DEV.co
Columbus, OH · Custom Software + AI

Custom software for Columbus — built the AI-native way.

We pair senior engineers with an AI-accelerated delivery model to ship custom software for Columbus's insurance, fintech, and healthtech operators — without the fragile output that gives AI a bad name.

Senior-only engineering · AI-accelerated delivery · you own 100% of the code

AI changed the economics of custom software. We rebuilt our process around it.

Columbus is one of the fastest-growing insurance, fintech, and healthtech markets in the Midwest — anchored by Nationwide, Cardinal Health, CoverMyMeds (now Optum/RxSavings), JPMorgan's Columbus footprint, and a fast-growing B2B SaaS scene. Senior hires are six figures, months out, and picked over by Fortune-500 employers and the venture-backed challengers around them. AI changes the math, but only when senior people own the parts AI gets wrong.

On a Columbus insurance, fintech, or healthtech build, AI handles the repetitive 70% — schemas, scaffolding, CRUD, dashboards, glue. The 30% AI gets wrong is the part your bank examiner, QSA, or compliance team will absolutely catch: cardholder data accidentally landing in logs, claims-processing edge cases that fail at month-end, PHI access without audit trails, and integration with insurance core systems AI invents instead of reads. Raw AI output ships those silently.

We build for Columbus operators — insurance and claims platforms scaling toward audit, fintech and payments platforms shipping toward compliance, healthcare and rx-tech tools, B2B SaaS shipping into mid-market buyers, and modernization of decades-old enterprise stacks. Our model: AI handles scaffolding and the repetitive 70%; a senior engineer owns architecture, security review, and signs off on every change.

Show, don't tell

AI writes the first draft. A senior engineer signs off.

Every change runs through review for security, tests, and architecture before it ships — that review is the product.

delivery.tstypescript
const draft = await ai.generate(spec)          // minutes, not daysreview(draft, { security: true, tests: true, architecture: true })// ✗ rejected: claims-processing handler double-processes on retry → idempotency key + replay test// ✓ merged: PHI access reason capture on rx-tech tool, isolated cardholder-data zone with explicit boundary
Every change
AI velocity + human judgment
tests + security review built in
you own 100% of the result

On a Columbus insurance, fintech, or rx-tech build, the failure modes are non-idempotent claims handlers, missing PHI audit trails, and cardholder data in logs. Senior review catches them before a month-end run, HIPAA review, or QSA does.

What we build for Columbus companies.

Insurance

Insurance & claims platforms

Underwriting tools, claims automation, and broker portals for carriers and InsurTechs.

Fintech

Fintech & payments platforms

Customer-facing apps, ledgers, and risk pipelines for regulated, data-heavy products.

Healthcare

Healthcare & HIPAA-ready apps

Patient-facing portals, clinician tools, and care-coordination platforms built to HIPAA from day one.

Product

SaaS platforms

Multi-tenant products with auth, billing, and dashboards — MVP to scale.

AI

AI applications

Copilots, RAG, search, and agents grounded in your data, with guardrails and evals.

Internal

Internal tools & copilots

Operations tooling that replaces the spreadsheet-and-tribal-knowledge workflow.

Senior, on-shore, AI-accelerated

A senior team that moves at AI speed.

You work with senior engineers in Eastern Time who own architecture, regulated-environment quality, and integration with legacy systems — fitting into an Easton insurance-IT rhythm, a Short North SaaS standup, or a Polaris fintech PR review — not a junior pool with raw AI output bolted on.

Columbus's senior engineering pool is concentrated around Nationwide, Cardinal Health, JPMorgan, and the Optum/CoverMyMeds rxtech ecosystem — three-to-six months to hire and quietly poached by remote coastal roles. An AI-native team gets you shipping this week, flexes monthly, and doesn't need a downtown office.

Talk to an engineer

Traditional Columbus dev shop vs. AI-native.

Traditional AgencyDEV.co (AI-native)
Time to working softwareMonthsDays to weeks
CostFull senior rates, all hoursLower — AI removes the rote work
Code qualityGood (if senior)Same bar — every change reviewed
AI riskContained by senior review + tests
You own the codeUsuallyAlways — full repo on day one
Scales with youSlow to staff upFlex up or down monthly
2–3×
faster than traditional development
1 wk
to a working prototype
100%
code ownership at handoff
30 days
post-launch support included

Common questions from Columbus teams.

Do you work with Columbus companies?
Yes — we serve Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati companies with senior, on-shore engineers in Eastern Time. Most collaboration is remote-first, with on-site available for kickoffs and key milestones.
Do you work with insurance core systems and claims platforms?
Yes. We've built modern UIs and APIs on top of insurance core systems (Guidewire-adjacent and bespoke) and claims platforms. We architect for idempotency, exactly-once intent, and replay-safe handlers — and we treat your existing system-of-record as the source of truth.
Can you build for rx-tech, PBM, and pharmacy workflows?
Yes. We've worked alongside rx-tech and PBM-adjacent systems and architect for HIPAA from day one. We don't certify your compliance; we build code your compliance and validation teams can audit without rework.
Is AI-built software production-ready?
Yes — when a senior engineer reviews every output, adds tests, and hardens it. The horror stories come from shipping raw AI code unsupervised. We don't, and we support what we ship.
Will we own the code?
100%, from day one. We deliver to a repository you control — no proprietary platform, no lock-in.
How fast can we start?
Usually within days. A short scoping call defines the build, the timeline, and a fixed quote.
Can you work with our existing team?
Yes — we augment in-house teams, review their work, and set standards, or run the build end to end. We flex to how you work.

Let's build it — Columbus.

Tell us what you're shipping. We'll give you a senior engineer's read, an honest timeline, a fixed quote, and tell you whether AI-native is the right fit for your build.