JAMES MIANO
Independent engineer & builder Nairobi / Nyeri, Kenya · EAT

I build the AI and digital systems businesses need but don't have in-house.

Payments, automation, backend, AI, and the web layer on top — designed, built, and shipped complete. Solo. From silicon to production APIs, I've built the hard parts most people outsource or fake.

/ 01

What I build

A

AI assistants & automation

Assistants on your site or WhatsApp, and automations that kill the manual, repetitive work your team does by hand — wired into the tools you already run.

B

Payments & commerce

Checkout, recurring billing, usage metering, M-Pesa and Paystack — the full money layer, built to actually take payments in production.

C

Backend & platform engineering

APIs, dashboards, role-based access, database and POS integration, deployment and hosting on infrastructure that holds up.

D

Web & content systems

Fast, findable sites and the content engine behind them — one recording turned into everything, plus the SEO and discoverability to make it count.

/ 02

Selected work

R1

Roniki N1 — NPU

A neural processing unit designed from scratch: 64×64 systolic array, multi-precision, written in Amaranth HDL and verified in simulation. Silicon-level engineering.

Chip IP · HDL 2025 →
FK

Fikra — AI inference API

An OpenAI-compatible AI API with its own models, built with real billing infrastructure: recurring charges, prepaid usage balances, rate limiting, and regional failover.

AI · Billing infra 2026 →
DK

Duka — merchant commerce

A commerce and payments platform for online sellers — storefront, checkout, and the full payment layer, live and taking real transactions.

Commerce · Payments 2026 →

More available on request, including current client work in AI and digital strategy.

Get in touch

Have something that needs building?

Tell me the outcome you need. If I can ship it, I'll tell you exactly how and what it costs.

I reply within 48 hours.