Software that serves the product.
Services / Software Development
Software for hardware products is a different discipline from building SaaS. The constraints are different — offline-first requirements, device sync, real-time data from sensors, update mechanisms that cannot brick a device in the field. A web developer who has never shipped a companion app or IoT backend will learn those constraints on your product's timeline.
We build software for hardware products. Companion apps, device dashboards, cloud backends, IoT data pipelines — all built with the firmware and hardware team in the same room. The device protocol is not a mystery. The data schema is not an afterthought. The update mechanism works because the firmware team designed both ends.
You have a hardware product that needs a companion app or operator interface. You are deploying IoT devices and need a backend to manage them and process their data. You have an existing software stack that was built for a prototype and is not ready for production or scale. You need a local-first application for a device that operates without reliable internet connectivity.
Software development at TBN runs alongside hardware and firmware — never after. The earlier the software team understands the device protocol and data model, the better the end-to-end architecture becomes.
We believe software serves the user, not the other way around. The interface should get out of the way. The operator's mental model is the map — the software is the road. When the software becomes the destination, something has gone wrong.
Practically: we start with the user's job to be done, not the framework. We add dependencies only when we cannot build the capability ourselves in reasonable time. Every dependency we add is a future maintenance burden — we treat it accordingly.
We choose the stack that fits the product, not the stack we are most comfortable with. Typically: React or SvelteKit for dashboards and web UIs, React Native or Flutter for companion apps, Node.js or Python for backends and data pipelines, SQLite or PostgreSQL for storage depending on deployment model. We do not impose a preferred stack on clients.
Selectively. We take software-only engagements where the product has a clear hardware context — IoT platforms, device management tools, companion apps for existing hardware. We do not typically take on pure SaaS builds unrelated to physical products.
Yes. We set up and manage cloud infrastructure for the products we build — deployment, monitoring, scaling, and security. We prefer minimal infrastructure footprints: the right-sized cloud for the actual data volume, not the architecture that looks impressive in a diagram.
Yes. Interface design is part of every software engagement. We do not hand off wireframes to a developer and call that design — our software team owns the UI decisions and implements them.
The Draper Signage project covers our software development approach — a platform built for simplicity first, with a clean separation between content scheduling and display management. Read the case study →
Consumer electronics architects. End-to-end.