PrototypeStart a project

Your idea,
working.

Prototype is a small rapid prototyping studio for software, based in Santa Monica. We take an idea to a real product in weeks, one fast iteration at a time.

The hard part was never the code.

AI made software cheap to write. Knowing what to build, and what to leave out, still isn't. That judgment is what you're hiring.

Picture a dry lakebed, white to the horizon. People drive out with things they built themselves: a sculpture you can climb, a car made into a ship. There's no brief, there's one hard date, and the thing has to run when it gets there.

That's our idea of a prototype. Not a mockup of the car. A car.

On the bench right now.

Some for ourselves, some for clients. Same bench.

Kaizu, 2026–present

Swift and WebKit

A quiet web browser for the Mac. Vertical tabs, a command bar that remembers, and real profiles that keep the parts of your life apart. Ads and trackers stay out. The name means sea chart.

MakoOk, 2026–present

Rust, Tauri and SQLite

Desktop software that turns a window order into the exact hardware it takes to build it. It works offline, reads the supplier's catalog from Excel, and sends orders back as Excel and PDF.

Connect the Dots, 2026–present

Rust, TypeScript and WebGL

An open map of knowledge. People, companies and events, linked by sourced claims, so every line shows the evidence behind it. Anyone can add one.

Version one of almost anything.

Rapid prototyping, but for software. A first version, an MVP if you must, that a founder can put in front of users, charge for, and build on.

  • Web apps.

    SaaS products, storefronts, dashboards and internal tools.

  • Mobile apps.

    iOS and Android, from one codebase when that makes sense.

  • Desktop software.

    Mac and Windows apps, including ones that work offline.

  • AI features.

    Chatbots, automation and smart analytics, built into the product.

No discovery phase. No retainers.

  1. We talk.

    You explain the idea. We ask the hard questions. Fifteen minutes, no pitch.

  2. We scope.

    What goes in the first version, and what doesn't. One flat price, one clear timeline.

  3. We ship.

    Something real you can put in people's hands. Not a demo. Then we change what's wrong and go around again.

  4. You own it.

    All of it, from the first day.

We've been in the room.

We've been founding engineers. We've co-founded companies and run their engineering as CTO. We've sat on both sides of the table, so we know what a first version needs to be. More importantly, we know what it doesn't.

The next dot is yours.

Tell us the idea. Fifteen minutes, no pitch, no proposal. If we're not the right fit, we'll say so.

Book a callhello@joinprototype.com