Tom Smykowski

Startups

Products I ship — not slide decks.

Education commerce, APIs, and experiments run in parallel with staff-level work for founding teams. Building keeps the advice honest: trade-offs, scope, and shipping under constraints.

Summon The JSON storefront preview

Summon The JSON

Education commerce · flashcards · ebooks · merch

My main creator-led product line: physical and digital goods that help people learn programming faster — with a strong “build in real life” ethos.

summonthejson.com →
Resume Hedgehog preview

Resume Hedgehog

Product · job search / career tooling angle

A focused product experiment in a space I know deeply: how engineers present work and move careers without losing sanity.

resumehedgehog.com →
InviteAPI preview

InviteAPI

API / SaaS-style surface

Backend- and DX-minded work: the kind of product where reliability, docs, and clear boundaries matter as much as features.

inviteapi.com →
Parking Hamster preview

Parking Hamster

Consumer app concept · waitlist / launch story

An everyday pain (parking) packaged as a simple, shippable product — useful for GTM and mobile-adjacent thinking.

parkinghamster.com →

How building maps to founder work

Running product lines keeps my advice grounded in the same pressures you face: competing priorities, thin teams, and the need to ship without fooling yourself about risk.

  • Trade-offs — speed vs. debt, build vs. buy, and what “good enough” means this quarter.
  • Scope discipline — slicing work so it actually finishes instead of rotting on a board.
  • Technical honesty — naming risks before they become emergencies.

If you want someone who has been in the builder seat — not only the contractor seat — read For founders or get in touch.