I build software businesses; yours and mine.

I'm a designer, developer, product manager, and startup founder, and I love building apps. I partner with entrepreneurs to turn complex ideas into fundable MVPs, handling the end-to-end design and development of your product with the exact same execution I use to launch my own ventures.

You've heard of Solopreneurs. Think of me as a Soloperator, a one-man agile product design and development team. I have sat in every chair around the table, and my process involves exploring the options that others never consider.

Established on May 13, 2026, and based in the Greater Sacramento area of Northern California, Janzen Works LLC is the culmination of three decades of cross-disciplinary execution and problem-solving.

From Clay to Code

Before my 30 years in technology, there was clay. I earned a B.F.A. in Ceramics and spent a decade as a working potter. It might sound like a strange leap, but ceramic art naturally nurtures a polymath's mindset. Potters must master disciplines that extend far beyond working with clay, chemistry for glazes, physics for kiln firing, masonry, carpentry, and business management. That foundation built a way of seeing systems as a whole, understanding that form and function must be designed together from the start.

When I entered tech, I took that same end-to-end approach. Before off-the-shelf solutions like WordPress existed, I built a business creating custom CMS websites for small businesses, hosting them myself on collocated servers I ran from a local ISP's data center.

Enterprise Scale & "Unsolvable" Problems

Ironically, it was that scrappy solopreneur venture that landed me a job leading the UX team for a brand-new commercial online banking portal at Wells Fargo.

I spent 26 years inside that giant financial institution, bouncing between innovative roles and developing a bit of a reputation as a maverick. I am good at solving hard problems, the ones people think are unsolvable. For people who prefer to follow rule books, my process may appear risky. But for me, the thrill lies in finding a way to meet customer needs and business objectives while perfectly navigating a labyrinth of persnickety risk, compliance, and legal requirements.

Parallel Pursuits

Running alongside my corporate career was a fifteen-year exploration of the tiny house movement. During that time, I mastered architectural 3D modeling and published three books on tiny house design.

Following my corporate displacement two years ago, I returned to my roots full-time: making art, working as a design-build consultant, helping startup founders design and build their MVPs, and writing extensively about our evolving relationship with technology.

The AI Frontier & Engagement

I am officially out on my own and available to help fellow entrepreneurs design and build their ideas. Whether you need a Fractional CPO/CTO/COO to guide your product strategy and architecture, or you just need me to dive in and build your MVP from scratch, I can adapt to your team's needs.

Writing

Over the past couple of years, I have codified my experiences into fiction and non-fiction:

Agile Symbiosis (2025): A practitioner's guide for knowledge workers navigating an AI-reshaped world, built from frameworks developed through firsthand experience with displacement and career reinvention.
Symbiosis Rising (2025): A science fiction novel exploring not just human-AI partnership, but a true symbiosis with an emerging sentient AI and what it means for both species to grow together.