DataRail Consulting

Consulting

Software that ships, from people who still write it.

A computer science background and over a decade of building things. We take on work for small businesses, startups and internal teams who need something built properly and would rather not manage an agency to get it.

The fastest way to judge whether that's true is to look around this site. Every page on it — the booking systems, the twice-daily data feed, the browser-based firmware emulator — was designed, built, tested and deployed the same way we'd work on yours.

Book an intro call See the work

Services

Four things, done properly.

Each of these is something already running on this domain, not a capability listed because it sounded good. Follow the link under any of them.

01

Web presence & site builds

Fast, hand-built sites for businesses whose entire online presence is a social page. Booking forms, availability calendars, galleries, real accessibility — no CMS to maintain and no monthly platform fee.

Static hosting means nothing to patch and nothing to go down at 2am.

Built: Heather's Face Paint · SVDP Escanaba
02

Automation & data feeds

Getting data in, cleaned, deduplicated and on a schedule without anyone babysitting it. Scrapers, API pipelines, and the deployment plumbing that puts the result in front of people automatically.

Written to fail loudly and to never publish a blank page when a source goes down.

Built: the events board, refreshed twice daily
03

AI integration & agent workflows

Putting models into workflows that actually run, rather than a demo that impresses once. Where AI genuinely helps, where a plain script is cheaper and better, and how to tell the difference before you spend money.

Includes the unglamorous half: cost control, failure handling, and what happens when the model is wrong.

Built: the DataRail campaign itself
04

Embedded & device software

Software for hardware that doesn't have it yet. Firmware-adjacent work, device interoperability, and getting native code running in a browser via WebAssembly when that's the shortest path to a demo.

For when the hardware can clearly do more than its software allows.

Built: Flipper Zero emulator · Tandem

Work

All of it is on this domain, and all of it is live.

No case study PDFs and no screenshots of things you can't open. Click any of these and use it.

Heather's Face Paint /HFP A business with no presence beyond a Facebook page. Now has a booking form, an availability calendar that expires its own past dates, and a gallery that hides anything not yet uploaded. No backend, no monthly fee. The events board /events A live listings feed rebuilt twice a day from an external API, filtered and deduplicated, deployed automatically. Guards against publishing an empty board if a source fails. Flipper Zero emulator /flipperzero The firmware's app-facing API reimplemented against a canvas so real device apps run in a browser, no hardware required. C compiled to WebAssembly. Tandem Design /deck/LegionGo A device interoperability platform worked out in the open, including the risk that could sink it and the measurements not yet taken. An example of how we document a system before building it. Bertoni Gelato Concept · not affiliated /gelato A full four-page site built unsolicited as a demonstration of scope and speed. Labelled as a concept on the page itself — it is not a commission and implies no relationship. Syracuse city guide /syracuse Long-form content with real typography, a custom tabbed interface, and a hidden interaction for anyone who finds it. Research-heavy and sourced.

How it works

An intro call first, and it costs nothing.

We'd rather spend thirty minutes finding out we're the wrong fit than take work that doesn't suit either of us.

Intro call — free, about 30 minutes

What you're trying to do and what's in the way. If someone else is a better fit, or you don't need anyone, we'll say so on the call.

A written scope and a fixed quote

What gets built, what doesn't, what it costs and roughly how long. In writing before any money moves, so there is nothing to argue about later.

Build, in the open

You see progress as it happens rather than at a reveal. Changes of mind are normal; anything that moves the scope gets re-quoted rather than absorbed silently.

Handover you actually own

The code, the hosting and the accounts are yours. No proprietary platform, no hostage situation. If you never speak to us again it keeps working.

On price. We don't publish rates, because a number without the problem attached is meaningless — the same request can be a two-day job or a two-month one. You'll get a fixed quote in writing after the call, and you're free to walk away from it.

Straight answers

What we're not the right fit for.

Every consultancy claims to do everything. Here's where we'd send you elsewhere.

Big-team programmes

If the work needs six people in parallel and a delivery manager, we're the wrong shape. We take work we can do properly at the size we are.

Regulated systems

Medical devices, payments infrastructure, anything where a compliance auditor is involved. That needs a firm that carries the relevant certifications.

Rescuing a codebase blind

We'll happily look at existing code, but not quote on it sight-unseen. Anyone who gives you a number before reading it is guessing.

Ongoing 24/7 support

We build things designed not to need paging at 3am. If you need a staffed on-call rota, that's a different kind of supplier.

Start here

Book an intro call.

Tell us roughly what you're after. You'll get a reply with a couple of times, or an honest note saying we're not the right fit and who might be.

Opens your email app with everything filled in.