Smiling Bowtie

Turn your expertise into an app that works while you don't.

You've spent years becoming the expert. I build the app that delivers your expertise without you in the room. Architecture, product, and the experience your customers actually trust.

25 years. 20+ apps shipped. One question every time: how do we want this to feel?

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Antoni Tzavelas

You've had the idea for a while.

Maybe longer than you'd like to admit.

You've talked to developers. They asked about features, timelines, tech stacks. Nobody asked who's actually going to use it.

That's the gap. And it's where most apps fail.

People don't abandon products because the code is bad. They abandon them because something feels off. Confusing. Cold. One step too many. A button in the wrong place at the wrong moment.

You can't patch that with a sprint. You have to design for it from day one.

That's what I do.

Recent work

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MiruPulse

A personal AI coach that measures psychological presence through language. Patent filed. Live on TestFlight. Built the architecture, the voice features, and Michi (the in-app coach).

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Out of the Weeds

You train an AI agent through conversation, then hire it to handle the admin work you keep avoiding. Train. Test. Hire.

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Content on Easy Mode

A workflow product for creators who'd rather make than manage. From idea to architecture to ship.

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Brokerage onboarding automation

Canadian regulatory compliance built into the pipeline. FINTRAC, CSA, CIRO. Equity partnership.

Two ways we can work

Build with me

I take your idea and ship it. Architecture, product, design, the emotional experience. End to end. You bring the domain. I bring the build. Some engagements are paid fractional CTO or project-based builds. Others turn into co-founder partnerships where we're aligned on equity.

Streamline with me

I map your operation, find the bottlenecks, and replace them with custom AI workflows. The work that eats your team's time, automated or augmented end to end. For operators with messy, manual processes that should have been solved a year ago.

EQ isn't a soft skill. It's a design framework.

Architecture makes it work. Security makes it safe. Product makes it useful.

EQ makes people want to use it.

When I design an app, I map the emotional journey alongside the technical one. Where do people feel confident? Where might they get stuck? What builds trust?

Most AI teams don't have an innovation problem. They have an empathy problem. They build features nobody asked for because they've stopped asking how people actually feel.

AI doesn't need to replace humans. It needs to feel human.

Seven careers. One through-line.

Fashion design

Storytelling and aesthetics.

Systems administration

Structure and consequences.

Cloud and DevOps

Scale and risk.

Cloud instructor

Years teaching AWS and GCP to adults. Where I learned to make complex ideas simple, and how adults actually learn.

Coaching practice

Agile and EQ. How people behave, decide, and resist change.

Keynote speaking

How stories move people.

App building

Putting all of it into a product.

Every layer shows up in what I ship.

I don't guess at how users will feel. I've spent 25 years learning how people behave, decide, and trust. Now I build that understanding into every product I touch.

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Learn

I also teach the people building this stuff.

Years as a cloud instructor in AWS and GCP taught me how adults actually learn. Complex ideas, simply explained, with the kind of detail that lands when you're staring at production.

Claude Code: Building Enterprise-Scale Applications

A course for builders moving from MVP to production. Teaches the architecture, security, and product habits most vibe-coding tutorials skip.

1:1 builder coaching

For technical founders navigating their first real product. Architecture reviews, EQ-driven product decisions, and the unglamorous work of trust.

Weekly insights.

Real stories about building products people actually want to use. Emotional intelligence meets architecture. No fluff. No hype.

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Frequently asked

What does Smiling Bowtie actually do?+

I build apps with experts who know their domain but need someone to architect, design, and ship the product. End to end. Some engagements are paid fractional CTO. Others turn into co-founder partnerships with equity.

Who is Antoni Tzavelas?+

A builder based in Toronto with 25 years of experience across fashion, systems administration, cloud engineering, DevOps, agile coaching, and keynote speaking. I build apps that combine technical depth with emotional intelligence so people actually come back to them.

How do you work with clients?+

Two ways. Build with me means I take your idea and ship it. Architecture, product, design, the emotional experience. Streamline with me means I map your operation, find the bottlenecks, and replace them with custom AI workflows.

Why does emotional intelligence matter in app design?+

People do not abandon products because the code is bad. They abandon them because something feels off. Confusing. Cold. One step too many. EQ is how you design for trust from day one instead of patching it later.

Where can I learn from Antoni?+

Two places. The Bowtie Bulletin newsletter on Substack covers building products people want to use. The Claude Code course teaches builders moving from MVP to production. One on one builder coaching is also available.

Let's talk.

Building something? Rebuilding something? Not sure yet? Book a call. No pitch. Just clarity on what it would take to bring your idea to life.