We partner with daring founders solving tomorrow's biggest problems

Fractional CTO and Technology partner, specializing in AI and B2B SaaS. We help companies build winning products that their customers will fall in love with.

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Build a POC with us. You may be eligible for a 15k tech grant.

Our portfolio

We build winning products that your customers will fall in love with.

View all projects

Your project could be next!

Build your next AI model, software platform, or mobile app, with us.

Get in touch

Your project could be next!

Build your next app, website or digital product with us.

Get in touch

Order food items from multiple brands in a single restaurant. A global franchise powered by AI, advanced analytics, and kitchen robot automation.

An Electric Vehicle marketplace designed with trust, transparency, and security. Responsible for product discovery and design, we designed a web-based marketplace, connecting Buyers and Sellers through an auction-like digital experience.

Raised $2M+

Real-time payments platform to help Freelancers, remote workers & businesses get paid from abroad, without the wait & crazy fees. Designed to connect to Fiat and Crypto decentralized networks for greater payments flexibility.

A medical records retrieval app that helps Providers query and search patient records in minutes. Built with HIPAA compliant cloud infrastructure, connecting to major US Health networks: Care Quality and Common Well.

Timecapsule is a real-time time tracking solution optimized for global and remote teams. Accurately monitor billable vs non-billable time, and measure project & team performance.

portfolio

Buy, sell and manage your domains all in one place. Manage your entire portfolio effortlessly. Add, edit, delete, price - execute any action you need to close the deal. In just minutes, set up your account and kickstart your journey to domain selling success.

Remote video production for professional video teams and podcasters. Real-time streaming platform powered by Dolby.io and WebRTC that controls professional video equipment and helps video teams record, stream, and share up to 4K video with anyone. Studiobox works with enterprise clients like Netflix, the John Legend Foundation, and Masterclass.

$1M+ Sales

Your project could be next!

Build your next app, website or digital product with us.

Get in touch

What our clients say

We understand your company and operational ethos, generate the deepest level insights and solve your most intricate problems.

The team helped us ship our MVP quickly. We’re building on top of our core product, and the team was able to help us get an mvp in front of customers faster.

Valentin Staykov

CEO at Pastel

An experienced team that ships quickly. Productive from Day 1 and easily able to jump into our existing workflows. Very responsive and expertises in all required tooling.

Barron Caster

CEO at Leo Wallet

The best development team I have assembled. Highly skilled developers that are accountable and that’s what you can ask for from an agenc

Ricky Feung

CEO at Booksopen

I've been thoroughly impressed with the Islands team since we began working together. They've demonstrated a deep understanding of our project and have exceeded my expectations with their meticulous planning and attention to detail.

Sam Dennis

CEO at DomainEasy.com

Partnering with Islands has been an incredibly seamless experience! They not only connected us with top-notch developers who were instrumental in elevating our web projects, but they also played a pivotal role in securing the CDAP grant for us.

Brad Wishen

CEO at TasteToronto

They provided our team with incredible value by delivering top notch software development quickly and effectively. They helped our team implementing best practices and clean code. We've seen far more than a return on our investment and Ali has helped us deliver value to our customers.

Rory Court

CEO at Moonlit

Since the beginning, Ali & his team have exceeded our expectations. They are very proactive in thinking about next steps, product roadmap, and have exemplar SDLC domain knowledge.

Max Ostrove

CEO at Eclipse

The team is really enjoying the collaboration with the Engineers from Islands. These guys are quality.

Nivi Jayasekar

Co-founder at Banquet Health

Ali and his team have been a phenomenal Tech partner in helping us build a scalable product and take it to market. His leadership, expertises in AI have allowed us to move magnitudes faster.

Tara Zedayko

CEO at DIG Labs

Great team with differentiated insighted. If you're looking for a partner to meet quick deadlines, but also see your product from idea to development to deployment.

Reema Ukani

Founder at Hybrid Health

Islands has been fantastic to work with. They clearly understand how to build software with sound foundational architecture. They have been able to deliver excellent results on tight timelines, and fix bugs that had stumped previous developers. Our platform is more resilient and modernized thanks to their expertise!

Annie Brown

Founder at Reliabl

Explore our core services

We craft digital experiences that focus on results and speed. We iterate fast to help companies and products reach product-market fit.

