Web bricolage & other services.
From designing & prototyping ideas, to end-to-end application development and marketing consultations.
I bring projects to life and make them run smoother through creative epiphanies, programming magic and lots of elbow grease. A freelancer that gets stuff done on the internet.
Testimonials
Word on the street, this guy's legit
Great work experience
“Manu understood my needs, brought in new ideas and quickly delivered.
His communication skills and rigor during execution make him a great fit for design collaborations.”
Yoann Vuagnoux
UI Designer
Very committed and resourceful
“Manu quickly got the gist of our project and how to integrate our identity and business logic into a custom web app. Very easy to work with, he carefully handled each task and followed up on us after the launch.”
Victoria Effantin
Founder - Mamiche
Skills and services
Full stack project development through and through
I combine both soft and technical skills to solve real-world problems
and build engaging user experiences, while having fun (most of the time).
Work
📎 Recent projects
Cadenapp
Cadenapp is a project I co-founded and built in Bogotá in 2023. It's a Rails app that addresses the problem of financial exclusion in Colombia, where 2/5 adults don't have access to classic banking services, especially in lower strata. As a consequence, 10% of Colombians resort to a method known as "cadenas" to save their money. We tried to offer a digital, user-friendly twist to this age-old practice, empowering individuals to gather funds in a more accessible and transparent way.
Mamiche Clic & Collect
In order to alleviate their workload during the busiest times of the year (spring and christmas), Mamiche called me back to develop a new take-out service. This time, no e-commerce tools were used to pre-chew the work, the app had to be built from the ground up. 100% custom-made.
Mamiche Delivery
Mamiche is a group of parisian bakeries founded in 2017 that make probably the most delicious breads and pastries in the city. Run by a team of passionate women, it quickly became a hit and everyday since their launch clients have been forming a line out their doors. Mamiche contacted me during the COVID-19 pandemic to develop their first "online" Delivery service.
Articles
🪄 Tricks of the trade
7 essential tools to improve your Rails DX
The Ruby on Rails framework is renowned for its developer-friendly ecosystem, but you can further elevate your work experience with these 7 essential tools.
Use plain YAML or JSON files to store static data
When you have repeated pieces of text content that won’t change much over time, it may be a good idea to review your storing approach. If the content doesn't involve complex CRUD operations, having a dedicated table in your database can be overkill. There's another way!
Cleaner flash notifications with AlpineJS
If you scaffold your views in Rails, you know that flash messages insert themselves straight into your pages after submission. That's not very elegant and gets messy if you have multiple forms. Let's make a flash message worthy of its name.
DIY lead collection form
You don't always need to rely on third-party services to get things done. In many cases, using a combination of over the counter tools and custom solutions can simplify your processes. Let's build a form so you can start capturing leads straight into your Rails app!
Speed up your UX by deferring image loading with placeholders
Deferring the loading of your images with placeholders can prove really helpful for your user experience and application performance. Here's a simple implementation that can help you achieve that in Rails!
An improvement on conditional links in Rails
Rails' link_to_if helper is limited, yet the situations where you need conditional links are not uncommon. Improve your conditionally anchored elements by implementing this neat little helper!
Tailwind on Rails: how to get the most out of it
Some devs hate Tailwind. Others love it. This division is also palpable among the Rails community. I default to it because it offers world class docs, incredible levels of customization, and very thoughtful design choices. Being markup-first, it pairs naturally with Rails but it requires some fine-tuning (and experience) to be truly enjoyable.
Give your app time-travel capabilities with Timecop
Sometimes your application’s states and processes evolve with the clock and you need some commands to simulate the passing of time or the arrival of a specific date. Well, like often, in the Rails world there is a gem for that.