Craft
We sweat the details users feel but cannot name: 100-ms loads, accessible defaults, and empty states designed before launch.
About the Studio
A Studio Built Around Craft and Outcomes
We are engineers and designers who would rather ship one product used by millions than pitch ten projects nobody builds. Northstack has operated that way since 2017.
Our Story
Founded by Engineers Who Got Tired of Slideware Agencies
Northstack started in a London co-working space with three engineers and one belief: clients should leave every engagement with working software they own, not a binder of wireframes.
Nearly a decade later, we are a team of 48 across four hubs in London, Berlin, New York, and Singapore. We still do the work ourselves — senior engineers pair directly with your team, and the person in your kickoff writes production code in your repository.
Since 2023 we have focused the studio on one thesis: every app will soon be an AI app. Our job is to make that transition reliable, measurable, and genuinely useful for the people who use what we build.
Senior-only benchMedian engineer: 9 years of production experience.
Weekly releasesWorking software in your hands every seven days.
Safe by defaultEvals, least privilege, and GDPR on every AI feature.
Knowledge transfer includedYour engineers are stronger when we leave.
- 2017Founded in London
- 48Engineers & designers
- 4Global delivery hubs
- 87%Repeat-client rate
What We Value
Four Rules That Survive Deadline Pressure
Outcomes
We measure success in your metrics — activation, churn, cost per inference — not tickets closed or hours billed.
Transparency
Open repositories, shared dashboards, and a weekly demo. You always know exactly what state the product is in.
Curiosity
New models arrive monthly. We run an internal research lab so production decisions are tested, not tweeted.
Milestones
Nine Years, A Few Turning Points
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Three engineers, one room
Northstack is founded in Shoreditch, London, building mobile commerce apps for European retailers.
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Berlin studio opens
The team grows to 20 and expands into cloud platforms and fintech infrastructure.
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The AI pivot
We ship our first LLM product in production and reorganize every team around AI-native delivery.
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New York studio
Our third studio opens to serve North American clients, and the team reaches 48 people.
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Singapore hub & 14 million users
Our APAC hub in Singapore completes follow-the-sun coverage across three continents, and products built with us reach more than 14 million people every month.
Leadership
The People Accountable for Your Build
Elena Hartmann
Co-Founder & CEO
Ex-engineering director at two European unicorns. Leads client strategy.
Tomas Okafor
Co-Founder & CTO
Distributed systems and ML platform engineer; sets the technical bar.
Anika Verma
Head of AI
Runs the applied research lab and our eval-first delivery practice.
Jonas Brandt
Head of Design
Product designer for 60+ launches; owns accessibility and craft standards.
Careers
Build the Kind of Software You Would Want to Use
We hire senior engineers and designers who care about shipping. Remote-first across Europe and the US, with studios in three cities. Tell us what you want to work on.
See Open Roles
Remote-firstFollow-the-sun team spanning UTC−8 to UTC+10.
Learning budget€2,500 per year plus one research week.
Equity for everyoneEvery full-time role participates in the studio.
Prefer Talking to Reading?
Book a 30-minute technical intro call. No sales process — just two of our senior people and your hardest problem.
Book a Call