About
Original features,
honest rates.
Vagabond Burro exists to put genuinely new features in front of the people who need them, without the price tag that usually comes attached.
Why this exists
Software in most niches settles into one of two shapes. There are cheap tools that do the obvious thing badly, and there are capable tools priced for a procurement department. Neither of those is a law of nature. Both are downstream of overhead.
This company keeps its overhead small on purpose. No investors to satisfy, no growth curve to defend, no sales organization to fund. What that buys is room to build the feature that ought to exist rather than the one that demos well, and to charge a rate the people actually using it can absorb.
The first project, Heeler, is out now. Others will follow.
Background
I spent more than fifteen years in animation and visual effects, then moved into managing systems engineering in fintech. Most of that time went into building original tooling under real constraints: a fixed release date, an audience in the millions, and no option to ship the obvious thing.
- The start Fracture FX Where my career began, as one of the original co-founders. Software for film and television visual effects.
- A good chunk Lucasfilm Animation Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rebels, Detours, Resistance, and Forces of Destiny.
- A detour FYOLabs An incubator-style startup, prototyping AR glasses and interactive 360-degree projectors.
- The return Kuku Studios Supporting In Your Dreams, the animated feature for Netflix.
- Since leaving animation Fintech Manager of systems engineering.
The through line is original tooling built under pressure, plus the operational discipline to keep it running once people depend on it. That combination is what this company is built on.
Get in touch
Questions, work, or a good reason to go somewhere: leave a note.