01 / SelfQuest
Everyday,
levelled up.
Your habits. Your hunter.
A little progress, every day.
1.3M+downloads100Kdaily active users
James Kirkham Founder & engineer
Ideas into
experiences.
Apps people use.
Worlds worth exploring.
1.3M+SelfQuest downloadsSolo-founded. Solo-built.
TechTudo ↗Featured in the pressGlobo’s technology publication
$25KFounders University investment offerJason Calacanis · Offer declined
Selected work 01—03
Everyday,
02 / Greymere · Unity
Room to
get lost.
Connected worlds.
Combat, exploration and a little curiosity.
03 / Trainer
A team.
Of possibilities.
AI agents with a place to work.
And real projects to work on.
Scroll to explore All 11 projects
The collection / 11 projects
Follow your curiosity.
Pick a project.
See it up close.
A different perspective
Take the
scenic route.
Behind the work
Curiosity.
Put to work.
I’m James. I take ideas from the first sketch to the hands of real people — building the product, the code and everything in between.
More about me
Founder and full-stack engineer with a track record of building and scaling consumer apps to 1M+ users. I take products from idea to App Store — handling everything from UX design to cloud infrastructure.
Skilled in Flutter, Swift, React Native, C#, SQL, Supabase, and Azure. Experienced in product development, backend systems, and community-driven growth. Selected for Founders University accelerator and offered $25K investment by Jason Calacanis (declined).
From idea to in your hands.
The tools behind the work
01Mobile
Flutter · Swift · React Native · Dart · Kotlin
02Backend & Data
C# · .NET / Blazor · SQL · Supabase · Azure · RESTful APIs · JWT Auth · Python · Node.js · Java
03Web
React · JavaScript · HTML & CSS · TypeScript · Next.js
04Tools & Platforms
Git & GitHub · Xcode · Azure DevOps · PostHog · AWS · Vercel · Firebase · Docker · Kubernetes · Microservices · Stripe
05AI & Automation
AI / LLMs · RAG · MCP · Prompt Engineering · Vector DBs · Claude Code
Recent web & platform stack
Recent web & platform work
ReactNext.jsTanStackTailwind CSSPostgreSQLTemporalDockerTerraform
Experience / 2021—now
Always building.
CurrentAlliedProduct Engineer
Contributing across web applications, AI tooling, data workflows and infrastructure in the defence sector.
TypeScriptReactNext.jsTanStackPythonPostgreSQLTemporalTerraform
Project details remain confidential.
Mar 2024 — PresentSelf PlatformFounder & Lead Engineer
Building a platform of consumer apps focused on fitness, AI-powered personal assistance, and habit change. Solo-architecting and shipping across three frameworks (Flutter, React Native, SwiftUI) with independent backends.
- SelfQuest — Gamified fitness tracker with 1.3M+ downloads and 100K DAU. Solo-built in Flutter/Dart with .NET 8 / ASP.NET Core backend on Azure. Real-time PvP multiplayer (SignalR), guild/social system, gamification engine, content moderation, ML Kit pose detection, RevenueCat monetisation, and PostHog analytics. Localised to 10+ languages. 16K Discord members, 72K TikTok followers.
- SelfAware — AI-first concierge / life OS app in React Native (Expo/TypeScript) with Supabase backend. Agentic AI system using OpenAI Responses API with custom MCP tooling, RAG pipeline with pgvector embeddings, real-time streaming chat (SSE), multi-modal input (Vision, Whisper), and 5+ third-party API integrations (Amadeus, Ticketmaster, Google Places).
- SelfGrow — Offline-first habit-breaking iOS app in SwiftUI with sync queue, network monitoring, and automatic local-to-cloud migration. Social accountability via Supabase Realtime, WidgetKit home screen widgets, Sign in with Apple (PKCE), and RevenueCat subscriptions.
Nov 2025 — Feb 2026NuremiLead Software Engineer & Technical Consultant
Built AI-powered concierge and interactive map application in React Native (Expo/TypeScript) with Supabase backend, powered by Anthropic Claude API with personality layer and multi-turn conversation context. Architected RAG pipeline with pgvector, integrated 5 Google Places API endpoints, and designed custom venue ranking algorithm with weighted scoring. Led all architecture decisions, UX design, and end-to-end implementation.
Oct 2022 — Oct 2024SiemensFull Stack Software Engineer
Developed manufacturing applications using C#, Blazor, .NET, and SQL Server to streamline production workflows. Built frontend UIs, RESTful APIs, and backend logic in an Agile team using GitKraken and Azure DevOps.
Aug 2021 — Sep 2022J2 InnovationsApprentice Support Engineer
Coordinated project tasks ensuring adherence to engineering standards and regulations. Managed internal bug tickets for users of the FIN Stack building management system (HVAC).
Education & milestones Explore the background ＋
Oct 2024 — Feb 2025Founders UniversityEducation
Competitive 12-week accelerator. Offered $25K for 2.5% equity by Jason Calacanis (declined).
Nov 2022 — Oct 2024Ada College of TechnologyEducation
Computer Engineering Apprenticeship/Degree (2 years completed).
1.3M+ Downloads
Solo-founded SelfQuest to 1.3M+ downloads, demonstrating end-to-end product capability from UX to cloud deployment.
Founders University
Selected for competitive 12-week accelerator. Offered $25K investment by Jason Calacanis — declined to maintain full ownership.
Press Coverage
Featured in TechTudo (Globo, Brazil) — "SelfQuest: the fitness app for gamers that combines gaming and exercise".
Notes from the build.Writing · coming soon ＋
How I Scaled SelfQuest to 1.3M Downloads
The technical and growth story behind building a solo app to over a million users.
Coming soonFlutter vs React Native vs Swift
Lessons learned from building production apps in all three — when to use what.
Coming soonBuilding Community-Driven Growth
How TikTok and Discord became the growth engine for a fitness app.
Coming soon