The Stories
Building software,
industry by industry
Long-form field notes on what it takes to build durable software in the industries that cannot afford to get it wrong. Original, opinionated, and written by the people who build it.
Software That Outlives the Cycle
Most software dies quietly, right before the company does. We build the kind that doesn't.
Building Software for the Companies Inside Companies
A large company is a swarm of smaller legal fictions. Software has to keep every one of them straight.
The Software Behind Starting a Company
Forming a company should feel like magic. Behind the curtain it is a very fussy piece of software.
Commerce Software That Survives the Brand
Your favourite defunct brand's t-shirt outlived the company. Your commerce stack should be that durable.
The Software Quietly Guarding Everyone's Retirement
A pension is a fifty-year promise. The software that keeps it has to be at least that patient.
Software for Passing It All On
Wealth does not simply vanish when someone dies. It flows, and something has to keep track of the current.
Banking Software for the Day It All Breaks
In banking, every quiet Tuesday is one bad assumption away from a very loud one.
Streaming Software That Doesn't Get Left Behind
One giant missed the shift to streaming and became a punchline. The software you build now decides your version of that story.
Building Software That Ships When the Rocket Does
Aerospace software has no retry button once the payload leaves the pad, so we build for the failure you cannot patch.
Airline Software That Stays Up When Everything Else Delays
An airline is a logistics company with wings, and the software is the part that decides whether a storm ruins one flight or a hundred.
Game Backends That Ship Fast and Never Fall Over
A game is a live service with a scoreboard, and the software that survives launch day is the software nobody in the party ever notices.
The Software That Actually Builds a Chip
A chip is designed in software, made by software, and only physical for the brief moment it becomes a wafer.
Manufacturing Software That Knows What the Factory Is Doing
You cannot improve a factory you cannot see, and most factories are still guessing about what the machines are actually doing.
Commodities Trading Software Built for Real Money
In commodities the position is real, the margin is thin, and the software that gets the number wrong is the software that ends the firm.
Trust and Safety Software That Actually Protects the Marketplace
Every marketplace is a target the moment it has money and users, and the software that keeps it clean is the software that keeps it alive.
Retail Software That Unifies the Store and the App
Modern retail lives or dies on whether the store and the app agree about what you have and who the customer is.
Cosplay Cops, Special Ops, and the Software That Keeps Miners Alive
A century ago the West Virginia mine wars were fought with private guards and rifles; today the fight for worker safety is fought with sensors, data, and software that never sleeps.
RIP Docs: What the VICE Bankruptcy Teaches Media About Software
Media companies do not usually die from bad journalism; they die from fragile business software that could not adapt when the ad market turned.
Minisode: The Software Behind a Sold-Out Night
Owning a team or a venue is easy to fumble; running the software that gets fifty thousand people in, seated, fed, and home again is the hard part.
It's a Wonderful RIP Corp: Surviving the Peak-Season Rush
Every holiday season, retail software either becomes the hero of the story or the villain who cancelled Christmas, and the difference is all in the architecture.
2023 Corporate In Memoriam: The Year Software Sobered Up
2023 was the year the software industry stopped spending like the party would last forever and started asking what its platforms actually cost.
2024 Corporate In Memoriam: The Year AI Had to Ship
2024 was the year the industry stopped talking about AI in slide decks and had to make it survive contact with real users and real uptime.
2025 Corporate In Memorium: The Year Software Grew Agents
2025 was the year software stopped just answering questions and started taking actions, which made every old rule about reliability suddenly matter a great deal more.