Custom Software Development

We specialize in tailored software solutions to meet your unique business needs, supported by collaborative cross-functional teams guiding you from design concept to successful engineering. We're experts in Node.js, React, Typescript, and Python.

AI Strategy

We make AI and large language model (LLM) development easy for businesses. We use tools like Chat GPT, Bard AI, and Claude to assist you in creating, training, and implementing AI solutions efficiently. Predict trends, streamline business operations, and build intelligent AI agents.

End-to-End ML Development

We manage the entire machine learning lifecycle, from data preprocessing and model development to deployment and continuous monitoring. We manage complex Machine Learning problems across Computer Vision, NLP, time series, and video AI.

Managed Cloud Services

We operationalize cloud data solutions to optimize your infrastructure, ensuring scalability, security, and performance efficiency while allowing you to focus on core operations.

Design Thinking

We focus on an iterative and empathetic approach to understanding users’ needs and ensuring a visually rich experience to maximize engagement across all our products.

Corporate Innovation

We foster enterprise level innovation and scale implementing novel ideas, technologies, and strategies to drive growth, stay competitive, and adapt to changing market dynamics.

Meet our venture studio

Island X is our new venture studio, focused on building and commercializing innovative solutions across AI and B2B SaaS. We're embrace top-down research while closely follow macro trends to identify disruptive ideas that are ripe for innovation.




Learn more

Guiding your journey to product-market fit

We’re founders too, so we know exactly what you’re going through. We lead a full-stack innovation lab encompassing product ideation, design and development.

Get in touch

Product Discovery & Design

We work fast yet empathetically. We listen and build with UX/UI methodologies that align to each your company and product mission.

Rapid Iteration

We embrace agility and build upon real-user feedback. From market prototyping to constant iteration to stand the test of time.

Build Fast

We ship world class products fast with enterprise scale and security in mind, built with the latest tech stack.

Bridging collaboration and domain expertise

After leading tech for dozens of teams, we’re boxing all of our knowledge to make it easier than ever to help you launch in weeks, not months!

Studiobox

Remote video production for professional video teams and podcasters. We led the charge to build a real-time streaming platform powered by Dolby.io and WebRTC that controls professional video equipment and helps video teams record, stream, and share up to 4K video with anyone.

Studiobox works with enterprise clients like Netflix, The John Legend Foundation, and Masterclass.

Real-time Web Application and MacOS Desktop App

Produce 4K video with WebRTC and Dolby.io

Los Angeles, California, United States

Ali and his team have been a valuable partner in in both software development and the direction of the company. He understands product roadmaps innately, builds in hyper speed. I'll take as much of his time as I can get.

Max Ostrove, CEO at Studiobox

DIG Labs

We led the development of a visual AI engine inside a multi-tenancy platform that helps Veterinarians and pet owners monitor their pet’s health in between appointments. Snap a picture or video, and get real-time insights on pet health across 19 different concern areas such as dental, stool, skin & coat, and more.

We collected data, trained the model, and deployed it as a scalable Machine Learning pipeline, exposing each model as a RESTful API endpoint, invoked by any Client.

A robust infrastructure that allows DIG Labs to collect raw data, train, preprocess, and productionize Machine Learning models in days, instead of weeks or months.

Over 90% model accuracy across trained with 90,000+ expert-labelled images

Deployed over 19 Machine Learning models

Architecture that processes over 3K requests per week

New York, United States

Island’s capability to source and retain top talent is unmatched. I have full confidence in the team's ability to deliver, as we continue to scale to our growing needs.

Tara Zedayko, CEO at DIG Labs

Defining the boundaries of engineering excellence

After leading tech for dozens of teams, we’re boxing all of our knowledge to make it easier than ever to help you launch in weeks, not months!

A visual AI engine that extends a multi-tenancy platform to help Veterinarians and Pet Owners monitor pet health between appointments. Snap a picture or video and get real-time insights.

92%

prediction model accuracy across 19+ AI models.

Remote video production for professional video teams and podcasters. Powering top Video teams from Netflix, The John Legend Foundation, and Masterclass.

4K

WebRTC streaming to thousands of users.

