gfirem.

Austin, Texas · Independent studio · 20+ years building tools

I turn operational chaos into tools that pay for themselves.

Hi, I'm Guillermo. I've been obsessed with building tools since I was a kid in front of a Windows 95 tower — that obsession is what pushed me into this career and what keeps me in it, 20+ years later. I work with one client at a time, scope is real before a line of code is written, and the price is agreed up front.

Book a discovery callWhatsApp megfirem@gmail.com
20+
Years building tools
1–3 wk
Average build window
Clear
No surprise invoices
Monthly
Care from day 1
Shopify·WordPress·React·Laravel·Node.js·MongoDB·GCP·AWS·Stripe·Vercel·Tailwind·Liquid·Shopify·WordPress·React·Laravel·Node.js·MongoDB·GCP·AWS·Stripe·Vercel·Tailwind·Liquid·

A note from the studio

Guillermo Figueroa Mesa at WordCamp Europe, Porto

Pictured: out on the water — the only place I let work wait.

Twenty-plus years of code, one stubborn habit: solve the puzzle in front of me.

I started writing software on a beige tower running Windows 95. Since then I've shipped desktop apps, mobile apps, Shopify stores, WordPress plugins, internal dashboards for agencies, Google Assistant experiments at Jam3, and full product builds for startups across the US, Europe and Latin America.

Most small businesses don't need an agency, a 12-week sprint, or a Notion full of Slack channels. They need one developer who can listen this week, scope the next, and pick up the phone when something needs a tweak.

That's what I do here, on my own time, outside of my agency — so the price stays honest, the relationship stays personal, and your product stays alive long after the launch screenshot.

I don't build software because it's trendy. I build it because solving the puzzle in front of me is the only thing that has held my attention for twenty-plus years. It's the reason I studied this career, and the reason I'm still in it.

React
Vue · Next.js
Node · PHP
Laravel · WooCommerce
Shopify
WordPress · Liquid
GCP · AWS
Mongo · MySQL

What I solve

Two problems. One human building the fix.

I keep the offer narrow on purpose. Every engagement is scoped and priced up front after a paid assessment, and every build comes with optional monthly care so your tool doesn't quietly rot six months later.

Track 01 · Customer-facing01

The website your business deserves — one that answers the phone when you can't.

Editorial custom sites that turn a visitor into a scheduled call, a booked event, or a paid order — while you're doing something else. Not templates. Not the same site your competitor already used.

  • A public site that captures leads while you sleep
  • Booking, WhatsApp, SMS or Calendly on the page
  • SEO you don't have to babysit
  • Optional self-edit admin so you don't need me for typos
From $3,780Talk to me →
Track 02 · Back-of-house02

The tool that stops your business from running on WhatsApp and memory.

Custom dashboards and admin portals that take the chaos out of your operation — orders, inventory, bookings, team handoffs. Built around how you already work, not how a SaaS wishes you did.

  • A private dashboard tailored to your daily flow
  • Talks to Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, your stack
  • Automations that replace copy-paste and manual updates
  • Role-based access so your team only sees what it should
From $6,650Talk to me →

How it works

A short, honest path from problem to live.

No discovery deck, no sprint zero, no "let me sync with my PM". Every project begins with a paid assessment so the scope is real before we write a single line of code.

  1. 01Step

    Assessment

    A paid 1–2 day audit (US$500) where I dive into your business, your stack and what you actually need built. You leave with a clear written read-out — yours to keep, even if we don't work together.

  2. 02Step

    Proposal

    A single, short doc grounded in the assessment: scope, deliverables, one number, one timeline. No retainers buried in PDFs, no change-order surprises later.

  3. 03Step

    Build

    I build it on your domain, share progress live, and ship to production. Average build window is 1–3 weeks. You don't pay anything more until you've seen it working.

  4. 04Step

    Care

    Pick a monthly care plan (or don't). Hosting, content tweaks, bug fixes, small new features — handled by the same person who built the thing.

Case studies · 2025

Every project is the whole system — the customer-facing surface and the private tool behind it.

Terry Barber — 1Terry Barber — 2Terry Barber — 3
Live site →
01 / 03
01 · Terry Barber
Touring artist · Countertenor · New Jersey · Performs worldwide

A touring artist's site that ships new work faster than the tour bus can move.

Self-edit admin from a phone, first-party analytics that flag improvements, and an on-site chat that catches bookings on the road.

