Williamsburg, VA · Independent developer
I build custom websites, apps, and integrations for small businesses around Williamsburg, the Historic Triangle & Hampton Roads, and I put AI to work where it saves you real hours, not where it makes a good demo.
Free 30-minute consult. You’ll get a straight answer on whether this is worth building.
Most small businesses don’t need custom software for everything. They need it for the two or three things off-the-shelf tools handle badly. That’s the work I take on.
A site that brings in work, or the internal tool that finally replaces the spreadsheet holding your business together.
Your tools should talk to each other. Most of them don't, and you're the one paying for it in retyped data.
Practical AI pointed at the work that eats your week, not a chatbot bolted onto your homepage.
Hiring a developer shouldn’t feel like a leap of faith. Here’s exactly what happens.
Thirty minutes on what's slow, manual, or breaking. If software isn't the answer, I'll tell you that instead of selling you something.
You get a written plan with a number attached before any work starts. No open-ended hourly billing, no surprise invoices.
You see it come together in stages and give feedback along the way, rather than waiting weeks for a reveal at the end.
It's yours, documented and in your accounts, not mine. I'm still around when something needs changing.
I’m Spencer Lawson, and I run Lawson Risk Digital out of Williamsburg. There’s no account manager, no offshore team, and no handoff to someone you’ve never met. The person you talk to on the consult is the person writing the code.
I spent more than twenty years in enterprise software before going independent. I wrote the code, designed the integrations, and eventually ran a 22-person solutions organization supporting over $40 million in annual revenue. Along the way I built authentication for defense customers and web services layers that entire platforms ran on top of.
That work was for large institutions with large budgets. The more interesting problems are the ones small businesses have, and they almost never need anything that complicated. They need the right small thing, built properly, by someone who has seen what happens when it is built badly.
Being local matters more than it sounds. I can sit in your shop or your office, watch how the work actually gets done, and build around that, instead of guessing from a requirements document.
If your project isn’t a fit, I’ll say so on the first call and point you somewhere better.
Two decades writing code and leading the teams that shipped it, for universities, government agencies, and software companies.
I have built the web services and API layers that other systems depend on, and lost count of the platform integrations I have shipped.
Formal training in designing and building AI applications, pointed at practical small-business problems rather than demos.
Very familiar with SOC 2 and FedRAMP environments, with hands-on experience building applications in DoD environments, plus tenure as a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO).
Pick a time that works and we’ll talk it through. Thirty minutes, no cost, no obligation. You’ll leave the call knowing whether it’s worth building.