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About Me

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Hello, I’m Laurence 👋

I’m a self-taught mobile app developer based in the UK, though I am currently travelling around South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. I’ve been building apps in Flutter for several years, and more recently I’ve started exploring SwiftUI for iOS natively. This site is my home for apps I’ve released, experiments, and thoughts that pop into my head along the way.

My Story

Travel photo I didn’t start out as an app developer. I originally trained in Geophysics with Geology, however I found that I wanted to explore more of the coding side. This lead me to doing a Master's in Scientific computing & data science. At the end of this (or as I was still finishing my dissertation yikes!) I got a job at BT in their data science & cyber processing arm.

I learned so many useful skills whilst working there, though I also developed a dangerous itch to start creating things for myself. So, in my free time, I began experimenting with Flutter and over three years built and shipped a handful of apps to the App Store and Google Play.

What began as a side project turned into something I genuinely love — solving problems with design and code, and seeing people all over the world use my apps. Essentially, I became addicted to the process and decided to go all-in on this for a while to see what would happen. It was a pretty scary experiment to put myself through — I went from taking home good money (£3000/month) to slightly less good (£300/month)...as well as saying goodbye to my comfy routines, the friends I'd made and the region of the UK I'd grown to love (Gloucestershire) to pursue something entirely under my own steam.

And here I am today writing this in a slightly stuffy hotel room in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It has only been a few months since I started this 'full time' pursuit of my dreams and I know I definitely have a long way to go. But I'm eager to continue and see where this journey takes me - one code commit at a time!

What I’m Working On

Workspace photo While I am away travelling, I'm focused on SwiftUI and the Apple ecosystem — learning how to design apps for iOS, iPadOS, and macOS all from one codebase. This, I think, is an important skill to have with many companies adopting SwiftUI for building native platform apps. Not to mention Apple putting out so many new innovations in the past years (and more on the way!), I sometimes feel as though Flutter is beginning to lag behind. Plus, like many others, I am now fully on the Apple bandwagon - iPhone, Macbook - so coding in their system is the natural progression and the coming technologies from such an innovative company excite me greatly.

Alongside that, I’m continuing to improve my existing apps in Flutter, adding features and refining the experience based on user feedback. Coding while travelling can sometime be pretty hard - think dodgy connections and lack of deep focus among others! - so I'm mainly trying to implement ways to increase user conversion and ASO strategies for those already on the App Store.

My long-term dream is to grow my indie apps into something sustainable while continuing to explore creative projects and maybe collaborate with startups building tools I believe in.

Outside of Work

Hobby photo When I’m not coding, you’ll almost always find me outdoors, making the most of nature. I love hiking through forests and mountains, wild camping under the stars and exploring new trails wherever I travel. Outdoor climbing and kayaking are two of my favourite ways to challenge myself and experience the world from a different perspective. Whether it’s paddling across a quiet lake in Scotland, scrambling up a rock face in Snowdonia, or simply enjoying some weird health drink (green juice anyone?) at a local café after a long walk in the Cotswolds, I find that time spent in nature helps me recharge and stay inspired. The freedom of creating digital products is amazing, but I believe balance is just as important. This means I try to spend as much time as possible outside, embracing new adventures and soaking up the beauty of the natural world.

Of course, this balancing act is something I am still learning - particularly while I'm away travelling! The tradeoff between working on my apps, going out and exploring and getting rest time doesn't come naturally to me. I often feel like I should be coding whenever I get a precious spare minute, though this can sometimes leave me feeling like I'm doing a chore which we all know isn't sustainable. In order to be self-motivated around the clock, it has to be enjoyable - at least on some level! Plus, I don't want to lose the fire that has driven me until now; finding the sweet spot between adding more logs so it grows, but not so many that it smothers the flame is one of the most important skills in this game.

Get in Touch

I’m happy to chat — whether it’s about app ideas, indie dev life, or just to say hi!