Your next big thing fits on a napkin.
Bring the idea. We'll build the website, app, or tool.
Experience with teams at
Hydro Flask · OXO · PayPal · Sunoco · Tourism Western Australia · KIND
it's simple
How it works
- 1
Sketch it
Send a napkin, a photo, or just describe it. Rough is perfect.
- 2
We build it
We turn your idea into a working version, fast.
- 3
You launch it
It goes live, it's yours, and it's ready for customers.
by industry, since every business hurts differently
What we build
You already have tools. Most were bolted onto your POS or a website someone else built, and they weren't made for you. Hard to update, harder to love. What we build starts from how you actually work, and updates in seconds.
Food and hospitality
The challenge
- Menus, schedules, and orders live in texts and on paper
- Daily specials are out of date before lunch
- No-shows and phone tag eat the day
What we could build
- A menu site you update from your phone
- Online ordering or reservations
- A staff schedule the team can actually see
- A loyalty punch card in the customer's pocket
Trades
The challenge
- Quotes live in texts and get lost in the scroll
- Job photos scattered across the camera roll
- Invoices go out late, so payment does too
What we could build
- A quote builder that sends estimates from your phone
- Job scheduling with photos attached
- Invoices customers can pay on the spot
- A customer portal for appointments and updates
napkins that became the real thing
Use cases
A barbershop
His whole week lived in a spiral notebook. The phone rang while he had clippers in hand, double bookings happened, someone always got forgotten. Now the book fills itself: they pick a barber, a day, and a slot, and he just shows up and cuts.
A food truck
Every morning she rewrote the menu and posted it in five places, and by noon someone was still asking for yesterday's price. Now the menu and today's parking spot live in one place her regulars check before they ever leave the office.
A cleaning crew
Every job started with three phone calls and a paper grid taped to the fridge. Now clients request visits from a link and the crew sees their route before the coffee's done. The grid stays blank and nobody has to remember a thing.
A gym owner
He taped a sticky note to the office mirror that said "members app?" and left it there for two years. That note is a real app on Apple and Android now. Members sign in, check into class, and the clipboard by the door is gone.
pick your launch
Four ways to start
Launch Site
A standard website with a sales funnel: clear pages that bring people in and one clear path from visitor to booking or contact.
$2,000
Timeline: 10 days
- ✓Website info: your pages, your story, your services, all live
- ✓A sales funnel: one clear path from visitor to booking, call, or signup, with follow-up set up
Launch Web
Your site live, plus an app your customers install right from the browser. No app store, no waiting on review.
$4,500
Timeline: 10 days
- ✓Website info: your pages, your story, your services, all live
- ✓Website function: booking, forms, payments, whatever your idea needs
- ✓A working app that installs on any iPhone or Android from the browser, no app store needed
Launch App
Everything in Launch Web, published to the Apple App Store or Google Play so customers find it there.
$6,000
Timeline: 10 days
- ✓Website info: your pages, your story, your services, all live
- ✓Website function: booking, forms, payments, whatever your idea needs
- ✓A working app published to the Apple App Store or Google Play, your pick
Custom Build
A scoped statement of work for bigger or more complex projects.
From $8,000
Final price is set in the scope before any work starts.
We'll talk through what you need, then write up exactly what gets built, when, and for how much, before any work starts.
Talk through your projectEvery option: 10 days. At the end you own all the code, have access to every file, and are the maintainer unless you want us to keep doing it.
Apple adds their $99/yr developer account (paid to Apple) and a review before your app goes live. We handle the paperwork either way.
hi, I'm
Sumner
Founder of Napkinborn · GitHub · Lovable City Ambassador
I love small business. I ran a coffee shop for seven years, and I felt the pain myself: filling out the Red Book where kitchens log fridge temps, juggling timecards, payroll, bookkeeping, and Slack, all of it when none of those tools talked to each other.
Since then I've worked where the software gets built. At Smartsheet I was a builder: I took broken processes, standardized them, and helped operations teams and PMOs approve projects and keep everything aligned. Today I'm at GitHub, helping enterprises adopt and scale GitHub Copilot and agentic software development. And as a Lovable City Ambassador, I share for free how anyone can become a builder.
The through line for all of it: good technology should give everyone the same access to the tools big companies take for granted. That's what Napkinborn is for.
good questions
FAQ
Do I need a finished idea?
No. A rough sketch, a few sentences, or a problem you keep running into is enough. Figuring out the details together is part of the work.
Who owns the code?
You do. When your project is done, the website, app, or tool and its code belong to you.
How fast is it?
Every launch option has a set timeline of 10 days. Bigger custom builds get a timeline in their written scope before any work starts.
What happens after launch?
Your product is live and yours. If you want changes or new features later, we can scope those as a next step.
What if my project is bigger than a launch?
That's what the Custom Build is for. We'll talk it through, write up a clear scope, and price it for your project.
Show us your napkin.
Rough sketch, quick photo, or a few sentences. Send what you have and we'll take it from there.