Self-edit adminFirst-party analyticsChat + booking
Read the case studyVisit terry barber →
DGE Cigars ERP — 1DGE Cigars ERP — 2DGE Cigars ERP — 3
Private · Internal
01 / 03
02 · DGE Cigars ERP
Manufacturing · Orders · Fulfillment · Internal product · Santo Domingo ↔ US

An ERP that connects the storefront to the factory floor.

One order timeline from WooCommerce checkout to the cigar factory in Santo Domingo to the US customer's mailbox — no more copy-pasting into WhatsApp.

WooCommerce syncStatus timelineCarrier tracking
Read the case studyPrivate build · case study on request
Scalater Command Center — 1Scalater Command Center — 2Scalater Command Center — 3
Private · Internal
01 / 03
03 · Scalater Command Center
Operations · DORA · AI · Internal product · Austin

An internal command center for a software studio.

300+ active requests, 30 reusable process templates, DORA + custom metrics and an embedded AI assistant — three modes for engineers, ops and clients.

Custom + DORA metricsAI assistantClient + team modes
Read the case studyPrivate build · case study on request
López Hill — 1López Hill — 2López Hill — 3
Live site →
01 / 03
04 · López Hill
Boutique wedding venue · Spicewood, Texas

A public site, a lead chatbot and a private team portal.

Editorial venue site, a 24/7 chatbot that pre-qualifies couples, and a mobile-first team portal so the López family answers fewer messages and books more weddings.

Editorial siteLead chatbotTeam portal
Read the case studyVisit lópez hill →
Island Flavors — 1Island Flavors — 2Island Flavors — 3
Live site →
01 / 03
05 · Island Flavors
Latin-inspired catering · Austin, Texas

A bilingual storefront, a catering menu and a self-edit admin.

Bilingual landing, three-tier per-guest menus, a self-edit admin for dishes and a QR-code generator clients scan on event night.

Bilingual siteCatering menuQR + self-edit admin
Read the case studyVisit island flavors →

A handful of other projects live quietly inside companies — agencies, e-commerce stores, Web3 startups. Happy to share those on a call.

In their words

Quiet praise from the people I've actually shipped with.

Guille shipped our internal order tool in a week. Three years later it's still running, and he's still the person we text when something breaks.
Founder · Foodhuggers
USA
We needed someone who could think like a product person and code like a senior. We got both, in one human, with a clear price and no agency overhead.
Head of Product · UserDao
Web3 studio
He rebuilt our WooCommerce → BuddyPress flow in two days. What our previous developer estimated at six weeks.
CTO · ThemeKraft
Germany

Honest pricing

Start with an assessment. Then a real number.

Every engagement begins with a paid assessment so the scope is real before we commit. From there I send a single proposal with a starting number. Care is optional, monthly, and cancellable any time.

Assessment

$500
starting from · 1–2 days · keeps the deliverable

Anyone wanting an honest read of their problem, stack or business before committing

  • Discovery call + async questionnaire
  • Architecture, stack & cost review
  • Written scope + recommended next step
  • Yours to keep — even if we don't build together
  • Credited toward the build if you continue
Book the assessment →

Starter Site

from $3,780
starting from · delivered in 1–3 weeks

Restaurants, venues, studios, single-product stores

  • 4–6 page editorial site, custom designed
  • Not a Squarespace or Wix template
  • Lead capture (form, WhatsApp, SMS, Calendly)
  • On-page SEO + Google Business Profile setup
  • Optional admin / CMS for self-edits
Start a site →

Custom System

from $6,650
starting from · monthly care possible

Internal tools, dashboards, automations, ERPs

  • Bespoke admin / dashboards / portals
  • Integrations with Stripe, Shopify, your stack
  • Role-based access & audit logs
  • Live progress, deployed early
  • Optional monthly care from launch
Scope a system →

After launch

Monthly care, by the same hands that built it.

Three light tiers, scoped on a call after launch. Cancel with seven days' notice — no retainers, no exit fees.

Care · Light

Hosting, backups, security patches, up to 1h of small changes per month.

Care · Standard

Everything in Light plus up to 4h of new features or content per month.

Care · Studio

Priority Slack/WhatsApp channel plus up to 10h of work per month.

Honest answers

Things people ask before the call.

If your question isn't here, message me on WhatsApp — I usually answer same day.

Begin the conversation

Tell me about your problem. I'll tell you honestly if I can solve it.

Pick the channel you're fastest in. Discovery calls are free and there is no "funnel" on the other side — just me, with a notebook open.

Book a discovery call →Message on WhatsApp

Made with Emergent