DEV.co
Irvine, CA · Custom Software + AI

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

We pair senior engineers with an AI-accelerated delivery model to design, build, and ship custom software far faster than a traditional shop — without the fragile, unreviewed code 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.

Irvine anchors a strong corporate-HQ, B2B SaaS, and fintech market in Orange County — home to a long list of Fortune-500 and large-private headquarters and a fast-growing AI and venture-backed scene around UCI and the Spectrum. Senior hires are six figures, months out, and picked over by corporate employers and the venture-backed challengers around them. AI changes the math, but only when senior people own the parts AI gets wrong.

AI is genuinely good at the repetitive 70% of software work: scaffolding, boilerplate, CRUD, first-draft UI, test stubs, glue code. It is dangerously unreliable at the other 30%: architecture, security, edge cases, and knowing when its own output is wrong. Teams that ship raw AI code learn this in production.

We build for Irvine operators — Series-A through Series-C SaaS and AI companies, fintech and payments platforms scaling toward compliance, corporate-side internal tools, B2B SaaS shipping into mid-market and enterprise 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: tenant-scoped query missing the workspace_id filter → enforced + cross-tenant test added// ✓ merged: RBAC check on every internal endpoint, idempotency key on billing webhook
Every change
AI velocity + human judgment
tests + security review built in
you own 100% of the result

On an Irvine SaaS or fintech build, the failure modes are cross-tenant data leaks, missing RBAC, and webhook double-processing. Senior review catches them before your second customer or your SOC 2 audit does.

What we build for Irvine companies.

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.

Fintech

Fintech & payments platforms

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

Commerce

eCommerce & marketplaces

Storefronts, marketplaces, and merchant tools built for conversion and scale.

Internal

Internal tools & copilots

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

Web

Web apps & portals

Fast, custom applications and customer portals on a modern stack.

Senior, on-shore, AI-accelerated

A senior team that moves at AI speed.

You work with senior engineers who own architecture and quality — not a junior pool with raw AI output bolted on. We communicate in Pacific Time and integrate with your tools and cadence.

Irvine's senior engineering pool is concentrated around corporate HQs, UCI, and a growing venture-backed bench — three-to-six months to hire and steadily pulled into LA and remote roles. An AI-native team gets you shipping this week, flexes monthly, and doesn't need a Spectrum office.

Talk to an engineer

Traditional Irvine 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 Irvine teams.

Do you work with Irvine companies?
Yes — we serve Irvine, Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Long Beach companies with senior, on-shore engineers in Pacific Time. Most collaboration is remote-first, with on-site available for kickoffs and key milestones.
Can you ship an MVP fast enough for a venture round?
Yes — AI-native delivery is exactly the model for that. A scoping call, a fixed quote, a deployed prototype in roughly a week, then iterate with you through fundraising. Every change goes through senior review; you don't ship demo code that breaks when the lead investor logs in.
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 — Irvine.

Tell us what you're trying to ship. We'll give you an honest recommendation, a timeline, and a fixed quote — and tell you if AI-native is the right fit or not.