Darren Kandekore

Portfolio

Work That Speaks for Itself

Websites, e-commerce, business platforms and software, and the business problems behind each one.

Business transformation

Featured Business Transformations

The projects where understanding the business changed what got built.

VG Charles & Co

Turning a legal recruiter's job board into a recruitment platform

The challenge
The site needed to look like a premium legal search practice, stay in step with the CRM without anyone re-typing jobs, and give candidates a reason to come back.
What I built
A new website, staff admin and candidate portal on one platform, with an unattended CRM job feed, job alerts and applications routed to the right consultant.
Read the case study

Systems engineering

Business Platforms & Systems

Bespoke software built around how a business operates: bookings, portals, payments, integrations and data.

Starstruck

From a dance-school website to the platform the school runs on

Before
An established Solihull dance school paying around £5,000 a year in third-party class-management fees, with a website that undersold it.
The challenge
Reach more families through search, and stop renting software that didn't fit how the school worked.
What I built
A new website plus a bespoke platform for enrolment, term billing, parent and tutor portals, targeted email, a shop and event tickets.
The thinking
Looked past the website at how the school actually operated, and built around its own processes rather than copying the old platform.

Acquire → Enquire → Enrol → Invoice → Teach → Grow

Read the case study

Tony James Designs

Modernising years of successful international e-commerce without throwing away what worked

Before
An established international motorcycle paint-protection store, run for years on WooCommerce and around 30 plugins.
The challenge
The site needed updating, but its products, configurator rules, customers and order history were what the business ran on.
What I built
A bespoke Next.js and Payload platform, migrated with its 287 products, 610 configurator rules, customers and order history intact.
The thinking
Recommended replacing the platform rather than refreshing it, and mapped the old store from its database before rebuilding anything.

Audit → Understand → Preserve → Modernise → Improve

Read the case study

Plate Studio

Bringing a complicated, compliance-heavy purchase online

Before
A UK maker of road-legal number plates wanted to sell a highly configurable product online.
The challenge
Customers needed to see exactly what they were buying, and the law requires identity and entitlement documents to be checked before a plate is made.
What I built
A live plate builder with server-checked pricing, joined to secure document upload and a staff verification workflow.
The thinking
The client could show what customers should see; I designed the compliance process behind it so the shop and the paperwork became one system.

Design → Preview → Order → Documents → Verify → Make

Read the case study

Quality Wedding DJ

Taking a wedding DJ's planning out of email threads

Before
Enquiries arrived as bare emails, and music preferences came by text message and shared documents.
The challenge
Give couples one place to shape their evening, and give the DJ one place to run the business.
What I built
A public site, a couple's area for submitting Spotify playlists against their wedding date, and an admin for clients, enquiries, playlists and email.
The thinking
Built the platform the business already needed rather than another brochure site.

Enquire → Book → Plan the music → Run the night

Read the case study

Multi-Venue Audiology Booking Platform

Booking for a multi-location audiology practice

Before
A growing practice that had outgrown off-the-shelf booking tools.
The challenge
Clinicians across several locations, no double bookings, live calendar clashes, and flexible payments.
What I built
A booking platform with an availability engine, two-way Google Calendar sync, deposits or full payment, and separate areas for admins, clinicians and patients.
The thinking
Designed around the practice's own operating model rather than a generic booking widget.

Availability → Booking → Payment → Calendar

Read the case study

High-Performance Training & Resource Ecosystem

Group training bookings that look after themselves

Before
Owner needed to book manually with the clients
The challenge
Sell seats in bulk, record every attendee individually, and send each one their joining details
What I built
Custom WordPress plugins: a course booking engine with per-seat attendee details and automatic joining emails, volume pricing by category in the cart, and a document library.
The thinking
Lightweight custom plugins instead of stacking commercial all-in-one ones.

Map the booking → Build custom plugins → Automate joining details → Report

Read the case study

Domestic Duties Commercial Ltd.

Replacing phone-tag and paper diaries for a cleaning business

Before
A small commercial cleaning company running on phone calls, paper diaries and manual follow-ups.
The challenge
Give a small business the tools large franchises take for granted, without the enterprise price tag.
What I built
Online booking and payment, Google Calendar sync and automated WhatsApp reminders, all from one admin dashboard.
The thinking
Kept it simple and built for the way a small team actually works.

Book → Pay → Schedule → Remind

Read the case study

My own projects

My Own Businesses & Products

Businesses and software I designed, built and run myself. Not client stories: working products you can open and use.

Host Dada

Live business · Trading

A hosting storefront built in front of the industry-standard back office

The problem
Make the shop fast, findable and accurate without replacing the billing system that runs the business.
The idea
A stock hosting storefront that search engines barely saw, with domain checks that gave wrong answers for newer extensions.
What I built
A server-rendered Next.js storefront with hybrid WHMCS/eNom domain search, 409 domain pages, a cart handed to a custom WHMCS add-on, single sign-on, first-party analytics and an AI phone receptionist.

