Forward deployed engineering
I embed with your team, sit close to the actual problem, and ship against it. Contract engineering and fractional engineering leadership both live here.
Seattle, WA
One of a kind solution to one of a kind problem.
I build software for businesses whose real needs don't fit off-the-shelf products. The person who works out what you actually need is the same person who writes the code. Minimum handoff in between.
What I do
Systems nobody sells you
Operations software for the parts of a business that no vendor has modeled: perishable inventory, allocation under constant change, the workflow that lives in six spreadsheets and one person's head.
Engineering leadership
Hiring, delivery, and technical direction for teams that have outgrown improvising. Including teams distributed across inconvenient time zones.
How an engagement runs
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01
Talk
You tell me what is actually going wrong. I tell you whether I am the right person for it. If something you can already buy would solve it, I will say so and point you there.
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02
Investigate
Before anything gets designed, I go and learn how the business actually runs. Who touches what, where the workarounds are, which spreadsheet is load-bearing. This is the step most projects skip, and most failed projects trace back to it.
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03
Build
The person who did the investigating writes the code. You see working software every week, in an environment you can click around in. Not status decks.
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04
Hand over
Code your team can inherit, in your repository, documented. I can keep running it or step back entirely. Both are normal endings.
What that has looked like
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~$8M/yr
Distribution operation running on a platform I architected and shipped as the founding technical hire.
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5 years
One system, two generations. Re-platformed live, in phases, with the production database carried forward rather than cut over.
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0 → 6
Built the engineering organization from nothing as sole hiring manager, managed remotely across a 16-hour difference.
Ruby on Rails · React · TypeScript · PostgreSQL · AWS · Python. Bilingual in Japanese and English.
One person, start to finish
Hinata Creative is me, Taiga “Rio” Araki.
I spent five years as the founding technical hire at a B2B agricultural distribution company: designed the data model, built the platform their operation runs on, re-built it in place a few years later without a cutover, and hired and led the engineering team from nothing to six people. Before that I wrote full-stack software in Tokyo.
I moved to Seattle in 2022 and started Hinata Creative here in 2023. I work with one to three clients at a time. No project managers between you and me, no subcontractors you have never met. The person you talk to is the person who writes the code.
Hinata is named for Miyazaki, where I grew up. It means a sunny place.
Whether this is a fit
Worth a conversation
- Your operational reality doesn't fit what SaaS sells to the median customer.
- You want someone who will investigate the business before designing anything.
- One person who understands the domain and writes the code beats an agency's coordination overhead.
- You would rather be told the truth than managed.
Probably not
- An existing product would serve you better. If it fits, I will tell you to go buy it.
- You want a spec implemented with no access to the problem behind it.
- You need a body to fill a seat.
- The relationship only works adversarially.
Common questions
What if an off-the-shelf product already does what we need?
Then buy it, and I will tell you that on the first call. Custom software is the right answer when your operational reality does not fit what a vendor built for the median customer. It is an expensive answer to any other question.
How is this different from hiring an agency?
An agency puts a layer between the person who understands your problem and the person who writes the code. That handoff is where the understanding leaks out. Here they are the same person, so there is no handoff to lose anything in. The tradeoff is real: one person has one person's capacity, which is why I work with one to three clients at a time.
How is this different from a contractor through a staffing firm?
A staffing placement is generally handed a ticket and asked to implement it. I need access to the problem behind the ticket, because diagnosing that is most of the value. If you have a finished specification and want hands to type it, someone else is a better fit and cheaper.
Can you work alongside our existing engineers?
Yes, and that is often the best shape. I have spent five years leading a small engineering team, so embedding with one rather than around it is familiar. I can also review what your team has built, or help you hire.
Where are you based, and do you work remotely?
Seattle, Washington. Most of the work is remote, and I have run a distributed engineering team across a 16-hour time difference for years, so remote is the normal case rather than the compromise. In-person in the Puget Sound area when it helps.
Who owns the code?
You do. It lives in your repository, on your infrastructure, and it is written to be read by whoever comes next. If working with me ever ends, you should not need me in order to keep going.
What does it cost?
My rate is $110 an hour. What a whole engagement adds up to varies a lot, because the work does: a focused diagnostic is a different animal from an embedded build. You will get a real number after the first conversation, once I know what we are actually looking at. I would rather do that than sell you a package that does not match your problem.
Start a conversation
Tell me what is actually going wrong. If I am not the right person for it, I will say so and point you somewhere better. Two ways in — whichever you prefer.
Send a message here
Or email me directly
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