About / Owner-led
One person.
10+ years
of experience.
I'm James Donnelly, a freelance developer in Manchester who started building websites in the early 2000s and has spent the last decade-plus shipping production software for startups, agencies, and FTSE 100 clients. Now I run engagements directly, with no agency layer in the way.
Experience
10+
Years building
Stack
6+
Frameworks deep
Reply
<24
Hours
Currently shipping · multi-tenant SaaS + lead-gen platforms
Why I do this
Senior delivery without the agency overhead.
I started building websites in the early 2000s. Dreamweaver, Flash, table layouts. The works. Pre-iPhone, pre-responsive design. I've watched the web evolve and I'm still here, shipping production code.
After more than a decade working with everyone from startups to FTSE 100 enterprises, I noticed a pattern: the businesses that needed senior development the most kept getting the worst deal.
Big agencies were too expensive and the actual work landed on a junior. Cheap freelancers ghosted after taking the deposit. What teams needed was someone in the middle — experienced enough to ship, small enough to care.
So that's the engagement I run now. A handful of clients at a time, no project managers, no handoffs, no scripts. Direct line from first call to launch. UK, EU, US clients, async-by-default. If a brief needs a specialist I bring in a trusted bench, but the work stays under one roof.
Experience / A decade-plus
Career, condensed.
Early 2000s
Started building websites
Dreamweaver, Flash, table layouts. Pre-iPhone, pre-responsive. Watched the web evolve from static HTML to today.
2010s
Agency contractor + product teams
Worked with startups through to FTSE 100 — Cinch, TransPerfect, 55 Redefined, Open Health, Your Parking Space. Vue, Nuxt, React, Next.js, Laravel, Node.
2020 onward
Remote-first contract work
UK, Europe, US clients. Async-by-default, written specs, Loom-over-Zoom. The way most teams should be working now.
Today
Solo, owner-led delivery
A handful of clients at a time. Direct line — no agencies, no PMs. Day-rate or fixed-scope. Reply within 24 hours.
What I offer
Nine services, one direct line.
Pick the engagement that fits the brief. The services hub has the full breakdown — these are the categories I cover.
How I work
Remote-first. Async by default.
Inspired by Remote and the way Basecamp ran a distributed team without burning anyone out. Meetings are expensive, writing is cheap, and momentum belongs to whoever can make a decision without a calendar invite.
01 / Specs
Specs before code
A short written spec covering problem, scope, and acceptance before anything gets built. Cuts rework, makes review easier, and means we never argue about what was agreed.
02 / Workstreams
Workstreams over standups
Active work lives in tickets and PRs with running notes. Async updates instead of daily standups, so deep work is the default and meetings only happen when they earn it.
03 / Loom > Zoom
Loom over meetings
Most reviews and walkthroughs go out as a 5-minute Loom you can watch at 2× when convenient. We jump on Meet / Zoom / Teams when the topic actually needs a conversation.
Channels / Tools
Slack
Async, threaded, no expectation of instant reply
Loom
PR walkthroughs, demos, design reviews
Google Meet / Zoom / Teams
Booked when conversation > writing
Linear / Jira / GitHub
Source of truth for the work
Notion / Docs
Specs, decision records, retros
The pitch
I write the code, talk to your team, and ship what we agreed. No agencies. No PMs. No surprises.
James Donnelly
Freelance developer · Manchester