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Doug Silkstone•STRV

STRV

Conversational lead generation

Product engineering · Built the enquiry and qualification interface

This project gave prospective STRV clients a conversational way to explain what they needed instead of filling out a contact form. The engineering work covered an AI chat interface that gathered project requirements and qualified enquiries before a sales conversation.

  • Built a conversational lead-generation interface.
  • Qualified inbound visitors inside the product instead of sending them through a form.
strv.com
#llms#react#typescript#growth

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Doug Silkstone

From a napkin sketch to a year of full tables

In November 2024, Dinners With Friends was a revived idea and a napkin sketch. By the start of September 2026, it had welcomed more than 500 guests across 50 dinners. Dates were routinely selling out six to eight weeks ahead, and nearly all of the remaining 2026 calendar was booked.

Pamela Silkstone first ran the concept twenty years earlier: put people who have never met around one table, give them a host, and make the first conversation easier. I took the relaunch from idea to first version, first paying customers and a business with more demand than seats. Along the way I built the brand, website, booking system, internal tools, mobile app and the search programme that now brings new people in.

The search programme delivered 5,530 Google clicks in June–August 2026, up 66.1% on the previous three months, alongside 381,345 search impressions. Building and maintaining a library of local guides gave the business a way to be discovered by people looking for food, activities and places to meet across Exeter and Devon.

…

dinnerswithfriends.co.uk
#typescript#react#reactnative#expo#nextjs#hono#postgres#railway#stripe#seo#ai#lifecycle#attribution#growth
Dinners With Friends homepage showing the event-discovery and booking experience
The live product joins discovery, social proof, availability and booking in one path.
Read article
Doug Silkstone

Dinners With Friends

Hosted dinners that help people make friends

CTO · Built the brand, booking platform, apps and search programme

Read the full case study

Dinners With Friends brings people together to make friends over hosted meals at local venues across South West England. As CTO for the relaunch, the role covered the website, mobile apps, bookings, payments and host tools, alongside the brand, customer acquisition and analytics needed to run the business.

  • Relaunched a Social for Good concept that seats strangers around one table, first run twenty years ago by Pamela Silkstone.
  • Took the relaunch from a napkin sketch to an operating events business: brand, digital products, ticketing, operations and acquisition.
  • Built and ran the web product, the mobile apps and the internal operations platform.

…

dinnerswithfriends.co.uk
#typescript#react#reactnative#expo#nextjs#hono#postgres#gcp#stripe#seo#lifecycle#growth
Doug Silkstone

RaceMake

Live telemetry and analysis for sim racers

Interim technical lead · Led architecture, team and delivery

View RaceMake project

RaceMake helps sim racers understand their driving through live car and lap data, AI-assisted analysis and interactive 3D visualisations. The interim technical leadership role covered architecture, team leadership and delivery across the desktop app, web app and the data pipelines connecting them.

  • Led architecture and delivery across a Rust/Tauri desktop app and React web app.
  • Rebuilt both clients around extensible high-frequency telemetry pipelines and per-game adapters.
  • Built an AI pit team and interactive 3D visualisations on top of live telemetry.
racemake.com
#rust#tauri#typescript#react#nextjs#telemetry#llms#leadership
Doug Silkstone•WithSeismic · for Contra

Indy.ai

Freelance opportunity discovery for Contra

Product engineering · Built the extension and discovery pipeline

View Indy.ai project

Indy.ai is a Chrome extension built for Contra that helps freelancers discover work by finding opportunities in their LinkedIn and X feeds. The engineering engagement through WithSeismic covered the extension and discovery pipeline, connecting browser-based collection with AI analysis to turn social posts into structured job opportunities for Contra's marketplace.

Indy.ai by Contra on Product Huntcontra.com
#typescript#react#growth#gtm
Allison NultyHead of Product @ Contra

Doug was incredible to work with. He operated quickly & efficiently, and even proposed ways to improve the feature to exceed our expectations. 10/10!

Verified on Contra•5.0
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What clients say

“Doug was incredible to work with. He operated quickly & efficiently … 10/10!”
Allison NultyHead of Product @ ContraContra ↗
CurrentlyAbout
hogsend.com
Founder & CTO

Lifecycle messaging for software teams. Every customer journey is written as code, reviewed in a pull request and tested before it sends.

Dinners With Friends
Technical Founder

A social events platform for people who want more from their social life: hosted dinners where strangers become friends. More than 500 guests so far.

WithSeismic
Founder

Where you are now. Fractional CTO, growth and product strategy for teams that want someone to own the outcome rather than advise on it. 100+ engagements since 2016.

Recognition
  • The Motley Fool
  • Groupon
  • Contra
  • NOW TV
  • Topman
  • STRV
  • Theory11
  • The Collective
  • The Donkey Sanctuary
  • Rightcharge
  • Foundry
  • W Series
  • Photologo