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Meet
Vanessa.

Engineer, marketer, and the reason Shamalama exists, building software that reaches the people who'd usually be priced out of it.

drop · Vanessa portrait
"The work is the passion, the challenge, the drive, real-world solutions for the thinkers, without blowing the budget on a prototype."
, Vanessa Latchem-Smith, Founder & Lead Engineer

A builder who refuses to gate-keep good software.

Vanessa's background spans both software engineering and marketing, a rare pairing that means she can build the thing and understand why anyone would want it. Over the years she's sharpened those skills against an ever-changing market, staying close to the tools and trends that actually move.

That dual fluency became the founding idea for Shamalama: most entrepreneurs with a genuinely good idea get stuck at the same wall, they need something real to show people, but a "proper" prototype quotes out at more than they have before they're funded.

So she built a studio for exactly that moment. Shamalama brings real-world solutions to entrepreneurs at the pre-funding stage, at low cost, helping elevate the thinkers in a tech-driven world without asking them to bet the budget on an unproven idea.

Every project is written and owned in-house. No outsourcing, no black boxes, just a small, female-led studio that treats a £0-revenue founder with the same care as an enterprise client.

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In-house & honest

Female-led and written line-by-line in-house. You always know who built it and why.

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Every budget welcome

No project too small, no idea too early. We start the conversation before the funding arrives.

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Speed over theatre

A prototype you can hold in days, not a deck about a deck. Momentum is the whole point.

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Built with care

From accessibility to enterprise AI, the craft is the same. The work is the passion.

How Shamalama got here.

Foundations

Engineering & marketing

Years spent learning to build software and to sell it, two halves of the same skill, kept sharp against a market that never sits still.

The first build · with love

Can Eat, Will Eat

A gentle iOS app built for Vanessa's daughter, who has sensory needs around food. The proof that a heartfelt idea can ship fast, and the test that set the studio's protocols. Read the story →

Now · deployed

Crossways & Sysqo

A native residents' app for the Crossways estate, and a production website for enterprise-AI company Sysqo, with more in the pipeline.

Work with Vanessa.

Tell her about your idea, she'll tell you the fastest, most affordable way to make it real.