Shipped the payments rails, the merchant dashboard, three pivots, and learned what a Sunday-night-page actually feels like. The five-year crash course you can't buy.
Started Writing Code
Studied computer engineering. Wrote my first production code freelancing nights on Upwork. Built a regional logistics tracker that's somehow still in service. Discovered that finishing a thing matters more than starting twelve.
Stack &
Tooling
Frontend
- Next.js / React
- TypeScript
- Tailwind CSS
- Framer Motion
- Astro
- Vue / Nuxt
Backend
- Node.js / Bun
- Python / FastAPI
- Postgres / Supabase
- Redis
- tRPC / GraphQL
- Prisma / Drizzle
AI & Automation
- OpenAI / Anthropic
- LangChain / LangGraph
- Vercel AI SDK
- n8n / Zapier
- Pinecone / pgvector
- Custom Agents
Infra & Ops
- Vercel / Fly.io
- AWS (Lambda, S3, RDS)
- Docker
- GitHub Actions
- Sentry / Plausible
- Stripe / Lemon Squeezy
Currently
Working On
AI knowledge base
for a legal SaaS.
Document ingestion, retrieval, agent-assisted drafting. Six weeks in. Two to go.
Booking
two new engagements
starting July.
Ideal fit: founder-led SaaS, AI-curious teams, and studios that need a senior engineering hand.