Platform Development · Waterloo
Waterloo's platform engineering partner — the backend, data and infra your product scales on.
We design and build the platform underneath the product: APIs, data, cloud and the reliability work that decides whether you scale or stall. Built for Waterloo teams who'd rather ship than re-platform in a year.
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Why Waterloo teams call us
The work you can't afford to get wrong.
Waterloo is Canada's densest startup region around the University of Waterloo — engineering-heavy teams that judge you on platform and architecture.
Our backend was built to get to launch and it's now the thing slowing every release down.
We're going multi-tenant / enterprise and our architecture wasn't designed for it.
Our data is spread across five systems and nobody trusts the numbers in the dashboard.
We're paying per-seat for Tableau / Power BI / Looker and the bill scales worse than our revenue.
We have outages we can't explain and no real observability to find out why.
What we do
What platform engineering actually covers.
Every engagement starts with a 30-minute call. If we can't tell you something useful in that window, we don't take it on.
Platform & backend architecture
APIs, services and data models designed for where you're going, not where you launched — the structure that lets you add features without adding fragility.
Data platform
One source of truth: pipelines, warehouse/lakehouse and a semantic layer, so the dashboard, the product and finance all agree on the numbers.
Embedded analytics & BI
Replace per-seat Tableau / Power BI / Looker with Apache Superset and ClickHouse, embedded inside your product — the reference architecture we run for our own platforms.
Cloud & DevOps
AWS, GCP or Azure done properly: IaC, CI/CD, environments, secrets and cost guardrails — so deploys are boring and the bill is predictable.
Multi-tenant SaaS
Tenant isolation, row-level security, per-tenant config and the data architecture that lets you sell to enterprise without re-platforming.
Reliability & observability
SLOs, tracing, logging and alerting that tell you what broke and why — before the customer does. Performance and caching that hold up under load.
Why Waterloo
In your timezone. Onsite when it counts.
Waterloo teams are engineering-led: fintech and hardware/IoT startups scaling fast, judging a partner on architecture, multi-tenancy and device-telemetry handling, not slideware.
We build to that bar — scalable multi-tenant SaaS, device-telemetry pipelines on ClickHouse and well-architected cloud — with embedded Superset and PIPEDA-aligned Canadian residency.
What "good" looks like.
We measure ourselves on what your team is doing differently — not on hours billed.
Typical BI licensing reduction when we replace per-seat Tableau / Power BI / Looker with embedded Superset + ClickHouse.
Architecture that lets you sell to enterprise — tenant isolation and row-level security — without a rebuild.
CI/CD, IaC and observability so releases are routine and outages are explainable, not mysteries.
Everything lands in your repo and your cloud account. No black box, no lock-in to us.
How we engage
Three ways to start. All begin with a call.
Engagement
Platform Audit
2-week diagnostic of your architecture, data and reliability — what to fix first, what to retire, what'll break at the next scale step. Fixed scope, fixed fee.
from C$10K
Engagement
Platform Build
6–12 week engagement: re-platform, data platform, embedded analytics or multi-tenant migration, delivered in your repo and infrastructure.
from C$50K
Engagement
Embedded platform team
An embedded platform squad that builds alongside your engineers and hands the keys back. 2–4 days a week, quarterly outcomes.
from C$12K/mo
FAQ
Direct answers to what Waterloo teams ask before they book.
Are you based in Waterloo?
We're an Australian-headquartered firm and work with Waterloo teams remote-first in your timezone, with onsite visits for kickoff and key milestones. We work with teams across Uptown Waterloo, the University of Waterloo corridor and Kitchener.
How fast can you start?
A 2-week Platform Audit can start the Monday after the scoping call. Larger engagements typically begin 1–2 weeks out, depending on team availability.
Do you work in CAD and to Canadian compliance?
Yes — we contract and price in CAD. We design for PIPEDA, Quebec's Law 25 where relevant, SOC 2 and ISO 27001. We're an official Vanta partner for the evidence side.
Do you work in our existing stack or impose your own?
Your stack. We meet the codebase, cloud and tools you already run, and we only recommend a change when the cost of staying is clearly higher than the cost of moving.
Can you help with the embedded analytics / Superset piece specifically?
Yes — it's a core competency. We run Apache Superset and ClickHouse embedded inside our own venture-studio products, so the reference architecture is one we operate, not just recommend.
Can you handle device or IoT telemetry?
Yes — high-volume device telemetry is time-series, which we run on ClickHouse, with reliable ingestion from the field.
We're engineering-led — will you meet our bar?
Yes — we build the architecture in your repo and cloud, and we're happy to be judged on it, not on a deck.
Do you actually build, or just advise?
Both — and we never advise without being willing to build. If we tell you the answer is Apache Superset, we'll stand it up. If we say hire a senior engineer, we'll write the spec and sit on the panel.
Related
Stop benchmarking. Book a call.
Thirty minutes. No deck. We'll either tell you what to do next, or who you should be talking to instead of us.
Book a 30-min call