We lead, you don't manage
A senior lead owns your plan, makes the calls and manages everyone who delivers it. You never have to manage a developer.
We get your business to its next stage.
Maybe the last dev team let you down, the tech bill keeps climbing, or the product can't keep up with the business. We work out what's holding you back and fix it with software, design, search or ads, whichever it takes. Senior people own the plan, you own the code, and every month you see what moved.
Proud to have worked with
The next stage
Where are you stuck?
The four we hear most. Whichever it is, the job is the same: find what’s in the way and fix it.
1
You've been let down by a dev team before
Missed deadlines, code nobody else can read, a supplier who holds the keys. With us the code sits in your repository from the first commit, every change is reviewed by a named senior developer, and more than one of us knows your project.
Find out more2
Your tech costs more every month and ships less
Compound needed more senior capacity, not a bigger team. One embedded developer shipped close to a thousand commits in eleven months, across three apps, and their CEO says their clients’ loyalty grew month on month.
Find out more3
The business is growing faster than the product
“We had muddled together a bunch of web forms and a basic website.” Decent Energy needed a brand and a platform that could scale. Two years on, they’ve been nominated for World’s Best Challenger Brand.
Find out more4
You’ve invested, and need the tech in safe hands
We put a senior lead into the company you’ve backed to own the technical plan. The code stays the company’s, the protections are written down, and progress is reported in the numbers a board asks about.
Find out moreHow we get you there
Whatever's in the way, we fix it
We don't decide what to sell you until we know what's holding you back. These are the tools, and most clients end up using more than one.
Growth partnership
SEO, PPC, analytics, creative and new features on one monthly plan, led by us. From £2,500 a month.
Find out moreBespoke software
Customer portals, internal systems and web applications built around how your business works. Fixed price, owned by you.
Find out moreMobile apps
iOS and Android apps, with the backend behind them built to the same standard.
Find out moreEmbedded developers
Senior developers in your team within weeks, two days a week or full time.
Find out moreDesign and branding
Logos, identity, tone of voice and guidelines from our in-house designers.
Find out moreWebsites and SEO
Websites built for search from day one, on a CMS you will actually use.
Find out moreAI-first, not AI-slop
The difference between using AI and being good with it
Anyone can paste a prompt and get code back. That's not what we sell.
Our developers work with AI all day, every day, and they've learned where it's brilliant and where it quietly lies to you. Every line it produces is reviewed by someone senior, tested before it ships, and written so the next person can understand it. When the thing we build for you uses AI itself, we design for cost from the start: what genuinely needs a model call, what can be worked out once and stored, what can be cached and reused. That is where token bills get out of hand, and it is where we have the scar tissue.
- Review gates on everything AI touches
- Tests written before the code, not after
- Developer AI tooling is a flat cost, included in your plan
- Your code is never used to train anything
the honest version
Our process
From hello to launch (and beyond)
Every project follows the same honest arc. No surprises, no jargon.
- 1
Discover the kettle goes on here
A good conversation and a decent brew. We get to know you, your customers, and what success actually looks like.
- 2
Design where it starts to feel like you
We turn your story into an identity: logo, colours, type, and a look that's unmistakably yours.
- 3
Build you own every line
We build it: fast, accessible and SEO-ready, on modern tech you own outright.
- 4
Grow the bit most agencies skip!
We stick around: measuring what matters, tweaking what doesn't, and helping you get seen.
Why clients keep us
Invaluable, not just another supplier
Most agencies sell hours and a queue of developers. We bring the judgement, deliver the work, and we're still there when it matters.
One partner joins the dots
Software, design, search and ads planned together, so the page, the ad that points at it and the report that shows it worked all come from one team.
Results you can show
A monthly report on what we did and what it moved, in the numbers your board and your investors ask about.
Protections written down
Non-solicitation, IP transfer on payment, a proper data processing agreement. Boring documents, deliberately, so nobody has to argue later.
people before profit
From our clients
What our clients say
Incredible, it has changed our company for the better and we will be working with Your Ikigai long into the future.
Ikigai has been such a huge support and integral part of our journey, they've supported junior developers onboarding, supported us architecturally and designed a market leading brand. They've really helped accelerate our business.
Good questions
Things people ask us
Straight answers, no small print.
Because the things that usually go wrong are written into how we work. The code lives in your repository from the first commit, not at handover. Every change is reviewed by a named senior developer and arrives with tests. More than one of us knows your project, so nobody holds it hostage, and if we ever part ways you keep the code, the designs and the documentation.
Yes. We can put a senior lead into the company to own the technical plan, or take on the build outright. The code belongs to the company, the paperwork covers IP, non-solicitation and data, and progress is reported in the numbers a board actually asks about.
A senior lead who owns your plan, our in-house designers, and specialists we've worked with for years, chosen and managed by us for each piece of work. There are no account managers, and you never manage a developer. We take on a small number of clients at a time, so the people who plan your work stay on it.
It means our developers work with AI in the loop by default, and they are good at it. Everything AI produces is reviewed and tested by a senior person before it ships. The tooling our developers use is a flat subscription we pay per developer, so it is included in your plan and never appears as a metered line on your invoice. And when the product we build for you uses AI itself, we design it so it is not calling a model every time it could store or reuse an answer instead.
Growth partnerships are £2,500 or £4,800 a month on a six-month term, covering SEO, analytics, creative, site care and, on the bigger plan, PPC and new features. Bespoke software starts with a two-week discovery sprint at £5,000, then a fixed price: web applications from £20,000 and mobile apps from £25,000. Websites start from £7,500. All prices are ex VAT, and the pricing page has the detail.
Usually within a couple of weeks. On the first call we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right fit, and what your first 30 days with us would look like.
Tell your lead. We'll change the plan, the focus or the people doing the work. Growth partnerships have a six-month minimum and builds are fixed price, and every term is written down where you can find it.
Modern, fast tech (we're partial to Laravel and Nuxt) with SEO baked in from day one, and you own everything: the code, the content, the accounts.
Start-ups are where we started, but most of our work now is for established businesses and scaling teams, in pensions, healthcare, energy and manufacturing among others. If you care about what you do, we'll get along.
Most live products move onto Care, at £1,250 a month with a six-month minimum, so the team that built it stays on to look after it. If you want it to grow as well, a Growth partnership covers the care plus SEO, analytics and the rest.
Get in touch
You've scrolled this far, so we should probably talk. Tell us what you're building and we'll get back to you quickly - the kettle's already on.
- Call
- Book a half hour
We read every one ourselves