About Slyck
Great software shouldn't be a privilege reserved for companies that can afford an engineering team.
The story
Slyck started with a simple frustration: too many businesses — smart people with real problems to solve — couldn't build the software they needed because development was too slow, too expensive, or too unpredictable.
I've spent years as a software developer watching both sides of this problem. I've seen companies burn through six-figure agency contracts and end up with something that barely works. I've seen founders shelve great ideas because they couldn't find a developer, or couldn't afford to keep one. And I've seen the opportunity that sits in the gap.
The reality is that software engineers are expensive — a mid-level developer in the UK costs £50,000–£80,000 a year before employer NI, pension, equipment, and management overhead. A senior engineer or a small agency will cost significantly more. For most small businesses and startups, that's simply out of reach.
The right answer isn't AI instead of engineers — it's AI doing the volume work, with engineers applied where their judgment genuinely matters.
But AI isn't ready to build software on its own. Not yet. It makes mistakes. It misses context. It can't set up a Stripe account, negotiate an API integration, or make a judgment call about architecture that takes into account your business constraints. Left unsupervised, it will confidently build the wrong thing.
That's the model Slyck is built on. AI handles the code; engineers handle the decisions, the oversight, and the things that still require a human. The result is a development team that's faster and more affordable than anything that existed before — without cutting the corners that actually matter.
The founder
Robin Fowler
Founder & CEO
Robin is a software engineer with over 13 years of professional experience, and an entrepreneur based in the UK. He founded Slyck to make professional software development accessible to the businesses that need it most — without the agency markups, the long timelines, or the hiring headaches.
What we believe
Plan first, build second
We never write a line of code without an approved plan. It sounds obvious, but most development — agency, freelance, or in-house — skips this step and pays for it later.
AI and engineers are better together
AI gives you speed and consistency. Engineers give you judgment and accountability. Neither is enough on its own. Slyck is built on the idea that you need both.
You should always know what's happening
You can see every proposal, every PR, every deployment. No black boxes, no status updates that amount to 'it's in progress'. Transparent progress, every step of the way.
Affordable doesn't mean corners cut
We're cheaper than an agency because of how we work — not because we compromise on quality. Every deployment has a senior engineer behind it.
Ready to start building?
Book an intro call and we'll figure out if Slyck is the right fit for what you need.