Meet the founder

Ali El-Shayeb

Serial entrepreneur, investor, and startup operator out of Toronto. Ali works with high growth startups as a Fractional CTO/Engineering Lead helping companies build world class software.

Driving innovation, scaling impact

Empower startups

Your partner in technical leadership and product lead growth.

Scalability

Building products that scale, while minimizing technical debt in the earliest days.

Excellence

Defining the forefront of emerging technologies.

Innovation

Fostering groundbreaking ideas with unique moats to disrupt your industry.

Ready to accelerate your growth?

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In the press

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about Islands.

What is Islands and what do you do?

Islands is a fractional CTO and Technology partner that helps companies build custom software. We’re an elite team of 25+ Senior Engineers, Product Managers, and Designers, who’ve helped accelerate over 40 global companies and built world-class products.

What services does Islands provide?

Islands offers comprehensive services across custom software development, design thinking, AI strategy and implementation, machine learning development, managed cloud services, and corporate level innovation. Our development process is guided by collaborative cross-functional teams, that ensure we build tailored solutions from concept to execution.

What sets Islands apart from competitors?

We're founders with successful exits, so we know exactly what it means to be at different stages of your business. We’ve been through 0-1 and beyond, so we know exactly what it takes to build a success business. We believe in shipping fast, iterating often, and adapting to achieve the product-market fit. We're also AI pioneers, setting trends to prepare our clients for the ever-changing tech landscape. Talk to us and we’ll show you how you can leverage AI in your everyday business operations to improve processes, optimize business functions and more.

Can you share examples of Islands' successful projects?

We have accelerated over 40 companies across every industry. Here are some examples to give you confidence. Studiobox: We developed a Web App and MacOS desktop app to help professional video teams record, stream, and share 4K video with anyone. Video teams use the platform to conduct multi-cam interviews, podcasts, panels, or courses. The real-time nature of the product was engineered with extreme sophistication with WebRTC and powered by Dolby.io. The technology we built is used with enterprise clients like Netflix, Masterclass, and The John Legend Foundation. DIG Labs: We created a visual AI engine that helps Veterinarians and pet owners monitor their pet’s health in between appointments. Snap a picture or video, and get real-time insights on pet health across 19 different concerns powered by 19 different AI models. Model accuracy tops 90% in most cases. The AI engine is deployed over the cloud, and processes over 3K requests per week. By design, DIG Labs is now able to build and productionize Machine Learning models in days, instead of weeks or months.

How does Islands prioritize ethical tech and social impact?

Our commitment to ethical tech and social impact is fundamental to our mission. We recognize the weighted responsibility that technology carries in today's world. We are dedicated to creating sustainable solutions that not only address pressing societal issues but also drive positive change through the power of technology. Our design principles prioritize inclusivity, ensuring that our products are accessible by all users as we go beyond the code and actively engage with the communities we serve.

How can I partner with Islands for a project?

Simply reach out through our website, email, or book a call with one of our Consultants. We look forward to exploring synergies and bringing your vision to life.

Which industries does Islands serve?

Islands is industry agnostic. Although we have a small bias towards AI and B2B SaaS due to the nature of our expertises, that doesn’t mean we won’t take on awesome consumer app project. The process of building successful Web and Mobile applications for Businesses and Consumers is relatively the same.

How does Islands foster innovation in its solutions?

We actively listen, start by formulating a big picture image to align ourselves with your vision and then drill into day to day execution. We embrace agility by building upon real-world feedback gained from market prototyping, adapting to evolving needs, and ensuring longevity. We understand that companies are at different stages, so we remain flexible with how we allocate talent resources. Wether it’s a full squad, fractional resources, or a combination of Engineers, designers, product experts.

How does Islands continue to support clients beyond the development phase?

After the initial product development phase, our commitment to your success continues. We understand that in the ever-evolving landscape of technology, a product is never truly 'finished.' There's always another feature to develop or a bug to fix. Therefore, our focus shifts from mission-critical development to a maintenance mode. We collaborate closely with you to ensure that your product roadmap remains aligned with your business objectives. Our goal is to assist you in prioritizing tasks effectively to meet your evolving needs.

Still have questions?

Reach out to our team and one of our Consultants will get back to you.