_about.kurt_annall
About
One person. Accounting background. Building automation, integration, and custom platforms for businesses that need things to actually work.
I founded Gainly because the work I kept being asked to do didn't fit neatly into what developers build or what consultants advise.
My background is in accounting. That shapes how I approach every project. When I look at a broken process or a disconnected system, I start from the operational and financial logic — what the business needs to be true, what the data should look like, what the failure modes cost — and work outward to the technology. Not the other way around.
Most of the problems I'm hired to fix have been treated as technology problems. Usually they're operational problems that technology is being asked to solve without anyone understanding the operation clearly first. The accounting background is useful here. It means I ask different questions than a developer who came up through the code.
I work alone. You deal with me directly from the first call through to deployment and handover. There are no account managers translating your requirements, no juniors building from a brief they didn't write, no one you speak to on Monday who isn't the person who builds it on Friday.
I use AI — Claude, GPT-4, and a range of other models — as a core part of how I work. Not as a novelty. As infrastructure. It lets me move at a pace that would otherwise require a team, which means faster delivery without the overhead and communication cost of an agency.
The work ranges across South Africa and internationally. Clients have included a field services business connecting 10 operational systems, a payments company replacing an 11-person manual reconciliation process, and businesses across several sectors that needed a web presence built properly from the ground up.
_principles.how_i_work
How I work
01
Start with the problem, not the solution
Every engagement starts with understanding what's actually happening — not what the client thinks the solution is. The solution usually changes once the problem is properly understood. The problem rarely does.
02
Build for the business, not the brief
A brief describes what someone thinks they need. The business usually needs something slightly different. I push back when the brief and the business need don't line up, and I come back with a better approach when they don't.
03
Deliver something that runs without me
The goal of every engagement is a system or platform that the business owns and can operate. Not a dependency. Handover and documentation are part of the work, not an afterthought.
04
Work with the stack that's already there
Businesses have existing tools, existing data, and existing workflows. The right answer rarely involves replacing everything. It usually involves connecting what's there and automating the work between the gaps.
_history.brief
Brief history
Accounting
Started in accounting. Understood from the start that the operational and financial logic of a business is the foundation everything else has to be built on.
Automation
Started automating processes inside businesses — moving data, reconciling records, replacing manual workflows with systems that run without intervention.
Integration
Expanded into connecting the systems businesses already use. Xero to operations platforms. CRMs to payment gateways. Microsoft 365 to everything else.
Custom platforms
Started building from scratch when no existing product fit. Reconciliation platforms, operational tools, client-facing portals. Full-stack builds on React, Supabase, and Cloudflare.
AI-augmented delivery
Built AI into the way I work — not just into what I build for clients. Agentic workflows, AI-assisted development, model-augmented research and documentation. The result is a solo practice that delivers at a pace most small teams can't match.
Gainly
The practice formalised under Gainly. The work is the same. The positioning is clearer.
_note.one_more_thing
I also build for myself. Stakehouse is a property co-ownership platform I built to solve a problem I had. It's not client work. It's how I stay sharp on the full stack.
Want to work together?
The fastest way to know if I'm the right fit is a direct conversation. Describe what you're dealing with and what you've already tried.
kurt@gainly.co.za