About

The Developer Who Can Actually Design

I'm Mackenzie Bowes — technical founder, designer, and developer in Vernon, BC. Here's why that combination matters for your business.

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The Short Version

The Short Version

Most web projects involve three people: a designer who makes things pretty, a developer who makes things work, and a marketing person who wonders why neither of them thought about SEO.

I'm all three.

That means:

  • No communication breakdowns between team members
  • No "that's not my job" excuses (it isn't anyone elses!)
  • No translating between design-speak and dev-speak
  • One person who owns the whole thing
The Longer Version

The Longer Version

I started coding in 2016. Since then I've:

Built an AI startup solo

GPTBoss reached $200k revenue and 93,000 users with $0 spent on customer acquisition. I did the design, development, marketing, and customer support. All of it.

Led engineering at an AI company

An AI-For-Realtors startup from Portland hired me to turn their no-code MVP into a production-grade system. I architected their entire frontend, built their AI chat infrastructure, and mentored junior engineers to autonomy.

Worked in a 150-person collective

A worker-owned co-op/syndicate taught me how to be useful everywhere. Frontend, backend, blockchain, design, sales, account management. If there was a gap, I filled it.

Ran digital marketing at a car dealership

I contributed to over $100m in annual revenue through digital ads, lead capture systems, and CRM implementation. Real business, real money.

Quadrupled a marketing agency's revenue

A Canadian video agency went from $500k to $2M while I was there. I built the funnels, wrote the copy, ran the ads.

I'm not a specialist. I'm a generalist who's spent years becoming dangerous in multiple disciplines.

Credentials

Credentials That Actually Mean Something

Design

Ranked 28th in Canada on UXcel (top 0.5% globally). This isn't a participation trophy — it's a competitive ranking against 500,000+ designers. I'm better at design than most people whose only job is design.

Engineering

96/100 GitHired score. My code has been reviewed, tested, and shipped in production systems that real people use.

Business

$200k revenue from a startup I built alone. I don't just write code — I've built things that made money.

Education

BSc Computer Science (Kwantlen Polytechnic), Fullstack Open certification (University of Helsinki). The formal stuff plus the self-taught stuff.

Why Not Big Tech

Why I'm Not at a Big Tech Company

I was. It wasn't for me.

Big companies move slow. They have meetings about meetings. They optimize for politics over outcomes. I'd rather ship things.

  • I like seeing my clients in person
  • I like knowing my work affects real people in my community
  • I like being able to make decisions without three layers of approval
  • I like the Okanagan
Limitations

My Limitations

I should be honest about what I'm not:

I'm not enterprise-safe.

I've been called a "brand risk." I say what I think. If you need someone who will sit quietly in meetings and nod, that's not me.

I'm not a large agency.

I can't throw five people at your project. It's me. That's the point — but it means I have limited capacity.

I'm not cheap long-term.

My intro offers are inexpensive because I'm building a portfolio. Once that's done, my prices go up. If you want the cheap rate, now's the time.

Why Not...

Why Not...

Why not hire an agency?

Agencies have their place. If you need a full marketing department, ongoing campaigns across every channel, and a team of specialists — hire an agency. If you need a website that works, built by someone you can actually talk to, without paying for an office full of people who aren't working on your project — that's me.

Why not hire a freelancer on Upwork?

You could. Here's what typically happens: - You spend hours writing a brief - You get 50 proposals, 45 of which are copy-paste - You hire someone who seems okay - They disappear halfway through or deliver something that doesn't match what you asked for - You start over Or you hire someone local, meet them on a video call, see their face, know where they live.

Why not hire a full-time employee?

If you have 40+ hours of work per week, every week, indefinitely — hire someone. If you have 10-20 hours of work per month, or a one-time project, or unpredictable needs — that's what I'm for.

What will other people think?

Your customers won't know who built your website. They'll just know it works. Your competitors might notice you suddenly have a better online presence. That's their problem.

Want to Know More?

30 minutes. Ask me anything. I'll tell you whether I'm the right fit for what you need — and if I'm not, I'll point you toward someone who is.

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Random Facts

Random Facts (If You Want Them)

  • I was a bouncer at a dive bar in Kelowna for winter 2024/2025
  • I have 40k followers on TikTok from posting about AI
  • I've driven Corvettes (they're very small)
  • I built my work PC and yes, of course, it runs Arch Linux
  • I have ADHD Inattentive Type — it makes me bad at holding my tongue and good at hyperfocusing on hard problems