About — Slyck

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 you factor in employer NI, pension, equipment, and management overhead. A senior engineer or a small agency will cost you significantly more. For most small businesses and startups, that's simply out of reach. And even when companies do make that hire, much of an engineer's time is spent on work that is repetitive, well-defined, and — increasingly — something AI can already do well.

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. The companies that have tried to fully automate software development without human oversight have learned this the hard way.

The right answer isn't AI instead of engineers — it's AI doing the volume work, with engineers applied where their judgment genuinely matters. 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.

He built Slyck because he believes the combination of AI capability and engineering oversight is genuinely better than either alone — and that £999/month should be enough to build something you're proud of — at a fraction of the cost of a single hire.

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.

You own everything

Your code lives in your repository. Your IP is yours. Cancel tomorrow and walk away with everything. No lock-in, no exit negotiations.

Great software shouldn't be a privilege reserved for companies that can afford an engineering team.