Diamond EdgeCutting edge. Rock solid.

Kotlin Multiplatform consulting

The app that cost too much to build is now worth building.

I'm Reed Ellsworth, and Diamond Edge is my independent practice. With AI doing the routine work, one senior engineer now delivers in weeks what used to take a team a quarter. I build native Android and iOS apps from one Kotlin Multiplatform codebase, at a fixed fee that's a fraction of a conventional team's, with the source in your repository from the first commit.

Work I've shipped this year

Three apps of my own, built the way I'd build yours: one codebase, tested on real phones, submitted to both stores. Each case study is less about the app than about what the same work would look like on your project.

On-device AI · Offline

Rimbalo

Dictation for lawyers and financial advisors that works with every radio off. Speech recognition, decoding and the finished documents all happen on the phone; the Android build has no network permission at all.

For you: a feature that has to work without a connection, or data that can't leave the device.

Real-time · Server

Diamond Tabletop

Eight card and board games with live multiplayer across phones, a server I built and run, and game rules that update without an app release.

For you: connections that drop and recover, one device as the source of truth, and a backend written in the same language as the app.

Design system · Release

Napkin Scores

A score pad for card nights with a hand-drawn look, built on a theme library I wrote and open-sourced. It collects no data at all.

For you: a small app with its own brand, finished properly and shipped to both stores.

Why it costs less now

Most of the cost of a conventional mobile project was never the hard engineering. It was the volume of routine code, written twice by two teams, and the coordination between them.

What AI does

The routine work: data layers, boilerplate, tests, mechanical conversion of old code, store paperwork. What used to take weeks now takes hours.

What I do

Everything that decides whether the app works: architecture, integration with your systems and devices, measuring on real phones, store review, and saying no to the feature that isn't ready. AI doesn't make those calls; I do, and I answer for them.

What you can check

Fast only helps if the code holds up. It's in your repository from the first commit, so your engineers can read every line, and review it before you sign off.

The result is projects that never cleared the budget now can: the customer app you priced once and shelved, the companion app for a product line too small to justify a mobile team, the migration you've deferred for three years, the client app an agency used to turn down.

What I build

Any app for Android and iOS: customer-facing or internal, consumer or business, or the mobile side of your web product, with the backend it needs. Most projects arrive in one of these situations. If yours is a poor fit, I'll tell you so and point you somewhere better.

Any company

A new app, from idea to both stores

"We know what the app should do. We don't have a mobile team."

The app, the backend it needs, and App Store and Google Play submission under your accounts. The three apps above show the range, from AI that runs on the phone to real-time multiplayer with its own server.

Hardware companies

Companion apps for your devices

"The hardware ships in ten weeks and we have no app team."

Pairing, connection management, device control, and the screens your customers use every day. Your team owns the device; I build the app that talks to it, with its side of the device protocol written once for both platforms.

Agencies

Mobile capacity under your brand

"A client asked for an app and we have nobody to build it."

I work under your brand, never contact your client, and hand back code you can present as your own. No direct contact and no solicitation, in writing.

Teams on dying frameworks

Migration to Kotlin Multiplatform

"Our app runs on Xamarin, and Microsoft stopped supporting it."

Xamarin, Cordova, Ionic and aging React Native, ported to Kotlin Multiplatform with the tests carried across, and the mechanical layers converted by tooling rather than retyped.

How an engagement works

One fee, agreed before work starts, never an hourly rate. You're buying an outcome, often against a date you've already committed to, so that's what the price is set against. If I've scoped it wrong, the overrun is mine.

  1. A paid assessment. One to two weeks of real work on what your app needs to do, against your hardware, your existing codebase or your client's brief where there is one. It ends in a written scope, a fixed fee and a date, and it's credited in full if you go ahead.
  2. An architecture review. Before production code is written, I walk your engineers through what's shared and what stays native. They get to argue with it; that's the point.
  3. Two-week cycles. Each one ends with a working build on a real device, and for hardware, against your actual device. You can change direction while it still costs nothing.
  4. Store submission and handoff. Apple and Google review under your accounts, then the pipeline, the documentation and a recorded code tour for whoever maintains it next.

What you own at the end

Fees

Published, because a fraction of the usual cost should be something you can check. Your actual fee comes out of the assessment, in writing, before you commit to anything more.

Start with an assessment

One to two weeks of real work at a fixed fee, credited in full toward the engagement if you go ahead. If you don't, you keep everything it produced.

AssessmentFeeWhat you get
Protocol Sprint, for hardware$5,000A review of how your device talks to an app, a written interface contract between the two, a working connection prototype against your real device, and a fixed quote
Migration Assessment$4,500A codebase audit, a complete feature inventory, a dependency and risk map, and an effort model you can take to your own budget process
Scoping, for a new app or an agency brief$2,500A review of what the app needs to do, an architecture outline, and a fixed quote; for agencies, one you can price your proposal against

Then one fee for the engagement

EngagementMost land betweenTypical lengthThe conventional route
A new app, including device companion apps$20k – $80k3–8 weeksAn agency quote of $180k–$400k and 6–9 months
Migration to Kotlin Multiplatform$30k – $100k4–12 weeksTwo native rewrites, one per platform, by two teams
Agency project, under your brandBy conversation3–8 weeksTurning the work away

A focused app with a few core screens, like Napkin Scores, sits at the lower end; an app on Rimbalo's scale, around $50k; an app with its own server, accounts and real-time sync, like Diamond Tabletop, at the upper end. Ongoing support after launch is optional and agreed separately; you own the code either way.

Who you'd be working with

Me, not a team assembled around your project. I scope the work, write the code, handle store submission and answer for the date.

Before Diamond Edge's current apps I spent 14 years building Android: the sole Android engineer on Weber's Summit Smart Valve grill, with live temperature and cook state streamed over BLE and Wi-Fi; Android lead for a point-of-care kiosk fleet of more than 100,000 devices at Outcome Health; and principal engineer on Sling TV's live-streaming app, with 1M monthly Android users. I also wrote KmLogging and DiamondCharts, two open-source Kotlin libraries on Maven Central.

  1. 2020 – nowDiamond Edge. Rimbalo, Diamond Tabletop, Napkin Scores.
  2. 2021 – 2026Weber / Blackstone. Smart-grill UI and companion app.
  3. 2019 – 2021Outcome Health. Android lead, kiosk fleet.
  4. 2014 – 2019Sling TV. Principal engineer, live TV on Android.

Tell me the date you're working against.

Thirty minutes, technical, no deck. Bring your launch date, your device's protocol documentation, your existing codebase or your client's brief. You'll leave with a straight read on scope, fee, and whether I'm the right person for it.