Andre Bernhardt
Developer since 2007. Building with AI agents.
About me
I’ve been programming since 2007 and running my own businesses since 2014. Founding and leading several companies has meant making commercial decisions and dealing with day-to-day operations alongside the technical work. I’m used to thinking about the whole business around a piece of software.
For ten years, I was CTO of an affiliate network I co-founded. I built and operated tracking systems that recorded millions of events a month. I had to decide what was worth building and what it would take to keep it running.
Today, I build my own products and work on client systems. I also work closely with a business consultant on the technology and processes behind several businesses. That work covers the path from a first enquiry to invoicing, including the handovers between people and systems.
I still love the part that got me into programming at twelve: making something that wasn’t there before. These days, I get just as absorbed in improving what already exists. An awkward process made simpler can be as satisfying as a new piece of software. Being able to measure the difference makes it even better.
How I work
Before I decide what to build, I want to understand how the business works around it. With customer onboarding, for example, I follow the handover from sales into operations. I look at what information the next person needs and who is responsible for each step. That helps me decide whether the useful change belongs in the software or in the process itself.
That context shapes the technical work. AI agents handle more of the implementation now, which makes me spell out decisions I once made while writing code. I define the outcome and the boundaries, choose models with the task and cost in mind, and use separate agents for implementation and review.
I look at how the change fits the existing systems and what it will take to run and maintain it. Checking the result after deployment is part of finishing the work. I’m responsible for what goes live.
