Custom software without enterprise bloat
Plenty of agencies are built around long retainers. What you actually want is a live site, an app in the stores, and users adopting it.
Design and engineering share one backlog, so the visuals never drift away from what can realistically ship on time.
Most people who reach this page are companies evaluating software development companies. End-to-end software development for startups and growing teams, covering web, mobile, AI, and cloud platforms.
What you get
- Custom software platforms
- MVP to scale delivery
- AI-capable architecture
- Reliable remote collaboration
- One studio accountable for the result
- Design and engineering on the same schedule
- Support available after launch
How engagement works
As your software development company, we run a shared backlog, design reviews, and engineering sprints, and you keep one point of contact throughout.
- 01
Discover
Goals, constraints, data sources, and success metrics, all settled before we touch architecture or prompts. On software development projects we favour practical architecture over trendy defaults.
- 02
Design
System design, AI/tool boundaries, interface direction, and interaction prototypes. The work for teams in San Francisco stays tied to the outcome you asked for.
- 03
Build
Modern stack, clean architecture, evaluated AI behavior, and iterative demos you can react to. You see progress on the critical path every week.
- 04
Launch
Ship, monitor, harden, and keep improving models, tools, and product after go-live. Nothing here waits on a handover between separate teams.
How we build it, and why
The stack is chosen per project, not applied from a template. For software development company work these are the defaults, and the reason each one is on the list.
- TypeScript
- types across the whole stack, which catches the class of bug that only shows up in production
- Next.js
- server rendering and static generation in one framework, so marketing pages stay fast and app routes stay dynamic
- NestJS
- structure and dependency injection on the backend, which keeps a growing API from turning into a pile of route handlers
- Cloud
- managed infrastructure sized to the traffic you actually have
- AI
- model-backed features scoped to the parts of a product where they measurably help
What the first weeks look like
- Week 1
Scope and architecture
Users, data, integrations, and constraints, ending in a written plan for the software development that you approve before anyone opens an editor.
- Weeks 2-3
Design the critical path
The screens that carry the product, prototyped and clickable. Design and engineering review together, so nothing gets drawn that cannot ship.
- Weeks 4-8
Build in weekly slices
Every week ends with something on a real URL. custom software platforms lands early, because the rest of the plan depends on it working.
- Launch
Ship, measure, hand over
Release, monitoring, analytics, and a documented handover, so your team can carry it without calling us.
Weighing up your options
There are three realistic ways to get this built. Each is the right answer for someone.
A solo freelancer
Cheapest per hour and fine for a contained task. The risk on software development is breadth — one person covering design, backend, infrastructure, and launch usually means one of them is weak, and there is no cover when they are unavailable.
A local agency in San Francisco
Same timezone and a face to meet, which genuinely matters for some teams. You are also paying SF Bay Area expecting modern stacks and AI fluency. rates for the whole team including the layers that never touch your software development, and a local shortlist is a small shortlist.
Arcode
A small senior team. The people who scope the software development write the code, you get weekly demos instead of status decks, and the engagement ends when the thing is live and handed over.
Work we have shipped
Prism Goals
Frontend · Strapi CMS
Accountability platform with dashboards, weekly check-ins, admin tooling, and progress analytics.
Goal tracking product with Typeform check-ins, admin panel, and Strapi-backed content.
- · Goals and values dashboard
- · Weekly check-in integrations
- · Admin user management
- · Progress analytics
Next.js · TypeScript · Material UI · Strapi · Axios
Brain CMS
Frontend · Firebase · Analytics
Multi-module enterprise CMS with documents, calendars, video, and advanced analytics.
Content and operations system spanning enterprise modules with Firebase and rich media tooling.
- · Multi-module business domains
- · PDF and document management
- · Advanced charting suites
- · Calendar and media workflows
React · Redux Saga · Firebase · Chart.js · Video.js
Lengju Deildin
Realtime frontend · GraphQL
Live football league experience with sockets, GraphQL, and YouTube stream widgets.
Automated league app built at Stellar Stack with live scores, widgets, and stream integrations for higher fan engagement.
- · Realtime score updates
- · YouTube live widgets
- · GraphQL data layer
- · Automated league data views
React · GraphQL · Apollo · WebSockets · Firebase
Working with teams in San Francisco
SF Bay Area expecting modern stacks and AI fluency. We work with clients in San Francisco remotely and keep overlapping hours in PST/PDT. We usually collaborate in English.
How we work with San Francisco teams
San Francisco is on PT, which is the widest gap we work across. We hold one fixed call in your morning and run everything else in writing, so the time difference costs you a day at most on decisions.
What San Francisco clients usually need
Bay Area briefs are the most AI-heavy we see: agents with real tool access, RAG over internal knowledge, MCP servers connecting models to existing systems, and evaluation harnesses to prove any of it works.
Contracts, data, and compliance
Teams here expect modern defaults, so we work in TypeScript, ship through CI, and keep infrastructure reproducible. Expect direct technical conversation with whoever is writing the code.
