Hi, I’m Charly. I live in sunny Lisbon ☀️ where I design and build apps.

I fell into web development at an unfortunate moment: back in 2015 when I was about to graduate with my Master's in Management from Toulouse Business School. I started playing with basic HTML and CSS during my free time to scratch my itching curiosity. It sparked a new interest in me and began to make me question my career plans.

Fast-forward to a few months later. I was about to move to Paris to look for my first job as a fresh graduate when my dad told me he had been diagnosed with cancer. A bad one. I canceled Paris, the job hunt, and put my career plans on hold. I moved back to my hometown to be by his side and help him through his treatment.

There were very few exciting job opportunities in suburban Bordeaux, and I had a lot of time on my hands. I put this downtime to use and resumed learning about web technologies, for hours a day. The more I did, the more I loved it. Thanks Codecademy for the free education! I was fascinated by the fact that I could build anything I wanted, with little to no money, without anyone's permission, and from anywhere in the world. Very different from the corporate world I was about to enter.

After a few months of online learning, I decided to take the plunge and go pro. I was lucky enough to attend one of the first sessions of Le Wagon, a coding school in France. It was the most challenging and rewarding course of my life. I never thought my brain could digest so much knowledge in such a short amount of time. It was the stepping stone I needed. By the end of the course, I knew enough to build my own ideas. And others' too.

Around the same time, a great friend of mine launched one of the first coworking cafés in France, Hubsy, an immediate success. He needed a tool to manage bookings, and I needed a project to work on, a match made in heaven. I started building an app for a booming business in Paris while working from my childhood bedroom. I couldn't believe it.

After a few months, it was operational and making an impact on his operations. Hubsy's clientele was mainly composed of entrepreneurs and early-stage startups. Some also needed help with their websites, and I started getting requests. I accepted another project, and before I knew it, I was a freelance web developer. And I haven't stopped since:

• I've designed and built websites and apps for 20+ clients while working remotely from around the world. You can see all about it on the projects page.
• I've worked with Le Wagon as a teacher countless times in France, China, Australia, and Canada. I even launched their first campus in Sydney, Australia!
• I co-founded a Saas company, Syncly, and led the development of the product for 2 years before we decided to shut it down.
• I've launched a few side projects with good friends in the tech space, like Lottie Studio, a design studio powered by Lottie, a really cool open-source animation library.
• I've taken many online courses to keep learning and master core web development concepts. Deep JavaScript Foundations by Kyle Simpson was life-changing.

Actually, I did stop. For about 4 months in 2022, for the first time since I started freelancing. Working with computers for so long didn't turn me into one. I needed to take care of myself after two intense years running Syncly and taxing COVID lockdowns. This break gave me a fresh perspective on where to dedicate my time and skills moving forward.

Today, I'm naturally drawn to small-to-medium-sized companies with strong cultures and dedication to creating unique work environments. The Basecamp, Buffer, and Gitlab of this world. I'm excited about working with empathetic, passionate, and talented people, in that order.

Beyond technology, which has fascinated me since I was a kid, two spaces particularly interest me: nature and music. As a drummer and DJ, I would be thrilled to work with artists or companies leading the way in the music space. And as an outdoors lover, I would love to collaborate with companies aiming to protect or regenerate ecosystems on our beautiful planet.

I can join as a contractor or employee. I work remotely from Lisbon, Portugal, and I'm more than happy to travel occasionally to meet the team. I specialize in frontend development and design, the areas of the stack I enjoy the most. However, I would still consider fullstack positions as I've worked with backend technologies for years. I listed my tools of choice on the uses page.

I have been building on the web for nearly a decade now, and I'm confident I can make a significant impact on any project I choose to work on. If you resonated with my story and feel like I can be a good match for your team, I would love to hear from you! You can find my contact details below, talk to you soon!