Build the thing
Full-stack product work, client websites, React Native, HTML/CSS/JS, and the ugly middle bit between idea and usable software.
Startup code / university labs / useful chaos
Sam Matthews.Builds cool stuff.
Royal Holloway IT Security student and founding full-stack engineer at Rlly. Shipping web tools, QA workflows, local-first utilities, automation, and small systems that make messy real life less annoying.
01 / what I do
Things I seem to keep doing.
I build websites, ship small tools, test software properly, join hackathons, and keep ending up near security problems. Not a brand manifesto. Just the pattern.
Break the thing carefully
QA, testing, CTFs, security study, privacy instincts, and the useful habit of asking what fails first.
Make the boring part disappear
Automation, AI-assisted workflows, data exports, scripts, and internal tools that remove admin pain without pretending to be magic.
Show up and build
Hackathons, CTFs, team projects, public demos, and the useful chaos of building under time pressure.
02 / experience
Receipts, not vibes.
Public LinkedIn-visible work, internships, education, CTFs, and hackathons. A compact record of the things I have actually done, not a decorative logo wall.
RllyRlly
Founding Full-Stack Engineer
Pre-seed AI startup building real-time tools for sales and service professionals. Core desktop application MVP, product engineering, and all the awkward glue around making software real.
Nov 2025 — present
Contract · remote
Contract · remote
ResetReset Health
Software QA Engineer Intern
QA in a health-tech environment: independent testing, confidentiality, delivery ownership, and direct technical reporting.
Jun — Sep 2025
Internship
Internship
PMCPat Mooney Counselling
Web Developer and Manager
Built and managed the site from the ground up. Long-running client work: design, maintenance, uptime, updates, troubleshooting, and client trust.
May 2019 — Dec 2025
Part-time
Part-time
StoryStoryFutures
Video Editor Intern
Edited visual content for immersive storytelling and XR-related projects within the Royal Holloway / NFTS StoryFutures ecosystem.
Aug — Sep 2024
Internship
Internship
SpringSpringpod
Software Development Work Experience
Software development work experience covering career pathways, technical concepts, employer expectations, and industry interaction.
Apr 2022
Programme
Programme
RH8
Royal Hackaway V8
Hackathon participant
Participated in Royal Holloway’s student-run hackathon scene: fast builds, team pressure, demos, and the useful chaos around student-made software.
Hackathon
participant
participant
03 / selected work
Stuff I’ve made.
A few public-safe projects and experiments. Some polished, some scrappy, all more useful than pretending this is a venture-backed landing page.
Instagram Analyser
A client-side web application for analysing Instagram direct-message export data.
Why it matters: your archive should become understandable without becoming someone else’s database.
Pat Mooney Counselling website
Long-running client website design, development, maintenance, uptime, updates, and troubleshooting.
Why it matters: client work is not just design. It is translating needs, keeping things reliable, and fixing the boring parts before users notice.
Public client work ✓
AI agents and automation
Work around AI-assisted workflows, small tools, and product-shaped experiments.
The useful bit is not the company logo. It is making software handle awkward real-world processes without turning everything into a pitch deck.
Plezy, Itinex, Lecture tools, and the public workshop
A trail of current and older experiments across Flutter, TypeScript, Python, docs, infrastructure, media tooling, and university work.
The through-line is simple: build small systems, learn in public, abandon what deserves abandoning, keep what works.
04 / public proof
Specific beats impressive-sounding.
Everything here is intentionally public-safe and grounded in visible sources: LinkedIn, GitHub, and current project surfaces.
EducationRoyal Holloway
Computer Science / IT Security, 2023–2027 public LinkedIn window.
GitHub@TheLidlMan
Public repos across JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Dart, docs, and experiments.
Client workSince 2019
Web Developer and Manager for Pat Mooney Counselling.
CTFsTop 5% team
Industrial Intrusion CTF hosted by TryHackMe, plus Snyk Fetch the Flag participation.
HackathonsRoyal Hackaway
Participant in Royal Holloway’s student-run hackathon scene.
DirectionAI + systems
Automation, web tools, infrastructure, local-first utilities, and security-shaped thinking.
05 / operating principles
The website is not the work. It is the doorway.
The point is to make the right people understand the shape of the work quickly: practical, slightly obsessive, allergic to fake polish, and interested in systems that survive reality.
Make it inspectable.If a system hides everything interesting, it is probably hiding something broken.
Useful over theatrical.Good software changes what someone can do. It does not just wear a shiny landing page hat.
Privacy is a design constraint.Especially with personal data exports, automation, and AI-assisted workflows.
Keep the weirdness controlled.Memorable is good. Tacky is a tax. The difference matters.
06 / contact
Send the interesting problem.
If it involves web tools, automation, QA, security, events, data exports, or a small system nobody else wants to untangle, that is probably the right shape.