A music platform, concept to both app stores
Live · App Store and Google Playbaxstage.comVENTURE STUDIO
There are products wedonotwanttoonlybuild.
Most of what we do is client work, and we are good at it. But an agency ships and leaves, and some products are worth more than an invoice. When the idea, the founder and the timing line up, we stop being a supplier and become a partner: we take equity, we operate the thing, and we carry the same risk the founder does.
Two ventures so far, and one project early enough that calling it a venture would be getting ahead of ourselves.
Cross-border payments over WhatsApp
Live · moving real moneyommacash.comAn emotional-intelligence companion for children
Prototype · partnership being shapedTwo ways we show up
The same engineers, the same standards, a different relationship. Most work is the left column, and there is nothing second-class about it.
As your agency
- You own the company outright
- Scope, price and a date we are held to
- We hand over code, documentation and pipelines
- The engagement ends when you say it ends
- Our incentive is doing it well enough to be asked again
As your partner
- We take equity, so the outcome is shared
- No fixed end: we are in it while the company is
- We operate it: releases, infrastructure, incidents, stores
- We sit in the decisions, not only the tickets
- Our incentive is the company being worth something
If you are not sure which one you want, the first call is where that gets decided, and it is fine to decide on the agency.
THE SHORT VERSION
An agency gets paid when it ships. We get paid if the company works.
What taking a venture means here
Not an incubator badge on a website. Four concrete commitments, and we are held to all four.
Equity, not only invoices
We come in as the technical partner and take a stake, instead of part of the fee or alongside it. If the company does not work, neither does our upside.
We operate, not just deliver
Releases, infrastructure, incidents, app-store reviews, the unglamorous half. A venture is not handed over at launch; we are still the ones holding the pager.
Ideas of our own
Studio, the platform every project is delivered on, is a product we originated, funded and run. It is how we know what the first eighteen months of a company cost.
Through the raise
Technical due diligence, a data room that survives scrutiny, and an engineering story an investor can follow. The same work we do before our own rounds.
How a venture actually starts
Nobody signs anything in week one. This is the sequence every one of them has gone through, and most conversations stop at step two, which is the point of having a step two.
- 01
A conversation, not a pitch
What you are building, who it is for, what you have already tried. No deck required and no NDA theatre.
- 02
A technical read, written down
What it takes to build, what it costs to run, and what we think is wrong with the plan. You keep this whether or not anything else happens.
- 03
Terms, in the open
How much is cash and how much is equity, what each side commits to, and what happens if one of us wants out. There is no standard split; it depends on the stage and on how much of the build we carry.
- 04
We build it and we run it
Delivered on Studio like any other project, except we do not leave at launch. Infrastructure, releases, store submissions and the incidents belong to us too.
- 05
Then the raise
When the company goes looking for money, the technical half of that story is already written, reviewed and defensible.
The ones we have taken
Both are live, in production, with real users and real money moving. Neither is a case study we wrote after the fact.
Live · App Store and Google PlayBaxstage
A music platform, concept to both app stores
Visit the productbaxstage.comA mobile-first platform where artists and fans meet: discovery, social feeds, playlists, group and venue profiles, reviews, direct booking of musicians with escrow, subscriptions and creator tools. Built end to end: React Native apps, a NestJS backend, the cloud underneath, payments, moderation and the AI features, all launched on both stores.
Our role: originated the engineering, built every surface, and we run it: releases, infrastructure, store submissions and incidents.
What we built and run
- React Native apps for iOS and Android, published to both stores
- A NestJS backend on PostgreSQL, with the AWS infrastructure under it
- Money: subscriptions, booking escrow and artist payouts
- Moderation, notifications and the AI features on top
- Surfaces
- iOS, Android, web portal, admin
- We run
- Infra, releases, store reviews, on-call
- Money
- Subscriptions, booking escrow, payouts
Inside the app
The loops feed, where artists are found
Discover: recommended and emerging artists
An artist profile, bookable from the page
Music: releases, charts and what is trending
The player, with credits and liner notes
Browsing by genre and by what is near you
The artist QR that opens the public portal
Live · moving real moneyOmmaCash
Cross-border payments over WhatsApp
Visit the productommacash.comA remittance platform that bridges bank rails, Circle USDC and EVM networks, delivered entirely through a chat interface people already have open. Secure transaction pipelines, multi-ledger accounting, automated KYC and AML, and the internal treasury and compliance console the operation is run from.
Our role: the payment architecture and the compliance surface, built and operated as a partner rather than billed as a project.
What we built and run
- WhatsApp as the entire customer surface, with no app to install
- Bank rails, Circle USDC and EVM networks settled into one ledger
- Automated KYC and AML, with the audit trail a regulator asks for
- The internal treasury and compliance console the operation runs on
- Surfaces
- WhatsApp, treasury and compliance console
- Rails
- Banks, Circle USDC, EVM networks
- Controls
- Automated KYC and AML, multi-ledger books
Prototype · partnership being shaped
Matea
An emotional-intelligence companion for children
An emotional-intelligence companion for children, built with Creating Smiles. A daily emotional check-in, five emotion islands with a lesson path through each, a companion to talk to, and a calm mode where the gamification disappears entirely and the helplines appear. It is deliberately the part of this page with the least to show: a working prototype in testers’ hands, shipping to TestFlight and Play while the partnership is still being shaped.
We are calling it a project, not a venture, until it has earned the word.
What is in the prototype
- A daily emotional check-in
- Five emotion islands, each with a lesson path through it
- A companion to talk to
- A calm mode where the gamification disappears and the helplines appear
What makes us say yes, and what makes us say no
We take very few of these, and saying so plainly saves everyone a month.
We lean in when
- There is a founder who knows the problem better than we ever will
- The hard part is building it, not deciding to
- It can reach real users inside a year, not after a round
- The software is the company, not a brochure for it
We pass when
- What is wanted is cheap engineering dressed up as partnership
- Nobody on the founding side is accountable day to day
- It competes with a venture we already hold
- The plan only works if nothing goes wrong
The questions founders actually ask
Do you take equity instead of being paid?
Sometimes instead, more often alongside. There is no standard split: it moves with the stage of the company, how much of the build we carry, and how much cash is in the business. Whatever it is, it is written down before anyone starts.
Who owns the code in a venture?
The company does, exactly as in client work. Being a shareholder does not change who the repositories belong to.
Does my project have to become a venture to work with you?
No, and most do not. The engagement models on the home page are the ordinary way in, and they are the right answer for the large majority of what we build.
Will my project get second-class attention next to your own ventures?
It is the same team and the same delivery system, and your work is not queued behind ours. The honest answer to the conflict question is the fourth line of the "we pass when" list above: we do not take a venture that competes with one we already hold.
What if we want to buy you out later?
That is a normal outcome and it is handled in the terms, up front, rather than negotiated for the first time on a bad day.
If you are building something worth owning
Most conversations end as client work, and that is a fine outcome. A few do not. Either way the first call costs nothing and you will get a straight answer about which one this is.
Book a 30-min call