I help people with deep industry knowledge build the tools they've always wanted.

You know your business inside and out. You've been sketching ideas on napkins for years. I'm the technical partner who makes them real.

I like to think of myself as a business-savvy, customer-centric, product engineer with soft skills. That's just a long-winded way of saying I help bridge technical and non-technical worlds to make sure that the end user's experience is always top of mind. I love building projects that help solve real problems.

I've had successful exits from 4 of my projects and was previously a Solutions Engineer in Foursquare's Chicago office where I helped enterprise companies integrate and optimize their geo-location needs. Most recently I was the engineering lead at Able.com, where I was primarily responsible for the planning and execution of mobile and server development.

As one of the founding members of Technori and Chicago.concat(), I've been involved with the Chicago tech and developer communities since 2010.

Let's Build Something

I work with business owners and domain experts who have ideas for software that would transform how they work — but aren't technical enough to build it themselves.

Together, we go from idea to working product. I handle the architecture, the code, and the production details. You bring the expertise and vision.

What this looks like:

  • Monthly partnership ($5k/month) — ongoing collaboration, building and iterating together
  • Project-based work — for well-defined builds with clear scope

If you've got an idea you've been sitting on, let's talk.

Schedule a Call

Recent Projects

Here's what I've been building lately.

  • Augusta Planner

    Compliance automation for the Augusta Rule (Section 280A), helping business owners document tax-free rental income from their property.

    augustaplanner.com

  • Just Send It

    Dead-simple email marketing for creators. Send emails to your list straight from your favorite email client — no templates, no logins, no fuss.

    justsendit.email

  • C

    CPA Connect

    Practice management platform for accounting firms — streamlining client management, project workflows, team coordination, and billing.

    mycpaconnect.com

  • Eventually Ticketing

    Event ticketing that integrates natively with Squarespace Commerce — no external checkouts or workarounds needed.

    eventuallyticketing.com

Past Projects

A few older projects — some sold, some still running.

  • billQ

    A simple bill tracking and reminder tool. Still has paying customers. Built in PHP.

    mybillq.com

  • WPComplete

    A Wordpress plugin that adds completability to your course. Sold to iThemes.

    wpcomplete.co

  • Fixtail

    A newsletter segmentation SaaS that connected Stripe sales to Mailchimp subscribers. Sold. Built in Ruby on Rails.

    fixtail.com

Full list of projects

Testimonials

What people say about working with me

"Working with Zack was an absolute dream. He took my idea and vision for a new online scheduling tool for my cake shop and turned it into an easy-to-use solution that was exactly what I needed. Less friction at checkout led to higher sales, and his streamlined scheduling system saved me stress AND administrative costs. Total game changer for my business!"

"I am lucky enough to work with Zack Gilbert as our own fractional CTO resource for software and coding at Week of the Website - he's taking on new projects and I couldn't recommend a better partner for success!"

"Working with Zack has been a true pleasure. His deep technical expertise is matched by high levels of collaboration and results. Under his guidance, we delivered several high-stakes projects at Foursquare. His pragmatic approach, coupled with an ability to foster a cooperative work environment, made him a key asset to our organization."

Gareth Paul Jones
Manager at Foursquare

"Zack is the first call when I need anything built, period. He is an amazingly talented, yet humble individual who listens more than he speaks and guides more than he corrects. He is able to get out of you what you want even when you can't quite tell him what it is. He is also extremely flexible and able to adapt and change at the drop of a hat, which if you have built anything from scratch you will know how often that can happen. Lastly, Zack is an amazing father and husband too which may be the only thing more impressive than his ability to build!"

Vince Cortese
CEO of Able.com

"just saying, @zackgilbert is the best cofounder a boy could have."

Paul Jarvis
Cofounder of WPComplete & Fixtail

"Zack's an incredibly talented developer but what makes him stand out is his hyper collaborative DNA, high velocity of shipping and a strong sense of design. I loved working with Zack on the SaaS app he built for me so I could get to revenue very quickly. I'd 100% recommend him to any other ambitious founder."

"I couldn't imagine a better person to partner with if you want to test bringing an idea to life...trying to come up with something we can work on together!"

Allen Penn
@allenpenn

"Anyone getting Zack for a month is lucky. He's the unaffordable and unhirable combo of talented designer meets talented engineer meets experienced entrepreneur."

Seth Kravitz
@sethkravitz

Articles

Recent writing and notes.

Interested in working together?

Let's talk!