About
Why this exists
Small businesses have been shut out of custom software for a long time. It was too expensive, too slow, and too often lost in translation as ideas passed from the owner to an agency to a project lead to a team somewhere else. The tools a business needed most, the small ones built around how it actually works, were rarely worth the cost.
That has changed. Modern AI tools let one capable person sit with the people who have the problem, write the plan, and build the solution themselves, in weeks instead of months. A new kind of builder is doing this work, often after careers in construction, teaching, healthcare, media, logistics, and a dozen other fields.
The problem now is trust. Anyone can say they build software. This directory exists so a business owner can find someone who has actually shipped, whose work and references have been checked, and who understands the kind of work they do. It also exists to give good builders a credential that means something.
Our principles
- Free
- Free for businesses and free for builders. No paid membership.
- Earned tiers only
- Tiers come from shipped work and checked references. Nothing else.
- No pay-to-rank
- Order within a tier is shuffled on every visit. Nobody can buy a better spot.
- No cut of the work
- Businesses and builders work out terms directly. We never take a percentage.
Who's behind this
Rapid Technologists was started by Sam Devine in Minneapolis. Sam has built homes, run a construction company, guided canoe trips to Hudson Bay, opened a resort in Azerbaijan, and produced podcasts including What About This Idea and askClever over Coffee. After years of hiring out software and watching good ideas get lost in translation, he learned to build it himself, and started this directory so other builders and the businesses who need them could find each other.
About the name
You may have heard this work called vibe coding, AI building, or no-code development. We use "rapid technologist" because it describes the work and the speed without tying it to any one tool or trend. Read more about the names.