📜 Code. Build. Ship.
We are not a management company. We are a shipping company. Portlabs is run by engineers, for engineers, with a single metric of success: live software.
Specialization is for Insects.
We believe in the Fullstack Mindset. At Portlabs, "Fullstack" doesn't just mean you write React and Ruby. It means you own the problem from the database schema to the user's pixel.
👨💻 Designers & Senior Engineers Only
We don't hire juniors. We don't have the time to teach the basics. We operate like a special forces unit—small, autonomous, and highly lethal.
🚫 No Product Managers
We don't believe in the "middleman" between the maker and the market. Engineers speak directly to users.
⚡ No "Front-End" Developers
If you can't ship a feature end-to-end, you can't ship at Portlabs.
What We Value.
Most companies say they value everything. That means they value nothing. We make specific choices:
We build businesses to keep them, not to flip them to a PE firm in 3 years.
Headcount is a vanity metric. Revenue per employee is the only metric that matters.
We start with Ruby on Rails. We choose boring, battle-tested tools that let us ship fast, rather than chasing the "JS Framework of the Month."
We build for people, not for servers. We scratch our own itch.
The things we don't do.
To maintain our velocity, we ruthlessly eliminate distractions.
No Slack
Asynchronous work requires deep focus. Constant chatting kills flow. We document; we don't chatter.
No Bureaucracy
If it doesn't help ship code, it doesn't exist.
No "Pure" Management
Everyone pushes commits. Even the leadership.
Der Weg ist das Ziel.
(The Journey is the Reward)
We don't build software just to have a finished product. We build because we love the craft. But in our lab, the only thing that counts is shipment.
Product First
We don't write specs for months. We prototype in code.
Delivery Focused
An idea on a whiteboard is worth zero. An idea in production is worth everything.
Engineering & Design
These are the only two pillars. Everything else is support.
Do you think like us?
If this page scared you, we aren't a fit. If it excited you, we should talk.
Join the Team