Custom software for Oakland — 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.
AI changed the economics of custom software. We rebuilt our process around it.
Oakland anchors the East Bay — home to the Port of Oakland, a deep B2B SaaS and equity-tech ecosystem, and a long bench of senior infrastructure and back-end engineers. Senior hires are top-of-market, equity-heavy, months out, and constantly being recruited by SF and the next AI wave. 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 Oakland and East Bay operators — port-logistics and intermodal platforms, eCommerce and marketplace tools, B2B SaaS shipping into mid-market and enterprise buyers, AI-first companies racing competitors, 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.
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.
const draft = await ai.generate(spec) // minutes, not daysreview(draft, { security: true, tests: true, architecture: true })// ✗ rejected: container-tracking webhook double-processes a shipment event on retry → idempotency key + replay test// ✓ merged: ordered-event reconstruction for late port events, retries with backoff and observability spansOn an Oakland port-logistics or SaaS build, the failure modes are non-idempotent tracking webhooks, late port events, and unbounded retry storms. Senior review catches them before a missed container or a runaway AWS bill does.
What we build for Oakland companies.
Supply-chain & ops platforms
Routing, dispatch, inventory, and visibility tools that replace clipboards and spreadsheets.
eCommerce & marketplaces
Storefronts, marketplaces, and merchant tools built for conversion and scale.
SaaS platforms
Multi-tenant products with auth, billing, and dashboards — MVP to scale.
Modernization
Move legacy systems onto a modern, maintainable stack — incrementally, no big-bang.
AI applications
Copilots, RAG, search, and agents grounded in your data, with guardrails and evals.
Internal tools & copilots
Operations tooling that replaces the spreadsheet-and-tribal-knowledge workflow.
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.
Oakland's senior engineers are part of the Bay-wide pool — top-of-band, equity-rich, and constantly being recruited by SF and the next AI startup. An AI-native team gets you shipping this week, ramps monthly, and doesn't compete with hyperscaler comp packages.
Talk to an engineerTraditional Oakland dev shop vs. AI-native.
| Traditional Agency | DEV.co (AI-native) | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to working software | Months | Days to weeks |
| Cost | Full senior rates, all hours | Lower — AI removes the rote work |
| Code quality | Good (if senior) | Same bar — every change reviewed |
| AI risk | — | Contained by senior review + tests |
| You own the code | Usually | Always — full repo on day one |
| Scales with you | Slow to staff up | Flex up or down monthly |
Common questions from Oakland teams.
Do you work with Oakland companies?
Do you work with port-logistics and high-volume intermodal systems?
Is AI-built software production-ready?
Will we own the code?
How fast can we start?
Can you work with our existing team?
Let's build it — Oakland.
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.