OXAUS — From thought to prototype in days

Our discipline

Software, written like a
manuscript.

OXAUS is a small, deliberately small, studio working out of Sydney and Melbourne. We build web platforms, mobile applications, and the brand systems that sit behind them — for founders, operators, and teams who treat their product as craft, not backlog.

Our work begins in a sketchbook and ends in a codebase. Between those two points we hold ourselves to a quiet rule: every screen must justify its weight, every interaction must justify its motion, and every line of code must justify its presence in the repository.

Working principles

Three rules
we keep.

Ship before perfect.

Done is the engine of more. We ship working software early — sometimes within the first week — and refine in the open, alongside the people who will actually use it. Perfection is a posture we adopt on launch day, not before.

ii.

Write less, document more.

Every line of code is a liability we inherit on behalf of our clients. We write what is needed and document what is not obvious. Six months from now, the next engineer — or the next us — should be able to read the repo like a book.

iii.

Stay small on purpose.

Two designers, two engineers, one writer. We do not scale the team; we scale the care. Every project is led by a senior practitioner from kickoff to handover, and the person you brief is the person who builds.

What we make

Four practices,
one studio.

01 — Web Development

Platforms built to age well.

Marketing sites, customer portals, internal dashboards, and the kind of bespoke web software that SaaS cannot quite cover. We write our own front-end, engineer our own back-end, and document the lot before we hand over the keys.

StackNext.js · Postgres · Edge
CadenceSix to twelve weeks
HandoverFull source + docs

Discuss a build →

02 — App Design

Native apps, drawn before they are coded.

iOS and Android interfaces designed in Figma down to the last pixel, prototyped on real devices, and shipped to engineers with a system that survives contact with App Store review. We sketch first, animate second, ship third.

PlatformsiOS · Android · React Native
DeliverablesFigma + prototype + tokens
CadenceFour to eight weeks

Discuss an app →

ii.

03 — Prototype Sprints

From thought to prototype in days.

A five-day sprint that turns a vague idea into a clickable, demo-able prototype you can put in front of customers, investors, or your own team. Day one is problem framing. Day five is a working build, on real devices, with real copy.

DurationFive working days
OutputClickable prototype + report
Ideal forPre-funding · pre-build

Book a sprint →

iii.

04 — Ongoing Management

A long hand on the wheel.

After we ship, we stay. Hosting, monitoring, security patches, content edits, feature iteration, and the slow, unglamorous work of keeping a product alive for years past its launch date. Most of our retainers run longer than two years.

IncludesHosting · monitoring · iteration
SLASame-business-day response
RetainerFrom 2 days / month

Discuss a retainer →

iv.

Tools we reach for

Figma Next.js React Native Swift Kotlin Postgres Vercel Linear

How we work

Four movements,
one continuous line.

Listen

A week of conversations, readings, and quiet note-taking. We meet your team, your customers, your competitors. We resist the urge to draw anything until we understand the room.

ii.

Sketch

Paper, then Figma. Lo-fi layouts, user flows, the information architecture. Nothing is precious yet — we throw away more than we keep, and the work is better for it.

iii.

Prototype

By day five of a sprint, or week three of a build, you have something clickable on your own device. Real copy, real motion, real data shape. We test, we refine, we test again.

iv.

Ship

Production code, deployed to your infrastructure, documented, handed over. We stay on for as long as you want us — most of our clients keep us around for years.

In their words

What founders
have said.

We came to OXAUS with a Figma file and a deadline. We left with a platform that has carried us through two funding rounds without a single rebuild. They write code the way a good editor writes prose — every word earns its place.

Eleanor Whitfield

Founder · Harvest Co-op

The five-day prototype sprint changed the conversation with our investors. We walked into the Monday meeting with a pitch deck. We walked out with a working app on three iPhones. OXAUS understood the brief better than we did.

Daniel Carew

CEO · Quietmind

Questions, briefly answered

Things we are
often asked.

How quickly can you start?

Usually within two weeks of a signed brief. Occasionally the following Monday. We never book more than two new projects in a calendar month, so the calendar is the constraint, not the appetite.

ii.

Do you work with non-Australian clients?

Yes. About a third of our work is for clients in New Zealand, Singapore, and the UK. We run in AEST but adjust our workshop hours to overlap with your working day wherever you are.

iii.

What does a typical engagement cost?

Prototype sprints from AU$25k. Web and app builds from AU$60k. Retainers from AU$4k per month. We send a fixed quote after a written brief — no hourly billing, no surprise invoices.

iv.

Who owns the intellectual property?

You do. Always. In writing, before we start. We assign full IP — design files, source code, documentation — on final invoice. We retain only the right to show the work in our portfolio, which you can decline.

Do you take equity in lieu of fees?

Selectively. We have taken equity in three of our last sixty projects, always alongside a reduced cash fee. We are not a venture fund; we are a studio. Cash keeps the lights on.

vi.

What happens after launch?

Whatever you would like. We can hand over completely — most do, then return for occasional work. Or we can stay on a retainer for monitoring, iteration, and the slow ongoing work a real product requires.

From thought
to prototype
in days.

Software, written like a
manuscript.

Three rules
we keep.

Ship before perfect.

Write less, document more.

Stay small on purpose.

Four practices,
one studio.

Platforms built to age well.

Native apps, drawn before they are coded.

From thought to prototype in days.

A long hand on the wheel.

Four movements,
one continuous line.

Listen

Sketch

Prototype

Ship

Quietly shipped,
quietly used.

Harvest Co-op

Quietmind

Meridian Studio

Ledger Finance

What founders
have said.

Things we are
often asked.

How quickly can you start?

Do you work with non-Australian clients?

What does a typical engagement cost?

Who owns the intellectual property?

Do you take equity in lieu of fees?

What happens after launch?

Tell us what you are
thinking of building.

From thoughtto prototypein days.

Software, written like amanuscript.

Three ruleswe keep.

Ship before perfect.

Write less, document more.

Stay small on purpose.

Four practices,one studio.

Platforms built to age well.

Native apps, drawn before they are coded.

From thought to prototype in days.

A long hand on the wheel.

Four movements,one continuous line.

Listen

Sketch

Prototype

Ship

Quietly shipped,quietly used.

Harvest Co-op

Quietmind

Meridian Studio

Ledger Finance

What foundershave said.

Things we areoften asked.

How quickly can you start?

Do you work with non-Australian clients?

What does a typical engagement cost?

Who owns the intellectual property?

Do you take equity in lieu of fees?

What happens after launch?

Tell us what you arethinking of building.

From thought
to prototype
in days.

Software, written like a
manuscript.

Three rules
we keep.

Four practices,
one studio.

Four movements,
one continuous line.

Quietly shipped,
quietly used.

What founders
have said.

Things we are
often asked.

Tell us what you are
thinking of building.