Start a project

Available for new engagements

We build Elixir apps that run year after year

Stagira is a small Elixir and Phoenix studio. We help teams ship reliable products, see what’s happening inside them, and make the big architectural calls with someone who’s been there before.

Tell us about your project → Read our books
// OUR FAVORITE TOOLS
  • elixir
  • phoenix
  • vue.js
  • grafana
  • prometheus
stagira/overview
years_shipping10+at Amazon and as a startup’s first engineer
hex_downloads_total16.5Macross 23 open-source packages
books_published4on Elixir, Nerves and finance
own_saas_statuslivewe run our own product, too
// Services

What we do

Four things, done well. We’re happy to start small with a review or a single feature, and stay as long as we’re useful.

01

Elixir & Phoenix builds

New products and new features on Elixir, Phoenix and LiveView, with Vue on the frontend when you need it. Built to be easy to run and easy to hand over.

elixir · phoenix · liveview · vue
02

Observability

Metrics, logs and dashboards you’ll actually use. We set up Prometheus, Grafana and Loki so you hear about problems before your customers do.

prometheus · grafana · loki · prom_ex
03

Architecture & code review

A clear, honest look at your codebase, with practical next steps. Good before a big rewrite, a funding round, or your first senior hire.

otp design · performance · audits
04

Fractional CTO

For founders without a technical lead yet. We help set direction, make the early stack decisions, and get you ready to hire your team.

first engineer · hiring · roadmap
// Experience

Big-company scale, startup instincts

Over a decade of building production software at very different scales. That range helps: we know when a startup needs a big-company process, and when it really doesn’t.

$ git log --career --oneline
  • now
    Founder, SaaS company

    We build and run our own product on Elixir, so we deal with production problems every day.

  • startups
    First engineer, more than once

    Took products from an empty repo to paying customers, then helped hire the team that came after.

  • amazon
    Engineering at Amazon

    Learned how to build and run services where scale and reliability can’t be an afterthought.

  • always
    Writing & open source

    Four books and 23 Hex packages, all based on what worked on real projects.

// Books

We wrote some of the books on this

The patterns we teach are the ones we use on client work. If you want to see how we think before we talk, start here.

// Open source

Our code is already in your dependency tree

We maintain 23 packages on Hex. Production Elixir teams use them for metrics, code quality and email.

hex.pm/users/akoutmos ↗
hex_downloads_total16,479,363
cumulative · all packages
first packagetoday
// How we work

Simple, honest engagements

trace new_engagement4 spans · 1 team · 0 errors

  1. 01A conversation

    intro.call

    A free 30-minute call to talk about your goals, constraints and timeline.

  2. 02A clear proposal

    scope.proposal

    A short written plan with deliverables, timeline and a fixed price or monthly rate.

  3. 03Work in the open

    build

    Weekly check-ins, small pull requests, and access to the work in progress at all times.

  4. 04Leave it better

    handoff

    Docs, dashboards and walkthroughs so your team owns the result when we’re done.

engagement models:fixed-scope projectsmonthly retaineradvisory hours
// AI, responsibly

Faster with AI, never sloppier

We use AI tools every day, and they help us move quickly. But speed doesn’t help if you end up with code no one understands. Every line we ship is read, tested and owned by an engineer who can explain it.

When we hand a project over, your team gets a clean, idiomatic Elixir codebase that it can maintain for years, not a pile of generated spaghetti.

$ git diff --stat ai_policy
  • +Every change reviewed by a senior engineer
  • +Tests, typespecs and docs held to the same standard
  • +Idiomatic OTP patterns your team will recognize
  • +Your code and data stay private, never used to train models
  • −Unreviewed generated code
  • −Code that only the AI understands
// Kind words
“Alex lent us his instrumentation expertise to guide us through a Prometheus/Grafana overhaul. From writing custom dashboards to taming an intricate tooling setup, he quickly delivered excellent work.”
Parker SelbertCreator of Oban & Oban Pro
“Alex is all pro. He helped us define our needs, developed solutions for those needs, and delivered it all with quality and timeliness. I would absolutely work with him again.”
Jerod SantoFounder of The Changelog
Alex Koutmos
alex_koutmosfounder · stagira
// About

Small on purpose

Stagira is led by Alex Koutmos. He has spent more than ten years building apps, from Amazon to startups where he was the first engineer. He also runs his own SaaS company, so we know what it’s like to be on call for something you built.

We take on a small number of clients at a time. When you work with Stagira, you work with the people who wrote the books and the libraries, not someone you’re handed off to.

// Contact

Let’s talk about what you’re building.

Tell us a little about the project. We read every message ourselves and usually reply within two business days.

  • → 30-minute intro call, no charge
  • → written proposal within a week
  • → NDA available on request

what can we help with?