About
A small studio in Leeds, built around what experienced engineers can do with AI.
IRLY was founded in Leeds in 2024 by experienced software founders and operators: people who have built, scaled and sold software companies, and who watched the economics of doing that change completely in the space of two years. This is what we did about it.
Team
The people who lead IRLY. Behind them is a team of senior product engineers, sized to each project.
David Hunter
Founder
David is a commercial and executive leader across technology businesses, with years spent selling to and working alongside the world's largest technology platforms. He has built and scaled SaaS products from the first line of code, and is now a technology investor and builder. At IRLY he leads product, delivery and the relationship with every client, and would rather show you working software than a slide about it.
LinkedInCam Pearce
CTO
Cam is a highly experienced engineer who has led teams tackling online harms, child abuse and terrorism at global scale, where the software has to work every time and the cost of failure is measured in people rather than downtime. He knows how to build platforms that are mission critical and high scale, and at IRLY he owns the technical standard every project is held to.
Adam Hildreth
Co-founder & Investor
Adam has founded and sold software businesses for most of his working life. He started his first company at 14 and went on to found Crisp Thinking, a trust and safety platform later acquired by Kroll. He has spent twenty years learning what separates software that scales from software that stalls, usually the hard way.
LinkedInTom Hammond
Product & Commercial
Tom is a senior product, project and commercial leader who has spent years building partnerships with major brands and global platforms, teasing out what they actually need before anyone agrees what to build. He led competitive intelligence at Crisp Thinking. At IRLY he spans product and delivery, customer success, operations and product marketing, and leads our consulting and due diligence work.
What we believe
Four things we will not change our minds about.
Senior by default
Every project is staffed by senior engineers, and where the job needs a team it gets one. What it never gets is the newest hire learning on your budget.
AI-native, not AI-added
We did not bolt AI onto an existing agency process. The studio was set up around what experienced engineers can now do when they orchestrate AI, and every part of how we work follows from that.
Judgement is the product
Anyone can produce code quickly now. What you are paying for is knowing what to build, deciding how to build it, and the people who verify that what came back is right before it reaches you.
Leeds, on purpose
We are based in Leeds and most of our clients are within a train ride. We like being in the room. We also work well with teams who are not.
Want to talk it through?
We are happy to spend half an hour on a call with anyone weighing up how to get something built, whether or not they end up working with us.