I’m John Kelly, and Compical is me. You get me on the call, and you get me doing the work.
I spent 15 years building software. At Apple I spent four years automating hundreds of thousands of computers. At Bleacher Report I was a senior engineer keeping a sports app running for millions of people who notice immediately when it stops. At Chime I was the most senior engineer on MyPay, from early development through launch. I owned the design for how the money moved through it. MyPay lets eligible members get part of their pay before payday, and Chime reported it passed $400 million in annualized revenue in Q4 2025.
Most of that career was being handed a vague idea and turning it into something that runs every day without falling over. That is the part that matters here. Software that demos well and software that survives a Monday morning are different things, and knowing the difference is most of what I do.
In 2017 I stood on a stage in New York and talked to a room of engineers about keeping production software running when it breaks at three in the morning. I have given that kind of talk at developer meetups in San Francisco several times since. It is a useful thing to be able to do, because the job here ends with me explaining it to you in plain language on the phone, not to a room of programmers.
I started building with machine learning in 2013, well before the current noise. That is why I am comfortable telling you when AI is not the answer, which is often. Every answer I give you rests on what you actually run and what your people actually do all day, not on what is fashionable.
Compical is new. I’m taking on my first clients now, and I’d rather tell you that than have you work it out. I can’t point you at ten companies like yours I’ve already done this for. What I can do is put something of mine at risk on every call: nobody pays me except you, and if a call wasn’t worth what I charge, I don’t bill you.
I don’t resell software and I don’t take referral fees. Nobody pays me to point you at their product. If the answer is that you already own the fix and somebody needs to turn it on, that is what you get, and the call ends there.
I’m based in the San Francisco Bay Area and work with companies across the United States. I travel for on-site work.
