Field notes for Gulf founders
Specs and SRS documents, choosing and auditing vendors, what software really costs, architecture and compliance — written by an engineering advisor, without the sales pitch.
Saudi PDPL for app and SaaS teams: an engineering compliance checklist
An engineering checklist that maps Saudi Arabia's PDPL to what your app has to do: consent records, deletion, 30-day requests, a 72-hour breach runbook, vendor contracts, transfers abroad and the hosting question, as of October 2026.
9 min readWhat it really costs to build an app like HungerStation, Mrsool or Talabat
An app like HungerStation is four products on one real-time backend. Here is what drives the cost, why published price ranges disagree, and what a single-city MVP should include.
9 min readBefore you sign with a software company: the questions, contract clauses and code ownership that protect you
A buyer-side guide for founders in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf: why quotes for the same app differ, what to ask, how to verify the company, which contract clauses matter, and how to make sure the code and accounts end up yours.
9 min readSRS vs PRD vs BRD: how to write the requirements document a vendor can actually price
The requirements document a software company can actually price and test: what goes in an SRS, how it differs from a BRD and a PRD, a copyable outline, a worked acceptance-criteria example, and the Saudi requirements that quotes often miss.
9 min readI have an app idea: where do I start? A founder's path from idea to first release
Most app ideas stall on the order of decisions, not on the code. This is the sequence I would follow to turn an app idea into a real product, up to the first release, written for founders in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.
9 min readHow long should a SaaS MVP actually take in 2026?
Six to twelve weeks for the right kind of MVP. Six months for the wrong kind. The phases, the killers, and how to tell whether your timeline is realistic or hallucinated.
5 min readShould you build internal tools or just pay for Notion/Airtable/Odoo?
When SaaS fits, when it doesn't, and the cost crossover most companies only notice after years of subscriptions and workarounds.
5 min read