Turn the expensive, manual parts of your business into proprietary software that helps you do more, without working harder or adding another generic SaaS tool.
Fully booked until 2027
See what we buildProprietary
Software only your business has
Senior-led
The engineer you talk to builds it
You own it
Source code, data and IP
Build or buy
We tell you which, honestly
Whether you run a team or run the business yourself, a few workflows quietly set the ceiling on capacity and margin.
01
Complex quotes, research, reporting and document processing consume expensive expert time. The people doing it are the people you can least afford to tie up.
02
The business can grow, but every step up in revenue seems to need another hire, or more of your own hours, to carry it.
03
The company runs on a collection of generic SaaS, spreadsheets, email threads and people's memories. None of it was built around your process.
04
The judgment that makes the business good lives in the heads of founders and experienced staff. It is hard to scale and easy to lose.
Examples of the kind of systems we build. Each one is worth building because the workflow is specific to the company.
Recruitment
01
Sales operations
02
Sales
03
Knowledge
04
Also common
Client operations systems that replace manual onboarding, reporting, coordination and follow-up with software built around how the company actually delivers.
If an off-the-shelf product solves the problem well, use it. Accounting, email, payroll and a hundred other things are commodities, and the right move is to buy them.
GradientWork is for the parts of a business that generic software cannot capture: your process, your expertise, your data and the judgment that makes you better than the competition.
Generic SaaS is built for thousands of companies. We build the software that only needs to make one business dramatically better.
Why now
That is why most businesses settled for generic tools and worked around them.
AI-assisted engineering has changed the economics. A small, senior team using modern development tools can now build sophisticated, well-engineered systems that once needed a department.
AI is how we build with more leverage. What you buy is better software and a better business outcome.
01
We map how the work happens today, who does it, and what it costs. Then we decide together whether software is worth building at all.
02
One workflow, done properly, before anything else. You see working software early and steer it while it is cheap to change.
03
We deploy it, keep it running and improve it as the business changes. You own the code, the data and the advantage.
GradientWork is run by Owain Lewis, a principal AI engineer and former Director of Engineering with 20 years of experience building professional software and leading engineering teams. He still builds software personally, every week.
Owain has worked alongside engineers from Amazon, Google, Netflix, Microsoft and Oracle. Recent work includes lead research systems for recruitment agencies, customer support assistants and content production tools. You work directly with him from the first conversation through to running software in production. No sales handoff, account manager or agency layers.
Start with the workflow, not the technology. If it is expensive, repetitive and specific to how your business operates, it is usually a strong candidate. If a good off-the-shelf product already does the job, we will tell you to buy it.
Internal software built around one valuable workflow: quoting and pricing engines, candidate and lead intelligence, research and knowledge systems, client operations and reporting tools. The common thread is a process that generic software handles badly.
Where it helps the outcome. Some systems use AI to research, draft, classify or match. Others are straightforward applications and integrations. AI is also central to how we build, which is what makes bespoke software economical. It is never the point of the product.
We agree the first release, its scope and its price before work begins. If the problem is too broad, we cut it back to the smallest system that changes the outcome, or agree that a build is not the right move yet.
You do. Source code, data and documentation are yours. Our preferred model is to keep hosting, maintaining and improving it for you, but nothing locks you in.
No. A clear description of how the work happens today and what it costs you is enough. Working out what to build is part of the job.
We're focused on existing client projects and aren't taking on new projects or discovery calls at the moment.