TIN/About
About · Software studio · Since 2004 · Canada + UK

A software studio with 22 years of receipts.

TIN was incorporated in Canada and the United Kingdom in 2004. We have built tourism portals, enterprise web platforms, and custom software for two decades. In 2023 we shifted decisively toward AI implementation — not for the buzzword, but because it changed what we can build for clients. Same studio, sharper focus.

2004
Founded · Canada + UK
4
Named partners
22yr
Years shipping
12+
Live case studies
2004

Twenty-two years. In an industry that's two.

2004 is before "the cloud" was a noun, before "responsive design" meant a layout, and twenty-two years before the current AI cycle. TIN was incorporated as dual Canadian and UK entities that year. We have been shipping software continuously since.

01 · Built in 2004. Still shipping in 2026.

The early years were tourism and culture.

TIN was incorporated in Canada and the United Kingdom in 2004, before "the cloud" was a noun and when "responsive design" meant the site eventually loaded. In the years since we have done one thing consistently: built software for organizations that need the real thing. The stacks have changed. The discipline has not.

The early years were tourism and culture. TIN partnered with Tourism Toronto and a consortium of Canadian tourism agencies to build what became one of the largest tourism portals in Canada — the kind of multi-city, multi-language, deep-content platform that today would take a 50-person team and a Series A. We built it then with a small, senior team. We still build that way today.

That work caught the attention of the European Council, which retained TIN as expert consultants on a cultural and tourism portal intended to span the EU. The portal itself never launched — large institutional projects often do not — but the consulting relationship continued for eight years. We worked alongside the Council on architecture, technical strategy, and the difficult question of how to design information systems that serve 27 member states. That experience is still in the studio's DNA: design for the messy real world, not the demo.

  1. 2004
    Incorporated as dual Canadian + UK entities. Two-person studio. First clients in Canadian tourism + culture.
  2. 2006
    Tourism Toronto partnership. We help build one of the largest tourism portals in Canada.
  3. 2008
    European Councilretains TIN as expert consultants on a pan-EU cultural & tourism portal. Relationship runs eight years.
  4. 2012
    Enterprise era begins. Sitefinity builds for Environics Analytics and other data-heavy clients.
  5. 2019
    Platform pivot. Migrate web practice entirely from WordPress to Webflow.
  6. 2023
    AI shift, on purpose. Deliberately retool the studio around production AI implementation.
  7. 2026
    Four named partners. A senior contractor network. 22 years of receipts.
02 · The enterprise era

Through the 2010s, complex web platforms for real operating infrastructure.

Through the 2010s, TIN built and maintained complex web platforms for enterprise clients. We programmed sites and applications on Progress Software's Sitefinity Environics Analytics, one of Canada's leading data and analytics firms, was a long-running client whose corporate site we delivered and supported on Sitefinity.

We worked across financial services, professional services, and analytics-heavy verticals where the website is not a brochure — it is a real piece of operating infrastructure.

In 2019 we made a deliberate platform pivot. WordPress had been our primary CMS for years; it was no longer the right tool for the clients we were taking on. We migrated our practice entirely to Webflow for marketing and content sites and have shipped dozens of production Webflow builds since — the live portfolio carries the receipts from that era.

Section 3 — Custom software, across verticals

In parallel with our web practice, TIN has built custom software for clients across half a dozen industries. Online meeting and collaboration platforms. Social and community platforms. Multi-tenant listing platforms for professional services. Marketplaces and portals for artisan and creator economies. Booking systems. CRM-adjacent operational tools.

Some of those projects launched. Some shipped as proofs-of-concept and held in private use. Some did not survive their funding rounds. That is the reality of working with early-stage and growth-stage clients — and that is the reality the studio is built for.

By 2023 our team had collectively shipped many millions of lines of production code, across far more than the case studies we publish.

04 · The AI shift, on purpose

In 2023 we shifted decisively toward AI implementation. Not for the buzzword.

Because the technology had crossed a threshold where it materially changed what we could build for our clients. Things that used to require a 40-person support team became solvable with AI agents wired into the right backend. Things that used to require a six-month content roadmap became solvable with a multi-stage AI pipeline. The economics of certain work were re-written.

What we do not do — and have been deliberate about not doing — is sell AI for AI's sake. About 30% of the discovery conversations we have today end with us recommending you do not use AI for the problem you described. The problem is sometimes better solved by a rules engine, a classifier, a workflow tool, or simply a clearer process. We will tell you when that is the case.

Where AI does fit, we go deep. The PetStore Direct multi-agent suite and the Konnect platform work — these are the proof of what production AI looks like when it is built by people who have been building software since 2004.

AI when it fits — not AI for AI's sake
30%

of our discovery calls end with us telling the client not to use AI for the problem they described.

▸ Sometimes the answer is a rules engine.
▸ Sometimes it's a classifier.
▸ Sometimes it's just a clearer process.
▸ We will tell you which.

