Cape Town
South Africa SAST · UTC+2 33.92°S · 18.42°E
Launched with two.
Two engineers, one iOS app for a financial-services client. The whole studio fit around a kitchen table.
A studio of twelve,
every project end-to-end.
01.1 / Intro
Origen is a senior product engineering studio in Cape Town. We’ve been shipping mobile apps and web platforms since 2021 — for engineering leaders and founders in London, New York, and Berlin. A working day that overlaps yours, and an international quality bar.
Studio — Old Castle Brewery, Woodstock · Cape Town 7925
33.92°S18.42°Ef/8
§ 01 The team
Harley Ferguson
Co-founder · CEO
Co-founded Origen in 2021. Sets the studio's direction and sits in on every engagement.
Jonathan Georgeu
Co-founder · CTO
Co-founded Origen in 2021. Owns the engineering practice end-to-end and the on-call rota.
Emma Amber
Content & Marketing
Writes the things you read. Runs the studio's voice in public.
Luke Vergunst
Software Developer
Full-stack. The one who picks up whatever the brief actually needs that week.
Makayla Bezuidenhout
UI / UX Designer
Designs the products our clients ship. Figma, prototypes, and the long meeting that decides everything.
Sibabalwe Mvunelwa
Product Tester
Finds the bug nobody thought was possible, in the device nobody thought to check.
Esdras Ilunga
Software Developer
Full-stack. Notices a slow query before it shows up in production.
Grant Forster
Software Developer
Full-stack. Owns the deployments nobody else wants to think about.
Kieran Moore
Business Analyst
Keeps the roadmap honest. Translates between what the customer said and what they meant.
Darian Leonard
Software Developer
Full-stack. Cares about the parts customers actually touch.
Demi Bezuidenhout
Business Analyst
Turns real-world workflow into engineering specs. Catches the assumption that would have cost six weeks.
Ashleigh Forster
Lead Business Analyst
Leads the analyst practice. Owns the line between what the client asked for and what the team builds.
§ 02 What we believe
A studio is a set of choices. These are ours — written down so we can be held to them.
01 /04
Senior people first.
Senior-heavy on every engagement. The decisions that matter, architecture, scope, product trade-offs, sit with people who’ve shipped real software, not people learning on your project.
02 /04
Public-quality work.
Everything we ship is something we’d put our name to. That sets the floor, not the ceiling.
03 /04
Small on purpose.
About eight engagements a year. It keeps quality non-negotiable and the team sane.
04 /04
AI in the loop, not at the wheel.
We use modern tools where they save real time. Architecture, product trade-offs, and the calls about what’s worth shipping stay with the senior on the project, not the model.
§ 03 Studio · in pictures
The studio · Old Castle Brewery 
Focus time · second cup 
At work · pairing day 
Team meeting · Tuesdays § 04 In the startup space
Outside of client work, Origen has been a long-term partner of Startup Club ZA — South Africa’s community for early-stage founders. We host workshops at the studio, mentor founders in the awkward early innings, sit on panels, and ship the platform that runs the membership. We try to leave the scene stronger than we found it.
Announcing the awards 
Speaking · on building products 
Demo days · founders pitching live 
Award winners · Startup Club ZA § 05 Where the work goes
London
United Kingdom GMT · UTC+0 51.51°N · 0.13°W
New York
United States EST · UTC−5 40.71°N · 74.01°W
Los Angeles
United States PST · UTC−8 34.05°N · 118.24°W
Andorra
Andorra CET · UTC+1 42.51°N · 1.52°E
Berlin
Germany CET · UTC+1 52.52°N · 13.40°E
Paris
France CET · UTC+1 48.86°N · 2.35°E
Dubai
United Arab Emirates GST · UTC+4 25.20°N · 55.27°E
§ 06 Five years, shortened
First clients abroad.
Our first international engagements came in — starting with clients in London. The calendar grew time-zone columns.
The team began to grow.
Slow, deliberate growth. Engineers, designers, analysts — each one closing a gap we couldn’t already cover ourselves.
Into the local scene.
Started showing up for the South African founder community — partnering with Startup Club ZA, running workshops nationwide, sitting on panels, mentoring the awkward early innings.
Heavier engagements, all at once.
The biggest projects we’d ever taken on, running in parallel. Long arcs, serious teams on the other side, real scale. The year we stopped being a small studio.
Settled into the studio.
Moved into the Old Castle Brewery building in Woodstock. Real walls, real coffee, real lift (slow). Where you’ll find us most days now.
Come by the studio.
Old Castle Brewery Building, 6 Beach Road, Woodstock · Cape Town 7925.
Coffee is good. Lift is slow.