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magnus.mägi
Magnus Mägi
Available for new work

Magnus Mägi

Founder and engineer. Building consumer software between Tallinn and Istanbul.

I ship consumer software end-to-end — design, code, ship. Right now I'm building ClubFriends from zero, and advising a small group of founders.

Get in touchSee my work
About

Independent builder. Generalist by choice.

A decade of shipping consumer software end-to-end — iOS, web, and the backend that holds them up. Started in Tallinn, kept building across Tallinn and Istanbul. Eleven years in, I still measure a good week by what made it to TestFlight on Friday.

I prefer small teams and direct collaboration — design, engineering, product, whatever the moment calls for. Default to boring, proven tools; bet on new ones only when the upside is large and visible. I'd rather ship a small product that someone uses every day than a large one that impresses no one.

Outside work, I read, run, and split time between Tallinn and Istanbul with my family.

What I am working on

ClubFriends

Building a social product from zero — SwiftUI on iOS, Firebase backend, and a small team of trusted collaborators. Targeting a TestFlight beta this year.

iOS · 2026

Writing

Drafting short notes on building products as a solo founder, the developer experience of modern AI tooling, and life between two cities.

Notes · Ongoing

Advising

Working with a small set of early-stage founders on product direction, technical hiring, and shipping fast without breaking trust.

Selected founders · Ongoing
Toolkit

Things I work with

Product & design
  • Product strategy
  • UX
  • Prototyping
Frontend & mobile
  • TypeScript
  • React
  • Next.js
  • SwiftUI
Backend & infra
  • Node.js
  • Postgres
  • Firebase
  • Vercel
AI tooling
  • Claude
  • Agent workflows
  • Evals
  • RAG
Selected experience

A short résumé

  1. 2025 — Now

    Founder & Engineer · ClubFriends

    Designing and building a new social product end-to-end. iOS first, with a TypeScript Firebase backend and an evolving design system.

  2. 2022 — Now

    Advisor · Selected early-stage founders

    Working with a handful of consumer and developer-tooling founders on product direction, technical hiring, and shipping fast without breaking trust. References available on request.

  3. 2015 — Now

    Founder · VabaLabs

    Founded VabaLabs in 2015 — an independent studio for consumer product work. Designed and shipped iOS apps, web platforms, and developer tools across Estonia and Turkey. ClubFriends is the current focus.

Selected work

Things I have shipped

Developer tools · Daily driver

Internal AI tooling

Hand-rolled agent workflows on top of Claude Code and the Anthropic SDK. Eval harness for model regression testing, automated dev-loop scripts, and a small library of reusable patterns. Used every day.

Open source · Personal site

magnusmagi.com

This site. Next.js 16, Tailwind, next-intl, Keystatic CMS, Resend for the contact form, HMAC-signed admin auth. Source available on GitHub — feel free to fork.

Testimonials

What founders say

  • Magnus has the rare gift of giving you exactly the advice you need, even when it's the advice you didn't want to hear. Three weeks of his time saved us three months.
    M.K.Founder, early-stage consumer iOS app
  • We brought Magnus in for one technical hire and ended up using him for the next two as well. Every signal he flagged in interviews proved out within months.
    L.T.CTO, Series A developer-tools company
  • I expected an engineer. I got a designer, a product person, and an engineer. The first prototype we shipped together set the visual language for the rest of the product.
    A.B.Founder, Tallinn-based fintech
  • He's the only advisor on my call list that I have to schedule fewer calls with, not more. He teaches you to need him less.
    R.S.Founder, Istanbul-based consumer marketplace
Writing

Notes from the workshop

All notes →
Contact

Let's talk.

Email is the fastest way to reach me. I read everything, and I try to reply within a couple of days.

hello@magnusmagi.com