05 · The team

Four named partners. No junior bench.

TIN is a small, senior team. The four people you'll deal with most — plus a network of senior contractors assembled per engagement. Behind the four named partners is depth; in front of them is who you actually talk to.

GF

Gene Foo

Founder · CEO · Lead architectHover for bio
Founder · CEO · Lead architect

Gene Foo

Founded TIN in 2004 and has run it ever since. Heads strategy and technical architecture across every engagement. Twenty-two years of building software on every meaningful stack — early-2000s portal architectures through Sitefinity-era enterprise CMSes through Webflow and today's Next.js + Vercel + AI stack. The technical centre of gravity for the studio.

Gratia Ionescu

Marketing · Design · OpsHover for bio
Marketing · Design · Ops

Gratia Ionescu

Runs marketing, design, and operations at TIN. Bridges the studio's creative output — brand, product UI, content, the website you are reading — with how the company runs day-to-day. If your project includes a design or content phase, Gratia is one of the people you'll be working with.

MK

Miodrag (Misko) Krsmanovin

Partner · Eastern EuropeHover for bio
Partner · Eastern Europe

Miodrag (Misko) Krsmanovin

Based in Serbia. Leads TIN's client relationships and growth across Eastern Europe. First point of contact for clients in the region and the bridge into the rest of the studio.

Konstantin Bošnjak

Partner · EU markets · AI adoptionHover for bio
Partner · EU markets · AI adoption

Konstantin Bošnjak

A different operating background to most of the studio: international commodity trading and the nautical industry, with deep cross-border experience across Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. Focuses today on how AI creates genuine business adaptability for traditional industries — supply chains, logistics, trade operations — rather than novelty.

Plus —

A senior contractor network of engineers, designers, and AI specialists assembled per engagement. We have stayed deliberately small because we believe craft and continuity matter more than headcount.

06 · How we work

Five things you'll notice if you work with us.

Not platitudes — actual operating commitments. The same five things every client hears in the first discovery call.

  1. We ship.

    Every week, you see working software. No "we'll demo at the end of the sprint" — demos happen weekly, with the actual product, not a Figma.

  2. We're honest about scope.

    If something is going to take longer, we say so the moment we know. If we have to cut, we say what to cut and why. No surprise overruns.

  3. We price plainly.

    Fixed price, fixed scope. Time-and-materials only for retainers, and only after we know the work. The cost on the proposal is the cost on the invoice.

  4. We say no.

    About 30% of discovery calls end with us recommending you not hire us. Wrong fit is worse than no fit. The shortlist we send when we decline is real.

  5. We hand over the keys.

    Documentation, runbooks, eval suites, observability. You can fire us and run the system yourself. We hope you don't — but you can.

07 · Where we are

Two registered entities. Three operating regions.

Active client work across North America and Europe. Async-with-weekly-syncs by default, which means we cover any reasonable working window comfortably.

Canada · HQ

Canada

Registered 2004 · Gene + Gratia

Studio HQ. Americas coverage. Strategy and technical architecture across every engagement.

United Kingdom

United Kingdom

Registered 2004 · EU markets

Dual entity since 2004. Today the legal anchor for European Council–era work and ongoing EU engagements.

Eastern Europe

Serbia + central Europe

Misko · Konstantin · since 2010s

Client relationships and growth across Eastern Europe and DACH. AI-for-traditional-industries focus.

08 · Principles

Five we've stayed honest to since 2004.

Not platitudes — actual things we measure ourselves on. The kind of thing we'd cite if you asked why a project was tracking badly, and the kind of thing we put on the wall when we open a new office.

Principle 01

Ship working software, not slideware.

22 years of engagements; every one ended with code in production, never with a strategy deck alone.

Principle 02

Specific over clever.

Vague is the enemy of useful. We'll tell you "this build takes 12 weeks and $180k", not "it depends on scope".

Principle 03

Hand over the keys.

Documentation, runbooks, eval suites. You can run the system without us from day one.

Principle 04

Say no to wrong-fit work.

The 30% of discovery calls that end with "you should not hire us" is a feature, not a bug.

09 · What we work on

The portfolio, on one page.

AI systems

Multi-agent suites · retrieval · voice

Production AI built inside client engagements — agent orchestration, commerce automation, and operational systems that run in the real world.

See recent work →
Custom builds

Platforms · Webflow · commerce

8–16 week engagements. AI agent suites (PetStore Direct), platform integrations (Konnect), Webflow rebuilds (Euras, JDLPA, Drunken Horse Gin).

See case studies →
Productized services

Shopify Chat & Automation · custom Shopify themes

The middle ground: bespoke work, fixed price. For when a full platform build is more than you need right now.

See services →
22 years · Canada + UK · Broadcasting

One way in. Real.

Book a discovery call about a custom system. You'll talk to one of the four named partners, not a sales rep.

Founded2004
Named partners4
Years shipping22
Registered entities2 · CA + UK