Alex MercerCo-founder · Engineering
Spent eight years on payments infrastructure before this. Will defend Postgres in an empty room. Lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a 1981 Saab he keeps almost-running.
Since 2017
About the studio
A small studio of engineers who’d rather build the thing than talk about building the thing.
Nine of us across Brooklyn and Lisbon. We’ve been doing this together since 2017 and we’d like to keep doing it for another decade.
Origin
2017—present
Halftide started as three of us — Alex, Priya, and Marcus — renting desk space above a print shop in Bushwick after leaving the same payments company in the spring of 2017. Our first engagement was a six-week assessment for a logistics startup that has since been acquired twice; the work itself was sober and the relationship that came out of it lasted four years.
We never set out to grow. We added the fourth person, Hannah, after she patiently and publicly outlasted three job offers we were trying to discourage her from accepting. We added the next four the same way. We’ll likely add one more in 2026 and then stop.
The studio’s philosophy, to the degree that we have one, is that good software is mostly the residue of taking the problem seriously for long enough. We try to pick problems where that’s rewarded.
The team
Priya IyerCo-founder · Design engineering
Bridges product, design, and the part of engineering that touches the user. Wrote the original CSS for two products you have probably used and resents being asked which.
Since 2017
Marcus ChenCo-founder · Principal, backend
Distributed systems, mostly. Has opinions about consensus protocols you can elicit by buying a pint of something Belgian. Splits time between Brooklyn and his in-laws’ place in Taipei.
Since 2017
Hannah ReissPrincipal · Mobile
Native iOS and Android engineer who specifically likes the parts other people complain about: background sync, offline mutation queues, weird carrier behaviours. Lives in Lisbon.
Since 2019
David OkaforPrincipal · Infrastructure
Runs our infra practice. Has been on call for something every weekend since 2014 and remains weirdly cheerful about it. Recommends Tailscale at every available opportunity.
Since 2020
Sora TanakaSenior · Data & ML platforms
Spent four years building feature stores before that became a category with a logo. Currently in our Lisbon office. Will explain why your nightly batch job is actually two jobs.
Since 2021
Rosa MárquezSenior · Frontend & design engineering
Owns the look-and-feel of most of what we ship. Writes CSS the way other people write love letters. Brought us our house Geist subset.
Since 2022
Ben HowellEngineer · Backend
Joined from a stint as a database internals engineer at a name you’d recognize. Has more opinions about query planners than is socially advisable.
Since 2023
Amaya OkonkwoEngineer · Mobile & product
Our most recent hire. Came from a clinical workflow company; carries the calm of someone who has done a production rollout in a hospital.
Since 2024
What working with us is actually like
The first conversation is a thirty-minute call with one of the three of us who started the studio. We’ll ask what you’re trying to ship, who’s blocked, and what’s already been tried. If it seems like there’s a fit we’ll propose a two-week embedded assessment; if not we’ll usually know someone better and we’ll send you their way.
During an engagement, you get a slack channel, a shared issue tracker, and an actual person you can call if something is on fire. We push code to your repos, write commits in our own names, and attend your standups. We do not deliver work to a portal. We do not have a project manager who is not also writing code.
When the engagement ends we leave a short maintenance window — usually a month — where you can text us with questions for no charge. After that we stay in touch because we like the people we’ve worked with.