A small, senior team that builds for South Africa as it is.
Who we are, how we work and what we refuse to compromise on.
- Based in
- Cape Town
- Team
- Small and senior
- Focus
- Custom software
- Model
- Design, build, run
Skytek builds software for businesses that have outgrown spreadsheets, WhatsApp groups and generic subscription tools.
That is the work we like most: taking a messy real-world process and turning it into something clear, fast and dependable. The team has shipped fintech, mobility, real estate and marketplace products, and has delivered for companies in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
We stay deliberately small and senior. You will not be handed off to a junior team after the sale, and you will never need a translator to understand our status updates.
The people you will work with.
Two of us, deliberately. The people you meet in the first call are the people who do the work.
Kieran Stroud
Founder and lead engineer
Engineering since 2022
Full-stack engineer building web and mobile products end to end, from interfaces to the APIs, pipelines and deployments behind them. Software engineer at Mandeville Digital alongside Skytek. Through Mandeville and Naveo Commerce, has worked on grocery commerce systems used by Co-op in the UK and Spar South Africa, including their production infrastructure.
- Focus
- Web and mobile products
- APIs and data migration
- Release pipelines and cloud
- AI in developer workflows
- Toolkit
- TypeScript, Python, Dart, React, Next.js, Flutter, Node.js, Django, PostgreSQL, Docker, AWS, GitHub Actions
- Experience
- 2025 to nowSoftware engineer, Mandeville Digital
- 2024Full-stack engineer, Anythink, United Kingdom
- 2023 to 2024Software developer, then full-stack engineer, Better Design
- 2022Python developer, Map2Tech
Jodi Kleyn
Operations and AI workflows
Operations since 2025
Runs operations and builds the systems behind them: AI assistants wired into inboxes and notes, lead pipelines that follow up on their own, and the data plumbing in between. Also ships the sites, copy and campaigns.
- Focus
- AI assistants for inbox and knowledge
- CRM and lead pipelines
- Workflow automation
- Content and paid social
- Toolkit
- Claude, Claude Code, Obsidian, Whisper, GoHighLevel, Zapier, Power Automate, Lovable, ClickUp, Canva
- Experience
- 2025 to nowExecutive personal assistant, Private engagement
- 2025Operations assistant, Vermaak Properties
A process you can see, with working software every two weeks.
Five stages. The plan on the sheet fills in as you scroll through them.
- 1
Discover
We start with your goals, constraints and the people who will use the software. Short, focused workshops and a clear written brief at the end.
- 2
Design
Journeys, wireframes and a clickable prototype. We test with real users before anything is built, which is the cheapest place to be wrong.
- 3
Build
Two-week sprints with a demo at the end of each one. You see working software early and steer priorities as you learn.
- 4
Launch
Staged rollout, monitoring in place, documentation and training done. Launch day should be uneventful.
- 5
Run
Retained support, security updates and a roadmap cadence. The team that built it stays accountable for it.
What we hold ourselves to.
- Plain language
- No jargon in proposals, estimates or status updates. If you cannot understand it, we have not finished explaining it.
- Ship, then improve
- Working software in weeks, not months. We would rather launch something small and learn than polish something nobody has used.
- Own the outcome
- We are accountable for the result, not just the code. That means saying no to features that will not move the numbers you care about.
- Built for here
- Load-shedding, patchy connectivity, a huge range of devices and cost-conscious users. We design for South Africa as it is.
Tell us what you are trying to build.
A short message is enough. We reply within one working day with honest next steps, and the first conversation costs nothing.