independent engineering studio
Light a candle. Ship the work.
One Candle is a small engineering studio. Software, infrastructure, machine learning, and security, built carefully and delivered clean.
“It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.”
// services
A small studio, a wide bench.
Engagements are scoped to what you need: a one-week spike, a multi-month build, or an ongoing retainer. Below is where we work.
Full-stack engineering
Greenfield products and pragmatic upgrades. Web, APIs, data layers, predictable where it should be and sharp where it matters.
- Next.js / React
- Node / Python / Go
- Postgres & friends
Research & prototyping
Honest exploration of an idea. We build the smallest thing that proves or disproves it, then document what we learned.
- Feasibility spikes
- Technical due diligence
- Proof-of-concepts
Machine learning & data
From notebooks to production. ETL, model evaluation, retrieval, and agent systems, designed for production rather than demos.
- LLM apps & RAG
- Eval & observability
- Durable pipelines
DevOps & infrastructure
Reproducible environments, predictable deploys, and observability that's actually useful. Cloud or self-hosted.
- CI/CD & IaC
- Containers & Kubernetes
- Cost & reliability
Security
Threat modeling, hardening reviews, and incident readiness for teams that need to get it right the first time.
- Code & infra review
- Auth & secrets
- Supply-chain hygiene
Advisory
A senior set of eyes when you need one. Architecture review, hiring support, and honest assessment, billed hourly.
- Architecture review
- Roadmap pressure-test
- Hands-on as needed
// about
Quiet, careful, built to last.
One Candle is run by Ian Culp, a generalist engineer who likes the unglamorous parts: tests that run, deploys that don't panic, documentation that holds up.
The studio takes on a small number of engagements at a time so we can do them properly. Greenfield product work, R&D you can hand to your investors, infrastructure you can hand to your next hire.
We don't pad invoices. We'd rather tell you a project should be smaller than book the extra hours.
- based
- Remote · U.S.
- availability
- Booking discovery calls
// contact
Tell us about it.
The best engagements start with a clear, honest description of what you're trying to do and what's in the way. A paragraph is plenty.
Prefer email? Reach us at hello@onecandle.dev.