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About Horizon Labs
We are startup founders, small business owners, and former engineering managers on a mission to help similar startups and small businesses build software fast and efficiently without the drama. Our American and Turkish engineers have rich experience and a hunger to provide great service. We love what we do and don't take our responsibility as technical partners lightly.
Our Story
Sinan (CEO) and Serdar (CTO) have known each other since high school and went to university together. Both became software engineers and kept working together on projects in Turkey. When Sinan moved to the U.S. for Y Combinator with Cuboh in 2017, he leaned on Serdar to build and manage his offshore engineering bench back in Turkey.
In 2019, after exiting his YC startup, other startups began asking Sinan to act as a fractional CTO and help them hire reliable on-shore and off-shore engineers. After a few engagements, Sinan and Serdar formalized the model and started Horizon Labs where we began completing projects and recruiting engineers. Many of the same engineers who joined them in 2017 are still with us today and are managers today.
Saif (COO) joined in 2022 to run customer success and sales. We met him on reddit in 2019 and wanted to work with him after he left his last startup. Since his addition we have starting offering some customized go-to-market engineering support for early-stage startups and small businesses, but at our core we are a devshop that builds custom software products.
Leadership Team
We’re a US-led product team with a long-standing senior bench in Turkey. Same core people, same working rhythm, and clear ownership from day one. We keep scopes tight and communication simple so decisions are easy.
Sinan Sari
Sinan is based in Irvine, CA and is a systems and processes nut. He was co-founder & CTO of Cuboh (YC S19), a senior software engineer at Tasso & Oscar Health, and a co-founder at Kidsy. He loves working on healthtech & e-commerce/marketplace projects. He does a little bit of everything depending on what our clients need. Sinan has a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Bilkent University.
Serdar Pehlivan
Serdar is based in Turkey and oversees developer output & training. A math Olympiad medalist, PhD in Computer Engineering from the University of Connecticut, Bachelor's in Computer Science from Bilkent University, and ex-Vice Dean of Engineering at Zirve University, Serdar's work ensures our developers deliver quality code on time and on schedule. He prepares every proposal, bi-weekly report, and financial reports for each client personally.
Esra Nur
Esra is based in San Antonio, TX and is our lead Product Manager, bridging the gap between client business objectives and our technical teams. She's responsible for crafting user stories our engineers use to understand each client's customer needs before we begin writing code. Esra has a Bachelor's in Computer Science from Bilkent University, and a Master's in Graphic Design from the Istanbul Arel University.
Gorkem Bendin
Gorkem is based in Turkey and is responsible for overseeing the code we deploy for clients. A full-stack web, mobile, and embedded developer with 9+ years of experience across a variety of startups and enterprises, Gorkem is one of our best coders and project managers ensuring successful client outcomes. He has a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering from Erciyes University.
Basmah Masood
Basmah is based in San Jose, CA and is responsible for providing UI/UX support for our clients and incubated projects. A self-described visual story teller, Basmah has 10+ years of experience as a photographer, videographer, and illustrator before she made the plunge into UI/UX design. She has her Bachelor's in Social Sciences from IBA Pakistan.
Saif Akhtar
Saif is based in San Jose, CA and is responsible for keeping our clients happy (and the lights on). He's been an early employee, co-founder, investor/VC, and advisor to various startups, most recently on the founding team of Cresance (part of Stanford's StartX & Alchemist Accelerator) and Intellus.ai. Saif has a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from San Jose State University.
What We Love Doing
We deliver the smallest useful thing fast, then iterate where it pays off. The goal is steady progress and software your team can own. Horizon Labs is dedicated to providing the very best product engineering experience to teams who trust us to build with them.
MVPs in Weeks
From sketch to live product in 6–12 weeks. Real users, real data, investor-ready.
Modernize Systems
Replace spreadsheets and brittle tools with calm, maintainable software that fits your workflow.
Marketplaces
We have built marketplaces on Shopify, Wordpress, Woocommerce, Webflow, and Sharetribe. We have been official Sharetribe Experts since 2023.
Embedded / IoT
Connect devices to apps and dashboards; reliable firmware and clear cloud interfaces.
AI Features
Practical LLM integrations that reduce toil and unlock new revenue, with cost control and guardrails.
Technical Advisory
We've been in your small business owner and startup founder shoes with some successes and many failures. Ask us anything!
How We Work
Short cycles, visible progress, and no surprises. We document choices, test what we ship, and keep you in control of scope, budget, and timeline.
We Estimate Every Project
Do you want dates, scope, and cost up front?
We define “done,” write acceptance criteria, and list risks with options. You get a milestone estimate with clear trade-offs for faster or cheaper. Unknowns become a small discovery, not open-ended hours, and we avoid scope creep.
Build In Short Cycles
Do you want visible progress every week?
We ship in 1–2 week sprints with a live staging link, small PRs, and tests. Weekly demos show exactly what’s ready. Change requests are explicit, priced, and scheduled to avoid any surprises, and you'll always have access to your team to provide proof of work.
Communication & Transparency
Do you want no surprises?
Multiple shared channels, two project owners, and weekly status updates: what shipped, what’s next, and any risks. You always know timeline, budget burn, and blockers. We prefer using Google Spaces, Teams, or Slack.
Go Live
Do you want a calm launch?
We've launched software projects hundreds of times and will guide you through every step of the process. Our team is on deck between 6am-6pm Pacific most weekdays, otherwise available 24/7 for emergencies.
We Earn Your Trust
Do you want a small senior team that acts like your product partner?
We treat your business like our own. Straight answers, early risk calls, and unglamorous reliability work. You get a team that shows up, owns outcomes, and stands behind the result.
Warranty & Handoff
Do you want ownership without surprises?
We don't measure our relationships in contracts. All delivered work comes with a minimum 6-month warranty where we will fix any unaltered issues. We aim to provide clean documents, ADRs, and repos in your org and can train your team.
Our Principles
You hire us to make progress. We ship investor-grade software fast and keep it simple: clear milestones, weekly demos, clean handoffs. You own the IP and get a dependable team that moves like an extension of yours.
Start small.
Ship the smallest version that proves value. Define acceptance criteria, cut nice-to-haves, and launch in weeks so real usage guides the roadmap.
Talk to users.
Decisions come from conversations and logs. Engineers join calls, we instrument key events, and we change course when the data or users say so.
Prefer boring tech.
Choose proven tools with clear upgrade paths. Defaults first, optimization when it pays. Reliability beats novelty every time.
Leave it better.
Small PRs, tests, linting, and monitoring. We write ADRs and plain docs so your team can run the system without us.
Spend like it’s yours.
Milestone estimates, open trade-offs for faster vs cheaper, and reuse where it makes sense. Fixed-price where scope is clear; no surprises.
Post-Contract Support
We are here to build long-term partnerships with the customers who trust us to deliver. Even if that changes, we will be available to help transition or fix what breaks.