App Developer in Newcastle and the Hunter
A small studio based here, building iOS apps, SaaS products and the systems that connect the software a Hunter business already runs.
Based Here, Not Visiting From Sydney
Digital Nomad Studio is two people - one in Newcastle, one on the Central Coast. We are not a Sydney firm with a Hunter landing page and a willingness to drive up if the job is big enough.
The practical difference is who turns up and how often. A site visit to Newcastle, Lake Macquarie or Maitland costs us an hour, not a day, so we do it when the project needs it rather than when the budget stretches to it. And you talk to the two people writing the code, which matters when the answer to "can it do this?" needs to be honest rather than encouraging.
We work across the Hunter, the Central Coast, Sydney and the rest of Australia. The routine work happens over video and email; the parts that need someone standing in your workshop happen in your workshop.
What Hunter Businesses Need Built
Newcastle is not a town of blank-page startups. It is mining and resources services, port and logistics, energy and the work coming out of the renewables transition, healthcare, defence supply chain, and a genuine tech scene alongside them. Most of these businesses already own software. The problem is rarely that they have none - it is that they have five systems and no joins.
Joining Up Systems You Already Run
An ERP, a field service tool, a scheduling system, a finance package and a spreadsheet holding the whole thing together. We build the integration layer and the interface over the top, so a job entered once appears everywhere it needs to. Replacing what works is usually the expensive answer to the wrong question.
Compliance, Evidence and Field Paperwork
Regulated work generates records, and records generate arguments. We build apps that capture the evidence at the point it happens - photos, sign-offs, readings, timestamps, location - and produce the export an auditor will accept without a week of assembly. Offline first, because coverage underground and on a site is what it is.
Customer and Contractor Portals
When clients, subcontractors or partners need to log in and see their own information, you have a product rather than a website: accounts, roles, permissions, an admin side your team lives in, and hosting that holds up. We run our own products this way and know what the year after launch costs.
AI on Your Own Documents
Contracts, specifications, inspection reports, tenders. Reading and sorting documents is the one job current AI does genuinely well, and it is the one most Hunter businesses lose hours to. We automate that part and leave the decisions with your people. Where AI is the wrong tool, we will tell you before you have paid for it.
Software We Built and Still Run
We have no client logos to show you and we are not going to make any up. What we can point at is our own software - designed, shipped, and still supported by the two of us:
- TeamRelay - real-time offline speech translation, live on the App Store
- MatchTagr - tag match moments from an Apple Watch and build highlight reels, live on the App Store
- Touchline HQ - a football club management product with fixtures, availability, ratings and lineups
- PropertyBuyWise - reads building, pest and strata reports and pulls out the risks
- 4thebadge - live scores, fixtures and tables across 15 competitions, in your club's colours
Shipping to the App Store and keeping a paying product running are different skills from writing a proposal. See everything we have shipped.
How We Work
Staged, with a defined scope at each step - so there is always something concrete to take to whoever signs the cheque.
Discover
We come to you, watch how the work is really done, and map where the time goes. You get a scope and a straight answer on whether software is even the right fix.
Prototype
Two to three weeks to a working prototype on your own data - something you can put in front of a board or a crew instead of an estimate.
Build & Integrate
The full build, wired into the systems you already run, with the testing, access control and audit trail the work has to stand up to.
Run It With You
Go-live, then monitoring, updates and the changes the first six months always turn up. The people who built it are the people who answer the phone.
Common Questions
Can you meet us in Newcastle?
Yes. We are based here, so a site visit in Newcastle, Lake Macquarie, Maitland or Port Stephens is a short drive, not a day trip with travel on the invoice. For projects that involve watching how a job actually gets done, that first visit tends to be worth more than a fortnight of meetings.
We already run an ERP and field software. Can you work around them?
That is most of the work in the Hunter. Businesses here rarely need a blank-page system; they need the four they already pay for to talk to each other, and one honest interface over the top. We integrate with what you run rather than arguing you should replace it.
Our procurement takes months. Does that suit how you work?
It suits it well. We work in defined stages with a fixed scope for each, starting with a two to three week prototype. That gives you something concrete to take to a board or a budget holder instead of asking them to approve an estimate.
Do you handle compliance and audit requirements?
We build the record keeping in rather than bolting it on: who did what, when, with what evidence, and an export that satisfies an auditor. Tell us the standard you report against and we will design to it. We are software developers, not compliance consultants, so we will not pretend to sign off on your obligations.
Do you work outside the Hunter?
Often. We are also an app developer on the Central Coast, and we take on clients in Sydney and across Australia.
Tell Us What Needs Fixing
Describe the process, the system or the app you have in mind. Marco, our AI assistant, will walk you through it in a couple of minutes and send the details to us. We reply within two business days.