Dan Farr

Hey, I'm Dan, a software engineer from Brighton, UK. For the past decade I've built products, led teams and turned ideas into software at startups.

I started coding at 11, teaching myself JavaScript from library books. It stayed a hobby until I moved to Amsterdam in 2011 to study fine art at The Gerrit Rietveld Academie, where I learned to develop my own idiosyncratic language.

My first gig came in 2014 as a fullstack engineer at A Bigger Circle, an Amsterdam startup building apps for Heinz, Mercedes-Benz, and Spotify. It was intense, and I fell in love with building impactful products alongside smart, passionate people.

In 2018 I moved back to the UK to become technical lead at LegalBeagles. We built JustBeagle, a platform for making legal justice more accessible, and partnered with IBM Watson on the Global Access to Justice via AI project.

By now I knew I loved building products from the ground up—piecing things together, always something new to learn.

Wanting to ship faster, I joined Venture Harbour, a bootstrapped venture studio. It was hardcore, and left me with a lasting obsession with automation and scaling.

Together we created Serene, Marketing Automation Insider, Brokernotes, Leadformly, and TrueNorth.

Not only did these rapid iterations allow me to sharpen systems and architectural thinking, it allowed me to develop a greater sense of empathy with users. Learning to challenge my own assumptions and really getting to grips with the problems they face.

Since 2023 I've been Technical Lead at Bluecrest Wellness, growing the team, mentoring engineers, and building tooling that boosts velocity while maintaining ISMS certification. Keeping accessibility, security and privacy front and center while helping people catch health issues early is a great thing to work on.

Outside work I think a lot about cybernetics, emergent systems, and how elegantly nature solves complexity.

Things I'm Working On

Here's a list of projects I'm currently working on. Some are in early stages, some are more mature, but all are things I care about and have fun building. If you want to get involved, reach out!

wobbli.esbeta

Wobblies are always-on, self-initiated, and proactive. They watch your tools and then they take action, so you can focus on the work that makes you feel most human.

chikamichi.devalpha

Collaborating is awesome but keeping track of files in Google Drive, Confluence can be tricky in understanding what the latest info is. Chikamichi offers a shortcut for non-technical members of your team to keep your business context up to date in your codebase.

artmutt.appbeta

A mobile app where you receive one remarkable piece of contemporary art every day. A small daily exercise in taste.

danny.engineering

My engineering notebook.

feedback.monsterbeta

Feedback is super useful for understanding what to do next. I created a product that allows users to get the truth without the friction but with the option to make it a bit fluffier if they want.

practically.devbeta

I'm often working with non-technical stakeholders who don't write code. I help them think like an engineer and ship products they're proud of.

loveyourepo.devalpha

Keeping open source repositories healthy so maintainers can focus on the work that matters.

usepilon.comalpha

A lightweight product management tool for small teams who want to move fast without the overhead, add roadmaps, get feedback, and ship products that delight their users.

Other things I do occassionally from behind the screen are interactive essays and make small games.

If you want to get in touch, you can reach me on LinkedIn or my personal favorite; email