Custom websites
Handcrafted marketing sites and portfolios. Fast, polished, and easy to update yourself.
- Marketing sites & portfolios
- Headless CMS / easy editing
- Blog & news sections
- SEO & speed tuned
Whatever your idea actually needs.
Apps, games, dashboards, websites, custom plugins, automations — I'd rather build the right thing than force your idea into the wrong shape.
Mobile apps
Native apps for iOS and Android. Designed to feel right the moment you open them.
- 2D mobile games
- Business & internal team apps
- In-app purchases
- Messaging / chat rooms
Playable web games
Mobile-friendly, browser-native 2D games. From simple word games to casual arcades, motion-tracking apps, and more.
- Online multiplayer
- Live leaderboards
- Unlockable content
Internal tools & systems
Lightweight dashboards, helpful automation tools, custom plugins and more.
- Custom dashboards & admin panels
- WordPress plugins & site customizations
- Branding, logos & design services
Things I've shipped (or am shipping).
A mix of games for fun and tools for work. Same brain, same standard.
Texas Word'em
A poker-style spelling game with shared letters and power cards. Quick rounds. Long bluffs. Built for thumbs.
Math Cascade
A fast-paced number puzzle inspired by Tetris. Falls satisfying. Combos chunky. One more round, every time.
Neon Slingshot
A hand-tracking slingshot game using the camera. No download, no install — just open the page and pull back with your hand.
Daily Wins Tracker
A minimal app for tracking progress without burning out. One input. One screen. Calmer than a productivity stack.
CurbKitchens
A website builder designed specifically for food truck owners. Menus, hours, locations — all the stuff a generic builder forgets.
Staff Scheduler
Simple scheduling for small teams — no bloat, no learning curve. Drag a shift. Send the link. Everyone knows where to be.
Pick what you want to build.
Tap a service, toggle the features you actually need, and get a real estimate in about thirty seconds. No agency middlemen. No "we'll get back to you" voicemail.
Estimates are a starting point — not a final invoice. Anything weirder, bigger, or smaller, just send me an email and we'll figure it out together.
What past clients say.
Eli is one of those rare developers who actually cares about the details. Our internal dashboard had been a mess for months — he shipped a clean replacement in three weeks that the whole team actually wanted to use.
I came in with a half-formed idea for a word game and Eli just got it. He prototyped and shipped the first playable build inside a week. Texas Word'em is what it is because of him.
He talked me out of three features I didn't actually need, which probably saved me $4k. The site he built is fast, easy to update, and looks like it cost twice what we paid.
Greetings from
Fort Collins, Colorado
05 — about
Hi, I'm Eli.
I'm a freelance developer and designer working out of Fort Collins, Colorado. I started Holt Design Co. because I kept noticing how much of the software we use every day feels okay — and how rare it is for something to feel right.
I make games for fun and tools for work, with the same brain. Both demand the same thing: care for the moment a person actually uses the thing. That's the part I love.
If you're a founder, an operator, or a team without a designer — and you want a partner who treats your project like a product — we should talk.
- Based
- Fort Collins, CO · MT (UTC−6)
- Stack
- TypeScript · Next · Node · Postgres · Tailwind · WebGL
- Working with
- Founders, ops teams, indie product folks
- Status
- Available for new work
06 — let's build something
Got a half-baked idea?
I love those.
Tell me about your game, your tool, your weird little SaaS. I'll tell you whether I'm the right person for it — and if I am, what shipping it could look like.
- ✓ A web game
- ✓ A micro-SaaS
- ✓ A simple internal tool
- ✓ Something nobody's built yet
Texas Word'em
The word game where vocabulary meets poker strategy. Get dealt letters, place your bets, and build the highest-scoring word to win the pot.
// How to play
- You're dealt 5 secret letters plus shared community letters on the table.
- Bet chips on how strong your word will be — raise, call, or fold just like poker.
- Build the best word you can from all available letters.
- The highest-scoring word wins the pot.
// Game modes
- Classic Mode — Full poker-style betting rounds with blinds, raises, and bluffs.
- Casual Mode — Quick-play rounds for fast word-building fun.
- Daily Challenge — A new puzzle every day. Compete for the top score on the leaderboard.
- Multiplayer Rooms — Create private rooms and challenge your friends.
// Features
- Play solo against AI bots or with friends.
- 10 beautifully themed tables to unlock as you level up.
- Scrabble-style letter scoring with poker-style betting rounds.
- Bonus points for using community letters or building poker hand patterns.
- Power cards that multiply your score each round.
- Global leaderboards and detailed player statistics.
- Works on any device — phone, tablet, or desktop browser.
free to play · in-app coins have no monetary value