Who we are

We aren’t afraid of hard things.
For over a decade, we’ve operated as boutique team of expert makers, hand selecting just a few high quality projects each year. We’re fluent in 15+ programming languages. We ship complex web systems, native apps, cell phones, internet of things devices, server clusters.
We measure twice and cut once.
Our process is lean and nimble, optimized for shipping precision work quickly, with care. We build thoughtful, human-centric products through an open and transparent approach to timelines and estimates.
We’ll say what you need to hear.
Our developers hail from design, music, fashion & art backgrounds, bringing inherent taste to our work. We’re friendly, accountable, communicative and hospitable. Our best relationships that produce the most meaningful work.
We’re ready, willing, and able.
The best results stem from a wide array of expert perspectives and a tight feedback loop. We carefully pair the right people with the right clients, and realize projects to the highest degree, via our simple, lockstep process for realizing complex systems.

Client Success

How we think

Cutting (not bleeding) edge.
We use best in class technologies that are tried and true. We deliver industry standard, maintainable codebases that are easy to hire for. We avoid charlatans and obscure new things, soon to be defunct. We bring static designs to life with beauty and grace. We don’t sell snake oil, we deliver hardened business infrastructure.
Managing is a maker’s skill
We don’t employ project managers, but we love project management. Our craftspeople are trained as world class project managers. The people doing the work also send the emails, allowing us to bill clients less, and pay our team more.
Community > competition
We’re a part of garden3d, we contribute to Index Space. We run Manhattan’s Chinatown.js. Our studio is open source, we write a lot on Substack. We love to partner with external design studios as a dev shop of record. We source talent via our creative network. We aim to build products in a genre of their own, so we don’t need to compete.
Love enters through the eyes.
Our team is hired for their taste and skill, our client’s customers love our products. We’ve delivered hundreds of millions in business value. Our work has received critical acclaim. Our in-house design team is XXIX.

Testimonials

What really stood out was their ability to translate our very ‘non-technical’ ideas into solutions that balanced both function and beauty. They didn’t just execute, they interpreted, refined, and elevated.
I’m such a big design fan and feel like you guys are the designers I’ve been searching for since I started the brand… you guys continue to blow me away with your innovation and clever approach. The brand has grown 5x this year, we’re riding a wave of momentum right now.
…we’re really enjoying working with the team. Everything has been extremely well organized, thorough and smart. We’re feeling confident that this project will be a massive improvement to our current brand site and general ways of sharing brand insights + education with internal/external partners. So first, a huge thank you for bringing us this peace of mind!
The Modern Life team continues to love the work they did with you all and are marching forward booking some very real revenue.
I first wanted to say how incredible it has been working with you on the design of our new website system. At every single step in the process it has been an exceptional process, and we could not be happier with the end result.
Design work was beautiful and authentic. Deep listening from all members of the team. We were clearly heard and felt like true partners.
Fishbird
Thanks again for the incredibly beautiful and inspiring work! We appreciate how quickly you became versed in the Stripe brand, offering thoughtful provocations and pushes for how we could improve.
You understood what we were trying to achieve from day one. The process felt seamless, open, and collaborative… You excelled with your flexibility, creativity, openness, speed, and clarity.
Thea
Truly, incredible partners. I bring you guys up in every conversation last few days… Really couldn’t ask for anything else.
You have been the most organized, thoughtful and responsive design team I’ve ever worked with and have made this process smooth and even enjoyable.
I also wanted to thank you guys again for all of the great work. The brand has been a pleasure to work with in the product and various other applications — we continue to hear effusively positive feedback on the visual language from our early users!
For an 80k PR, 300+ files changed, over 400 commits in the time we had, wow. It’s insane how smooth our launch has been, and what a titanic effort you all have put into this work.
You were able to operate on a condensed timeline and exceed our expectations. We would work with them again and refer others to work with them.
The strategy was very clear from the work it’s self and didn’t need an explanation.
We’ve been having a lot of conversations internally lately about how much we appreciate your all’s creativity, diligence, responsiveness and patience, so I wanted to say thank you as we near the end of the year here.
We’ve absolutely loved working with you all as well and are extremely touched you all were so inspired by our drinks a couple weeks ago. Truly a star group of collaborators you all are.

