Plain Text Systems
No account rep. No sales team. A senior engineer who builds, and who’s still there next month.
We help you actually use AI, whatever that means for your business. Software built the right way, inside the tools you already use.
What we do
Plain Text Systems is a software engineering studio based in Irvine, California, serving Orange County and Southern California. We audit, harden, and maintain the software you built with AI tools, and we build new software to production standards. One senior engineer does the work, start to finish.
You know your business, and you’ve built something real with today’s tools. We are the engineering partner who makes it production-ready and keeps it that way: the security, the reliability, and the things that quietly break the day customers show up. You stay focused on the product. We make sure it holds up. We hold your software to the same standards we run our own business on.
The problem
Software built with AI tools is a black box. It works until it doesn’t, and there’s usually nobody to call.
The demo works. The first customers sign up. Then something leaks, or the bill triples, or a change nobody understands takes the whole thing down on a Friday. The tools that got you here don’t tell you what they left out. We do, and we fix it.
Why not an agency
Weeks, not months
You already have a working prototype. We build on it, instead of starting a long project from scratch and billing you for the privilege.
A senior engineer, not a rotating cast
You work directly with the person doing the work. No salesperson up front, no junior behind the curtain, no account manager relaying messages.
A partner who stays
We don’t disappear when the invoice clears. We stay in your corner as the product, and your customers, grow.
Services
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Software audit
from $499
A senior engineer reviews what you built and tells you, in plain English, where it’s solid and where it could break, leak data, or cost you.
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Custom software development
project-based
Software built for how your business actually works, fast and AI-assisted, with a senior engineer you talk to directly.
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AI automation
project-based
The repetitive parts of your week, handled: intake, document processing, quoting, follow-up, and searching your own knowledge.
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MVP development
fixed scope
A first version built fast and built right, small enough that an agency won’t take it and clean enough that you won’t redo it.
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Fractional engineering
monthly retainer
An engineer in your corner every month: fixing, upgrading, and adding features, so you’re never the only person who understands your own software.
How it works
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1
We talk
A short call about what you’ve built, what’s worrying you, and what you want next. No pitch deck.
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2
We look
A Software Health Check: one codebase, reviewed by a senior engineer, with a written report and a walkthrough call.
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3
We decide together
You get a clear picture and a plan. Harden it, build the next thing, or keep an engineer on retainer. Or nothing, if that’s the honest answer.
Who we work with
Small teams and solo founders in Orange County and Southern California who built something with AI tools and now have real customers depending on it. Owners who need an engineer they can trust but don’t need a full-time hire.
We are not the right fit for everyone. If you have an in-house engineering team, you probably don’t need us. If you want the cheapest possible quote or a project measured in years, we are not that. We do focused, senior work, priced in plain numbers, and we say so up front.
Contact
Tell us what you built and what’s worrying you. You’ll hear back from the engineer, not a queue. Email hello@plaintextsystems.com or use the form.