We’ve been the founder, the owner, and the engineering manager.
On a mission to help teams like ours build software fast and efficiently, without the drama.
Built from a working relationship that started in high school.
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 Türkiye. When Sinan moved to the U.S. for Y Combinator with Cuboh in 2019, he leaned on Serdar to build and manage his offshore engineering bench back in Türkiye. After exiting his YC startup, other startups began asking Sinan to act as a fractional CTO and help them hire reliable engineers. Sinan and Serdar formalized the model and started Horizon Labs. Many of the same engineers who joined them in those early years are still with us today: as managers. Saif (COO) joined in 2022 to run customer success and sales; at our core we are a devshop that builds custom software products but we specialize in launching products lean and generating early sales.
US-led, with a long-standing senior bench in Türkiye.
Book time directly with a founder: Saif Akhtar, Co-Founder & COO
Sinan Sari
Co-founder & CTO of Cuboh (YC S19), senior engineer at Tasso & Oscar Health, co-founder at Kidsy. Healthtech & marketplace projects. B.S. Computer Science, Bilkent.
Serdar Pehlivan
Math Olympiad medalist, PhD in Computer Engineering (UConn), ex-Vice Dean of Engineering. Prepares every proposal, bi-weekly report, and financial report personally.
Esra Nur
Bridges client business objectives and our technical teams; crafts the user stories engineers build from. B.S. Computer Science, Bilkent; M.A. Graphic Design.
Gorkem Bendin
Full-stack web, mobile, and embedded developer, 9+ years across startups and enterprises. Oversees the code we deploy for clients. B.S. Computer Engineering, Erciyes.
Basmah Masood
Visual storyteller: 10+ years as photographer, videographer, and illustrator before UI/UX. Designs for our clients and incubated projects. B.S. Social Sciences, IBA.
Saif Akhtar
Early employee, co-founder, investor/VC, and advisor across startups. Most recently founding team at Cresance (StartX & Alchemist). B.S. Mechanical Engineering, SJSU.
How we decide, every sprint.
Start small.
Ship the smallest version that proves value. Define acceptance criteria, cut nice-to-haves, 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 says so.
Prefer boring tech.
Proven tools with clear upgrade paths. Defaults first, optimization when it pays. Reliability beats novelty every time.
Leave it better.
Small PRs, tests, linting, monitoring. 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, reuse where it makes sense. Fixed-price where scope is clear.
Stay after launch.
We don't measure relationships in contracts. Six-month warranty minimum, and we're available to help transition or fix what breaks.