What really stood out was their ability to translate our very ‘non-technical’ ideas into solutions that balanced both function and beauty. They didn’t just execute, they interpreted, refined, and elevated.
I’m such a big design fan and feel like you guys are the designers I’ve been searching for since I started the brand… you guys continue to blow me away with your innovation and clever approach. The brand has grown 5x this year, we’re riding a wave of momentum right now.
…we’re really enjoying working with the team. Everything has been extremely well organized, thorough and smart. We’re feeling confident that this project will be a massive improvement to our current brand site and general ways of sharing brand insights + education with internal/external partners. So first, a huge thank you for bringing us this peace of mind!
The Modern Life team continues to love the work they did with you all and are marching forward booking some very real revenue.
I first wanted to say how incredible it has been working with you on the design of our new website system. At every single step in the process it has been an exceptional process, and we could not be happier with the end result.
Design work was beautiful and authentic. Deep listening from all members of the team. We were clearly heard and felt like true partners.
Fishbird
Thanks again for the incredibly beautiful and inspiring work! We appreciate how quickly you became versed in the Stripe brand, offering thoughtful provocations and pushes for how we could improve.
You understood what we were trying to achieve from day one. The process felt seamless, open, and collaborative… You excelled with your flexibility, creativity, openness, speed, and clarity.
Thea
Truly, incredible partners. I bring you guys up in every conversation last few days… Really couldn’t ask for anything else.
You have been the most organized, thoughtful and responsive design team I’ve ever worked with and have made this process smooth and even enjoyable.
I also wanted to thank you guys again for all of the great work. The brand has been a pleasure to work with in the product and various other applications — we continue to hear effusively positive feedback on the visual language from our early users!
For an 80k PR, 300+ files changed, over 400 commits in the time we had, wow. It’s insane how smooth our launch has been, and what a titanic effort you all have put into this work.
You were able to operate on a condensed timeline and exceed our expectations. We would work with them again and refer others to work with them.
The strategy was very clear from the work it’s self and didn’t need an explanation.
We’ve been having a lot of conversations internally lately about how much we appreciate your all’s creativity, diligence, responsiveness and patience, so I wanted to say thank you as we near the end of the year here.
We’ve absolutely loved working with you all as well and are extremely touched you all were so inspired by our drinks a couple weeks ago. Truly a star group of collaborators you all are.

How we work

We have a no surprises policy. We do not obfuscate technical detail. Our estimates are granular and understandable, easy to tweak for timelines and budgets. We don’t miss.

Estimate

Storypoints Estimate

After our ballparks are accepted, and our contracts signed, we’ll interviewing stakeholders, researching best practices, understanding the landscape, and consolidating our findings in a Technical Blueprint.

Managing is a Maker’s Skill

Plan

Technical Blueprint

We’ll hone the cost of the project using the same methodology our developers use to plan their weeks. We review this with our clients, and brainstorm high level technical strategies to meet their budgets.

How we quote technology

Ship

Agile dev + weekly ships

We use agile processes to manage internal workstreams. We prefer Zenhub, but Linear is good too. Like clockwork we’ll issue our Weekly Ship, summarizing short term goals, completed workstreams, upcoming blockers, timelines and budgets.

What it’s like to work with us

QA. Test. Launch.

Rinse & repeat

As we near completion, we’ll test the product as a team, quickly iterating on client QA. When the project goes live, we’ll be ready and waiting to track bugs, implement customer feedback, issue hotfixes. We maintain projects as long as necessary, working as much or as little as our clients need.

How we bill

Developing software is complex. Our billing structure is simple. Pending seniority, we bill $175 to $295 p/hr. We don’t have a contractual minimum. We rarely take on projects ballparked at under 480 hours of work. We’re not a “Traditional Agency™”.

Ballpark Estimates

Align expectations

When we first meet, we’ll ask some questions and issue a rough ballpark for your project. If it’s still quite vague, that ballpark might be wide by 2x.

Contracts

Master Services Agreement

If your budget is somewhere in our ballpark, we’ll send you through our Master Services Agreement & Project Description to review.

Hourly Billing

Monthly in arrears

Once we’re signed, we’ll bill around 50 — 100 hours to develop a technical blueprint, hone our estimate with a 20% contingency for unknowns, and get your written approval to start coding full time.

Monthly Invoices

Net 15

As we work, we’ll record our hours, and at the start of each month, we’ll send an invoice (net 15) for the hours worked in the previous month.

Work with us

Are you interested in contracting / freelancing / permalancing with XXIX, Sanctuary Computer, Index or another garden3d project? We pay as generously as our client agreements allow, and we award our longer staying contributors with profit share & (eventually) worker ownership. You can join the network by filling out the form below!

Join our creative network

We take complex problems, demystify them, and make them beautiful.

Who we are

We aren’t afraid of hard things.

We measure twice and cut once.

We’ll say what you need to hear.

We’re ready, willing, and able.