Small studio.
Patient work.
Code you can read.
CS Software is a one-person engineering studio in Minneapolis. We build custom web applications, local business sites, and cloud infrastructure for clients who want a senior partner — not a body shop.
How we work.
# updated 2026-03-14
Senior engineering, full stop.
No juniors billed at senior rates, no offshore hand-offs. The person you meet on the kickoff call writes the code that ships.
Small batch, deeply considered.
We keep the number of active engagements small. Your project gets real attention — schema reviews, architecture decisions, code you can hand to anyone.
Fixed scope, fixed price.
Two-week discovery, then a proposal with a number and a date. No hourly drip, no scope creep, no invoices that surprise you.
Boring technology, on purpose.
Postgres over the latest K/V store. React over framework-of-the-month. We pick tools that will still be maintained when your CTO looks at them in 2031.
You own everything.
Source, infra, domains, DNS, credentials. Engagements end with a handoff doc and full access. We build things you can live without us.
Ship visibly.
Regular demos and working builds. If you can't see progress in a week, something is wrong.
One pair of hands.
From kickoff to prod.
Colin Summers founded CS Software in 2024 after eleven years in software, from consulting to leading a product team at a major automotive technology company. The studio exists to do the careful, end-to-end work that's hard to find at agency scale.
Every database schema, every deploy, every line of TypeScript goes through the same pair of hands. That's not a pitch — it's the whole point.
Founder · CS Software LLC
Small-batch custom software practice. Local business sites, agile tools, AI integration work, a game or two.
Senior Engineer / Team Lead
Team lead and senior engineer roles at major automotive technology company. Owned multiple products from greenfield to life support, led a team of engineers for three years.
Mid-level Engineer
Primary developer working under an architectural lead. Responsible for major features, database design and deployments.
Software Consultant
Started in consulting. Learned to ship under deadline, read unfamiliar codebases, and say no to scope creep.
From brief to handoff.
30 minutes. You describe the problem. We decide if we can help.
Day 0Two weeks. Stakeholder interviews, technical audit, a written proposal with scope, price, and ship date.
Wk 1–2Contract signed. Repo provisioned, CI set up, environments stood up. First demo scheduled.
Wk 3Regular demos. Async updates. Real builds, not slideware.
Wk 3–NSoft launch to a test group. Monitoring wired up. Hypercare after launch.
Wk NCredentials, runbooks, and docs. Retainer optional.
Wk N+2