25+ years full-stack · data & AI · financial-services & compliance
Great technical co-founders are rare, expensive, and want equity before you've proven anything. Agencies bill by the hour and disappear at launch. Cheap offshore shops leave you with code nobody can maintain. There's a gap in the middle — and it's exactly where good ideas go to wait.
You need a working product to test the idea and win your first customers — without giving away half the company to get it.
Vibe-coded apps ship fast, then break in production. Roughly 45% of AI-generated code ships with common security flaws. Fast only helps if it holds.
The build is the easy half. Keeping it secure, patched and improving is where most projects quietly fall over. We build to run it.
One experienced pair of hands across strategy, build and run — the way a technical co-founder would work, without the equity or the hiring.
Proof of concept in 7 days, MVP in 2 weeks, a real platform in 4 weeks — then ongoing iterations and platform management. Web-responsive, architected to grow.
Inherited a no-code or vibe-coded app that's stalling? We make it secure, maintainable and ready to scale.
Practical AI and automation that removes manual work — with governance, not just a chatbot bolted on.
Build-vs-buy calls, architecture, and a roadmap tied to commercial outcomes — fractional CTO on tap.
Advice, lending and wealth tooling built by someone who knows the domain — and its compliance.
CPS 230-aware builds, operational visibility and AI governance for regulated businesses and their vendors.
Legacy running the business but slowing it down? Assessment, cloud-native re-architecture, and infrastructure management — migrated without breaking what already works.
Every one of these started as an idea and shipped as a real, live product. The ATS platform went from brief to delivery in two weeks.
Portfolio modelling for financial advisers and mortgage brokers — turning client data into decisions.
Independent mortgage rate scanning that keeps brokers and borrowers ahead of the market.
Free plain-English financial guidance for everyday Australians — plus an AI-powered adviser platform that drafts compliant Statements of Advice in around 14 minutes.
A full applicant tracking platform, delivered end to end in a fortnight as proof of velocity.
Part of the AdviceGenie adviser platform — turning static Statement of Advice PDFs into live, interactive, mobile-friendly documents.
Bring the idea. We'll show you a clickable version of it within days.
Start a build →
David is the founder of Cognify Labs and the person you'll actually work with — not a sales team, and not a junior handed your project after the pitch. Across 25+ years in technology, finance and telco he's designed, built and shipped production systems for financial-services firms, startups and enterprises, and seen exactly where projects fall over.
He started Cognify Labs to be the senior technical partner most founders can't find: someone who can take an idea to a live, secure product in weeks, then stay to keep it running. No hand-offs, no equity grab — just experienced engineering and a straight answer about what your idea genuinely needs.
Beyond rapid builds, David has spent 25+ years managing enterprise platforms — performance, security, processes and finance — and over a decade designing, building, deploying and managing cloud-native applications. That depth is what lets Cognify Labs take on legacy modernisation and regulated infrastructure work, not just new builds.
Anyone can ship a demo now. The rare part is a product that's secure, maintainable and still yours a year later.
— The Cognify Labs thesis
You've validated the idea and want a real product to raise on or sell — not a pitch deck and a maybe.
You need senior technical leadership and AI direction, but can't justify a full-time CTO yet.
Advice, lending and wealth businesses that need tooling built with the domain and compliance in mind.
Running critical platforms on ageing infrastructure. You need modernisation and operational resilience delivered by someone who's carried enterprise platform accountability before — not a vendor learning on the job.
Yes — a clickable wireframe with realistic mock data, so you can see and test the idea before committing to a full build, typically within 7 days. The MVP follows in around 2 weeks, and a production-ready platform in around 4 weeks, depending on scope — then we stay on for ongoing iterations and platform management.
No. This works on straightforward commercial terms. You get the senior partnership of a technical co-founder while keeping full ownership of your company and your code.
The focus is fully web-responsive applications that work beautifully on phone, tablet and desktop. That covers the large majority of products founders need to launch and validate. Native mobile isn't the specialty — and I'll tell you plainly if that's what your idea genuinely requires.
Often yes. Apps built quickly on AI tools tend to hit walls around security, data and maintainability. We assess what you have, then rebuild the shaky foundations into something production-grade you can scale on and raise on.
That's the point of Build + Run. We keep the product patched, secure and improving, and give you a console so you can see how it's performing. The build is only the first half of the job.
Bring the idea, the half-built app, or just the problem. In half an hour you'll leave with a clear read on what it takes to build, what it costs, and how fast it can be live.
cognifylabs.ai · Sydney, Australia
