About Swinging Katanas
Swinging Katanas is an independent venture studio — a platform for exploring, building, and launching creative and entrepreneurial projects across software, digital products, and small-scale brands.
Born from a personal rebellion against marbled careerism - a life of climbing institutional ladders and polishing résumés - and a desire for sovereignty, ownership, and creative freedom, Swinging Katanas exists as a platform to pursue ideas across different fields and mediums, test them in the real world, and grow a portfolio of work that matters to us.
We're early in our journey - constantly discovering and testing new segments, verticals, and ideas.
Our Philosophy
Seven principles that guide everything we build and every decision we make.
Keep it real
No sterile clones, no buzzword fluff. If it doesn't have character, we don't build it.
Building, always
Talking is cheap. We'd rather ship something scrappy than polish nothing forever.
Follow curiosity
We chase what pulls us — whether it's software, games, or something more exotic.
Ownership
Build without permission. We embrace the path less traveled and own the process and outcome.
Energy matters
Products should feel alive. If it doesn't spark excitement, it's not worth doing.
Useful, but bold
Function comes first, but we're not afraid to dream bigger once the basics work.
Matters to us first
If it doesn't matter to us, it won't matter to anyone else. Impact starts personal.
Our Verticals
We're starting simple: consumer-facing applications, fast to test and quick to impact. Over time, we'll expand into games, physical products, and hardware.
Basic Productivity Tools
Quick-win projects: fast to build, pragmatic, and useful for building portfolio momentum and breadth.
Founder & SMB tools
Simple, useful applications that help entrepreneurs and small business owners to refine ideas, plan, and streamline their processes.
FinTech
Applications that bring digitalisation, connectivity, and access to WealthTech, Private Markets (VC/PE, GP/LP tools), and Micro-financing.
EdTech
Content-driven or gamified learning platforms for personal, academic, and professional development.
HealthTech
Applications that support mental health, fitness, nutrition, and overall wellbeing — tools that encourage healthier habits, accessible self-care, and personal growth.
SportsTech
Applications that add playful, social, and data-driven layers, digital scaffolding and gamification to sports and outdoors exploration.
Our Approach
Each project follows our core principles of intent, precision, and creative sovereignty.
Ideate
- SK Taxonomy to simply and efficiently classify potential projects for our internal pipeline
Validate
- Initial market analysis, evaluating existing solutions and similar offerings, pricing models and user reviews
- Set-up of waitlist page for user email collection and later email marketing upon launch
- Pre-marketing and interest gauging via select channels (social media, forums, online communities)
Design
- PRD (Product Requirements Document) and alignment of desired product capabilities and tech stack design and dependencies
- Data schema design and structuring for rapid backend set-up in Build phase
- Defining the application branding, colour schemas, typography, and brand assets
- Figma Wireframing: Crafting the user journey, application flow, structure, and pages
Build
- Expansive portfolio of boilerplates with plug-and-play tech stack capabilities to match application demands
- AI-assisted IDEs for codebase simplification, improved bug fixing and fast development
- Continuous deployment and CI/CD via Vercel
Market
- Run small, targeted campaigns (SEO, content marketing, paid ads) to gauge traction
- Create quality marketing copy adapted for the relevant digital channels (Instagram, X, Google Ads, TikTok)
Analyse
- Integrated analytics tools (Google Analytics, PostHog) for product usage and retention tracking
- Monitor user flows, engagement, drop-off points, and feature adoption
- Collect feedback from early adopters (Feedback board in-app, direct email sequence system, online communities)
- Translate insights into concrete product roadmap updates and marketing strategy refinements
Maintain
- Fix bugs, patch vulnerabilities, and update dependencies regularly
- Monitor performance, uptime, and security across web and mobile environments
- Refine UX/UI and optimize features based on usage data and user feedback
- Decide on the product's lifecycle: continue scaling, pivot, or sunset gracefully
Studio Structure
Currently focused on software and games, with ambitions to expand across mediums — from code to metal, pixels to packaging.
SOFTWARE
Small, original applications — from FinTech to productivity — built to solve problems and test ideas fast.
DIGITAL PRODUCTS
Lightweight, content-driven products delivered via digital media and channels that blend creativity with utility.
GAMES
Expressive, small-scale experiences that explore mechanics, story, and interaction with personality and replayability.
PHYSICAL PRODUCTS
Brands and products crafted for originality and narrative.
HARDWARE
Longer-term engineering-driven explorations where design meets utility.
Get in contact with us!
Whether you're curious about our projects or see room to collaborate, reach out.