Over two decades of shipping software, now with AI tools that make one person faster than a team. For startups without a technical cofounder and businesses that have outgrown their spreadsheets. Bring the problem in plain English. I'll take it from there.
You have a product, or a plan for one, and nobody in your corner to tell you whether the dev shop is right, whether what they built will hold up, or what to build next. Every technical decision lands on your desk.
Orders, quotes, scheduling, reports. Somebody on your team re-types the same numbers every week, and one wrong cell costs real money. The off-the-shelf software almost fits. You need the tool that actually fits.
Ongoing leadership, a tool built and handed over, or a first call to figure out which one fits.
A technical leader on your team, part time.
The spreadsheet, replaced by software that fits.
No pitch.
Walk me through your stack, your spreadsheets, and what's slow. I'll tell you what I'd fix first and roughly what it would take. You keep the answer whether or not we work together.
Get in touchSomething bigger, like a full product build or a stalled project that needs rescuing? Those happen too. Get in touch and we'll scope it together.
Most of my career has been spent in the room where business people and engineers talk past each other. I've been the engineer, the tech lead, and the one explaining to the CEO why the estimate doubled. I know what “it needs a few more sprints” actually means, and I can tell you in plain English whether it's true.
That translation is the real service. The code is how it gets delivered.
Piragua Consulting is me, Mike Hugo. I've spent my career building and running software: inside companies, for clients, and on products of my own. I've led engineering teams, sat in the budget meetings, and stayed close enough to the code to still write most of it myself.
I use AI coding tools every day. That's the practical reason one experienced person can now deliver what used to need a team, at a cost a small business can say yes to.
On the side, I build and run a couple of small products of my own: When Works For You, a group scheduling site, and Crescendo, fundraising for music programs. They keep me honest about what it takes to ship and keep something running.
Email me a few sentences about your business and what's getting in the way. I read every message myself and reply with a couple of times to talk.