I'm Louis, & I build software.
Independent. West Covina, California. Navy veteran. Founder of Castaneda Networks and WestCo App Studio. Four shipped apps and counting.
The short story.
I grew up in the San Gabriel Valley, joined the Navy out of high school, and came back from service with the same itch I'd had at fifteen — I wanted to build things that other people would actually use. So I taught myself to write code, then to ship it, then to charge for it.
Today I run two small things at once: Castaneda Networks, my umbrella company, and WestCo App Studio, the client-work side where I design and ship iOS and web apps for founders and businesses. The rest of my time goes into my own products — four shipped so far — and into the writing you'll find on this site.
Three threads.
The log on this site is organized into three threads — the three things I think about most days. If one of them is not for you, the other two probably are.
What this place is.
A working log. The same notes that go to my newsletter (The Dispatch), but here in long form, with permanent URLs and a real archive. I write to think. The byproduct is that occasionally someone reads it and reaches out, and that's how a fair amount of my best work has found me.
If you want to follow along, the cheapest way is the newsletter. If you want to work together, the calendar is usually open one or two slots a quarter. If you just want to say hi, an email will reach me. I read everything.
One email. Roughly weekly.
Software, strength, and intelligence from a team of one.