Name: Eight Bit Studios
Address: 1 East Erie St, Suite 525 #4993, Chicago, IL, 60611, US
Telephone: +13122818823

Company Overview

Legal Name	Eight Bit Studios LLC
Founded	2009
Founders	Don Bora, Steve Polacek
Headquarters	1 East Erie St, Suite 525 #4993, Chicago, IL 60611
Second Office	Dallas, TX
Team Size	2 (founders)
Phone	(312) 281-8823
Website	eightbitstudios.com

Services

Fractional CTO Leadership	Strategic technical guidance for non-technical founders. Architecture decisions, hiring plans, investor-ready technical narratives
Product Strategy	Feasibility assessment, MVP scoping, and launch planning
UI/UX Design	User experience and interface design grounded in product strategy
Full-Stack Development	Production-grade mobile and web applications

Engagement Models

Pre-launch, Level 0: Join the fleet	Join foundersfleet.com to get your free Founder's flight plan, a squad, and more.
Pre-launch, Level 1: Get advice	A senior technical and product partner every week. We work through feasibility, architecture and R&D experiments with you, and help decide what to build first and whether it's worth building.
Pre-launch, Level 2: Build a prototype	A working prototype, clickable or coded. Something real to show customers or investors before you commit to the full build.
Pre-launch, Level 3: Launch a product	Full-stack development of your MVP or beta, including custom AI and API integrations, with a weekly demo.
Pre-launch, Level 4: Launch with your team	Your first version, built in your team's rhythm, with more capacity.
Pre-launch, Level 5: Go to market	Design, engineering and product leadership on your product every week: native iOS, Android and web, a full design system, and product direction and go-to-market owned with you. Finished, not just working.
Post-launch, Level 1: Stay looked after	We keep your live product healthy: monitoring, updates, analytics and fixes, with questions answered on an agreed response time. Small improvements included; new features start at Core.
Post-launch, Level 2: Keep improving	Bigger improvements to what's there, like a reworked flow, a redesigned screen or a new report, planned monthly.
Post-launch, Level 3: Build what's next	Full-stack development of what comes next, including custom AI and API integrations, with a demo every week.
Post-launch, Level 4: Grow with your team	Your next version, built in your team's rhythm, with more capacity.
Post-launch, Level 5: Scale the product	Design, engineering and product leadership on your live product every week: native apps and web, the design system, product direction and go-to-market, including rebuilds and replatforms.
Pricing	Retainer-based flexible plans. No time-and-materials billing. No traditional MVP quotes. Pause, cancel, or switch anytime.

Support

Knowledge base	https://eightbitstudios.com/support/
Support email	hello@eightbitstudios.com
Support requests	https://eightbitstudios.com/contact/?reason=support
Code ownership	The client owns the code. Work is made for hire and IP transfers on full payment. Repositories live in an account the client owns. Clients can leave at any time and take everything with them.
Client AI tools	Allowed on the client's own repository, on a branch. Nothing reaches production without passing the same automated checks Eight Bit's own changes pass, plus a review.
Post-launch warranty	Every release is covered: thirty days of fixes after anything shipped, whether or not the client stays on a plan. A defect is something that does not do what was agreed; a change is not a defect. Pilots and betas carry no warranty clock.
Emergency	Production down, users locked out, a security event, or anything blocking a payment or a launch.
Response	An acknowledgement email confirms receipt, usually within a business day. A human replies within a response time agreed up front for the plan. Acknowledgement windows only; resolution times are never published.
Pausing and ending	Build work pauses at a monthly boundary. Two weeks' notice to pause, switch or stop. Code, accounts and documentation are already the client's.
Billing	Retainers invoiced at the start of the period, due on receipt. Fixed-scope work net 30. Work may pause after 15 days of non-payment. Level changes take effect at the monthly boundary.

Technology Stack

Frontend	Hotwire, React, Astro, Tailwind CSS
Mobile	Flutter (iOS, Android)
Backend	Ruby on Rails, Supabase Edge Functions
Databases	PostgreSQL, PostGIS
Infrastructure	Vercel, DigitalOcean, Supabase
AI Integrations	Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini, OpenAI, Perplexity, ElevenLabs

Industries

Healthcare
Background Screening & Compliance
AI-Powered Consumer Tools
Founder Tools & Community Platforms

Current Clients & Projects

Perfume Lens	AI-powered fragrance discovery
Tovie	Companion app for the pedal-to-play kids' bike (in development)
Health.Vet	Veteran health platform
CoGo	AI-powered relationship guidance (paused, in market)
ScoutLogic	Background screening and compliance platform
MyCheckupHealth	Personal health monitoring

Own Products

Eight Bit Portal	Our operational hub and client portal, built on AI agents. Clients log in for real-time visibility into their builds
MealWatchers	AI-powered diet tracking app, available on iOS and Android
Founders Fleet	Community platform for founders building their first real product
NanoClaw	AI operations infrastructure for agent-assisted workflows

Key Differentiators

Two-person studio with direct founder access
Hands-on development, not management from the sidelines
Working software first, not design decks
You own your code, no vendor lock-in
AI-era positioning: helping founders navigate AI tools, not competing with them

Review Profiles

Social & Online Presence

Guides & Comparisons

Machine-Readable Data

Structured brand data is available at /.well-known/brand-facts.json and in /llms.txt.