Keep the back office → Build the storefront → Fix domain search → Hand orders back

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

Lead Stack

Live business · Trading

Automating lead generation from enquiry to invoice

The problem
Deliver exclusive, postcode-targeted leads instantly, around the clock, and bill for them without manual work.
The idea
Small automotive businesses paying too much for leads that were manual, slow or shared with competitors.
What I built
A platform that takes leads in from consumer sites and an AI phone line, matches each to one buyer by postcode, delivers it by email, SMS and the agents' portal, and runs credit-based billing through Stripe.

Capture → Verify → Match → Deliver → Bill

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

Vehicle Data Information (VDI): Real-Time Vehicle Intelligence Platform

Live business · Trading

Competing with established vehicle-check brands

The problem
Return vehicle history, MOT records and valuations in seconds, from several data sources, with no room for error.
The idea
Vehicle history checks dominated by long-established incumbents.
What I built
An API-first platform with a React storefront and a separate admin backend for checks, API health and customer accounts.

Aggregate → Map → Value → Report

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

txt2spk

Live product · Free to use · Pro plan

From reading my own terminal to a public listening tool

The problem
Long, heavily formatted AI responses in a dark terminal were tiring to read.
The idea
A private reader for my own workflow, then a separate product for anyone who would rather listen than read.
What I built
Text, document and web-page reading with on-device processing, accounts, usage allowances, Stripe subscriptions, admin and over 200 automated tests.

Notice → Build → Use → Productise → Launch

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

Web Brief AI

Live product · Free tier · Plans from £19.99/mo

Turning a client's vague website ideas into a developer-ready brief

The problem
Website projects stall because clients don't know what information to give, so briefs arrive vague and scope creeps.
The idea
Guide the client through every decision, with AI asking follow-up questions, filling gaps and drafting content, so the brief is complete before the build starts.
What I built
A SaaS with AI discovery, site scraping, page structure and content generation, competitor and local-SEO analysis, and feature interviews, exporting a PDF brief and structured JSON.

Discover → Structure → Write → Specify → Export

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

Host Dada Uptime Monitor

Live product · 14-day trial

Knowing something is down before the customer does

The problem
Running hosting infrastructure, I needed to know when a site, application or server failed before a customer told me.
The idea
Independent monitoring of the application, the server and the monitor itself, then the same system offered to other businesses.
What I built
HTTP and heartbeat monitors, confirmed incidents with DOWN and RECOVERY alerts, a page-tag check with a WordPress plugin, an independent watchdog, plans, Stripe billing and a super-admin area.

Operate → Monitor → Watch the watcher → Productise

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

One-Time Secret

Live product · Free to use

Passwords and files sent as a link that works once

The problem
Passwords sent by email or chat stay there forever.
The idea
Send the secret as a link instead: encrypted, destroyed the moment it's read, with a receipt for the sender.
What I built
Text and file sharing with a key that exists only in the link, a single-use reveal, expiry, emailed links and a dashboard of what has been opened.

Write → Link → Open once → Destroyed → Receipt

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

QR Code Creator

Live product · Plans from £4.99/mo

QR codes you can change after they're printed

The problem
A printed QR code is fixed, and many free-trial QR sites charge heavily later or let codes stop working.
The idea
Dynamic, branded codes that can be re-pointed anytime and keep working while you're subscribed, at a plain price with every feature on every plan.
What I built
Editable redirects, logos and brand colours, PNG and SVG downloads, scan analytics, Stripe subscriptions and an admin console.

Create → Brand → Print → Re-point → Measure

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

Gym Timer

Live product · Free to use

When our gym's free timer went app-only, I built a better one

The problem
My gym's free online timer suddenly needed an app download, and none of the alternatives quite fitted how our classes run.
The idea
Keep what worked, a free timer that opens in any browser, and make it fit a real class: pick a preset, press start, follow the colours and bells.
What I built
Warm-up, work, rest and finisher phases, saved presets, bells and voice cues, fullscreen and keep-awake, as a static app with no server and no tracking.

Preset → Start → Colours & bells → Summary

Try it (opens in a new tab)How it works

More Projects

Beeline VIP Coaches – A Premium Site With a Back Office the Owner Runs
Web DevelopmentBespoke Development

Beeline VIP Coaches – A Premium Site With a Back Office the Owner Runs

Beeline VIP Coaches is a Manchester-based luxury coach hire company working with corporate clients, sports teams, weddings and schools. I built a brand site as premium as the fleet, with a quote form that starts with the journey, plus the tools to run it without a developer: trip stories drafted from a few lines and photos, WhatsApp that follows office hours, and encrypted settings the owner controls.

Live siteView project →

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