Hi, I'm Stanley Masinde
Software development engineer and technical storyteller — building robust systems in Rust, architecting software systems and CLIs that hold up in production. I share what I learn through writing, video, and live coding.
About Stanley
I'm a software development engineer and technical storyteller, passionate about building robust systems, diving into systems programming, and sharing what I learn. I design software systems and CLI tools — with a focus on Rust and production-minded architecture.
My experience spans agricultural marketplaces, payment integrations (M-Pesa, card gateways, webhook callbacks), deterministic chat bots on WhatsApp and Telegram (webhooks, state machines, session persistence), and tools built for real-world problems. On a career break from full-time employment, I'm actively supporting clients with software solutions. I also work as a technical sidekick for non-technical and less-technical founders — helping with stack choices, architecture, cloud cost optimisation, and hiring developers.
Beyond engineering, I produce YouTube video essays on technology, concise Rust tutorials for developers with OOP backgrounds, and host a daily coding livestream — creating the technical resources I wish I'd had when starting out. Based in Nairobi, I value clean system design, thoughtful trade-offs, and practical solutions. Open to client work, founder advisory, collaboration, and selective full-time opportunities.
Systems & Engineering Work
Production systems, founder tech advisory, payment flows, and messaging bots — built for reliability under real load.
Technical Sidekick for Founders
Partner to non-technical and less-technical founders building their first product — translating business goals into pragmatic technical decisions without the jargon.
- Stack & Architecture: Technology choices, system design, and build-vs-buy trade-offs
- Cloud Costs: Right-sizing infrastructure and keeping spend predictable as you scale
- Hiring: Defining roles, evaluating developers, and reviewing agency or contractor proposals
Deterministic Chat Bots
Rule-driven conversational systems on WhatsApp and Telegram — webhook handlers, explicit state machines, and server-side session persistence for multi-step workflows.
- Architecture: Single webhook endpoint routing messages through deterministic state transitions
- Channels: WhatsApp Business API, Telegram Bot API, USSD-style multi-step flows
- Production: Insurance purchase flows, payments (M-Pesa), and integrated back-office tooling
Payment Integrations
End-to-end payment flows wired into production products — M-Pesa, card gateways, and webhook-driven confirmation with fulfillment on success.
- Gateways: M-Pesa and card payment APIs with callback handling and idempotent settlement
- Webhooks: Payment status callbacks driving state transitions in conversational and checkout flows
- Fulfillment: Real-time policy issuance and order completion tied to confirmed payments
How I Work
Systems programming, practical architecture, and technical storytelling — focused on work that holds up in production
Systems & Software
- Production software in Rust — services, CLI tools, async pipelines, shipped binaries
- Distributed systems design — event-driven services, reliable workflows, real-world scale
- Deterministic chat bots — WhatsApp, Telegram, webhooks, and state-machine conversation design
- Payment integrations — M-Pesa, card gateways, webhook callbacks, and fulfillment on confirmed payment
Founders & Collaboration
- Technical sidekick for founders — stack, architecture, cloud cost optimisation, and hiring developers
- Mentoring engineers — onboarding teammates on systems design and production workflows
- YouTube video essays, Rust tutorials, and a daily coding livestream
- Conference talks on WebAssembly, Rust, offline-first development, and developer tools
Featured projects
Rust-first tools and systems — with full-stack projects when the problem calls for shipping a complete product.
Sadiamond Properties
Nairobi real estate platform with a fast public site, SEO-driven listing pages, and a CRM that captures WhatsApp leads through the Meta API.
Deterministic WhatsApp insurance bot with an integrated back office — rule-driven state machines, Meta webhooks, and server-side session persistence.
Privacy-focused Progressive Web App that expands shortened URLs and removes tracking parameters.
Speaking & talks
Technical storytelling on stage — conferences and meetups across Kenya on WebAssembly, Rust, offline-first development, and developer productivity.
2024
Building Offline-First Web Applications
DevFest Nairobi · Nairobi, Kenya
Strategies for resilient web apps that work offline — service workers, IndexedDB, and sync patterns.
2024
WebAssembly in Modern Web Development
Nairobi API Festival · Nairobi, Kenya
WebAssembly integration, performance benefits, and practical Rust-to-web use cases with live demos.
2023
Automating Code Generation
Tech Meetup Series · Nairobi, Kenya
Automating repetitive coding tasks through code generation and template systems for faster delivery.
Profile
Speaker profile
Sessionize profile with past talks from DevFest Nairobi, API Festival, and meetups. Available for conferences and technical events.
Topics: WebAssembly, offline-first, code generation, systems
Technical storytelling
I communicate through code, writing, and on camera — building the technical resources I wish I'd had when starting out.
I extended git with a custom util - here is how I did it.
7 Sept 2026 · 196 views
I love jQuery's new AI policy
24 Jul 2026 · 75 views
Getting started with modal editing in Vim/Neovim
13 Jul 2026 · 247 views
Technical writing
Technical essays and notes on systems programming and practical engineering — on this site.
You probably do not need UUIDs
Why auto-increment IDs break multi-node systems, and when snowflake-style IDs are a better fit than UUIDs.
Nitro.js fixed my biggest Node.js deployment issue
How Nitro simplified Node.js deployment compared to traditional app-server packaging and process setup.
Scaling PHP codebases with safety first
Why strictness and safety habits matter more than framework churn when PHP systems grow.
Let's build something solid.
Founder figuring out your stack? Team that needs systems built? Get in touch for client work, technical sidekick support, and collaboration.
Usually responds within 24 hours · How we start
Yours,
Stanley Masinde