You've got a prototype. Let's finish it.

The wall

Where prototypes stall

A prototype has one job, which is to show the idea works. A product has a longer list. Somewhere to live that isn't your laptop. Logins that can't be walked around. Payments that keep working when a card expires. A database that survives its first thousand users. And Apple's review team, who reject apps for reasons that only make sense on the third read.

The tools don't warn you about any of this. Audits of AI-generated apps keep finding the same things, keys left sitting in the code, data anyone can read, a happy path and nothing else. None of that means your prototype was a mistake. It got you the proof, and probably some early fans. It's just not the finished thing yet.

And rough is the normal starting point. I'm not going to judge the code. I've seen what weekend prototypes look like, mine included.

What I do

I take it the rest of the way

Sometimes that means hardening what you've already built. Sometimes it means rebuilding it properly with your prototype as the spec, which is quicker than it sounds, because the hard thinking is already in there. We work out which honestly, together, before any money changes hands.

The work covers security, hosting, accounts, payments, App Store submission, and the design details that make people stay. You end up with a product that's live, that you own outright, and that doesn't fall over when someone you've never met starts using it at 2am. Afterwards I stay on to maintain it, or hand over clean documentation if you'd rather run it yourself.

Proof

I've done this nine times, mostly to myself

Every product on this site started as a scrappy prototype of mine, and got finished the same way I'd finish yours. GutGuard went from an idea to a live App Store app with its own Go backend and an AI pipeline. Tiny Story Mill runs on web and iOS. Parts does real-time voice. Have a look around, everything is live and tappable.

There's also a one-page write-up of how I check products before they ship, drawn from those nine builds. It's called the last 30%. And if you want to see this stretch of the journey mid-flight, BuildDuh, a quoting app for builders, is standing at the App Store gate right now.

How it starts

A conversation, then something small

Tell me what you've built and where it's stuck. If I think I can help, we start with a small first step, usually a proper look through what exists and an honest list of what stands between it and real users. I'll tell you what anything costs before I start, and the first conversation costs nothing. Then we build. I keep the roster small, a few clients at a time, and I'll tell you straight if something isn't worth finishing.