Technical advice you can run.
Bespoke software, built for your problem.
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Selected work
Rebuilding test and scheduling infrastructure for a health-tech start-up
I worked with Coherent Health, a health-tech start-up, on both building and advice. I rebuilt their testing so it was easy to write and trust, designed a scheduling system that could grow safely, and advised on AI, hiring, and turning rough requirements into work the team could ship.
Read the write-up → Orbit PartnersDesigning a lightweight product delivery process
A small team with limited resource had no shared way to decide which technical changes were worth doing. I designed a fixed-time, variable-scope delivery process, built on Shape Up and RICE prioritisation, sized for a single-developer team.
Read the write-up → Orbit PartnersUsing AI to rethink the work, not just speed it up
Asked to automate the production of client deliverables with AI, I advised stepping back first: mapping the outcome they actually wanted rather than the existing process, so AI could open up new ways of working instead of just speeding up the old ones.
Read the write-up → Orbit PartnersA pragmatic tech-stack scaling assessment
An honest, scale-focused review of a deliberately simple Salesforce and Microsoft stack: what to watch as the business grows, and how to stop valuable project data going stale and undiscovered.
Read the write-up → Digital health start-upActing CTO for a clinical-guidelines start-up
I served as CTO for an early-stage digital health start-up codifying NICE clinical guidelines into usable software, and gave a candid read on how the arrival of capable LLMs reshaped the opportunity.
Read the write-up → Primary school PTA · pro bonoPractical software for a primary school and its PTA
Pro-bono work for my children's school: a Google Workspace to give the PTA a more professional footing, a family of small, focused tools (including an app that tells the kitchen how many lunches to cook each day), and general technical guidance.
Read the write-up → Operational data teamData management inside the tool people already use
An Excel plugin that added real data management, security and auditing, without forcing a costly migration to a new system.
Read the write-up → Built and run by meCommunity Bookshelf
A book-sharing app I built and run for a school community: scan a barcode to add a book, then lend and borrow across the school. Clean book data, search that understands what you mean, and a lending flow that tracks who has what.
Read the write-up → Built by meMaths Adventure
A maths game for primary-school children that I'm building from scratch. The child plays through a story where AI writes the scenes and characters, while the maths itself is handled separately and precisely, so the questions are always right. Aligned to the White Rose curriculum.
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Minimal Software
I’m Matthew Gretton. Twenty years in software, from engineer to leading engineering teams, through a Series A and two IPOs.
I advise a few clients at a time, and where it helps, I build the software that proves it. I build with AI, and experience is what keeps it right: knowing what to build, and what to leave out.
I also build and run my own products, used by real people, so my advice is grounded in software I actually maintain. This site is one of them. Here’s how I built it.