Custom software in Austin since 2000: what Lone Star Media does now

Lone Star Media started in Austin in 2000, building websites for local businesses. More than twenty-five years later we still answer our own phone. What we build has changed a lot, and with this new site it seemed like the right time to say plainly what we do now.

The short version: we're half product company and half client shop, with one senior team. We build custom software, mobile apps and AI integrations for clients, and we fund, build and run products of our own. Each half makes the other better.

What we build for clients

Custom software

Web applications, the systems behind them, and the work of getting systems that were never designed to talk to each other to cooperate. We're at our best where things are messy: old data, outside services that misbehave, and platforms other teams left half-finished.

The clearest example is Slick Cactus, a commercial real estate platform. It started as a founder with an idea and no code. Brokers now run their deals on it: map search, deal tracking, reporting and email automation in one place. We wrote every line of it, and we're still the team shipping it years later.

Mobile apps

One app for iPhone and Android that feels right on each. We've taken plenty of apps from idea to the App Store, including our own. If you're weighing the options, ask us how we choose between Flutter and native.

Websites and online stores

WordPress, Shopify and custom e-commerce: platform moves, speed overhauls, checkout work, and untangling plugin spaghetti. This is where we started, and it's still a big part of the work. When Austin Rare Coins & Bullion lost its site to an attack, what it needed first was a plan it could believe, and then a rebuild with security as the first requirement. They're still a client.

AI that works with your systems

This is the fastest-growing part of our work, and it takes two forms:

• The MCP Sprint. We build a custom Model Context Protocol server that connects your CRM, database or internal tools to Claude and other AI assistants, with a short, permissioned list of actions. It's fixed price and typically takes two to four weeks. Read how it works, or see when an off-the-shelf connector is enough.
• AI Slop Surgery. When AI wrote your app and now nobody can keep it running, we triage it, stabilize the dangerous parts, and get you shipping again. No judgment. See how triage works.

What we build for ourselves

We build our own software, and we carry the pager for it:

• Ateamo: team and league management for adult recreational sports, covering rosters, RSVPs, payments and scheduling. Twelve thousand players across three leagues use it every week.
• SessionFYI: session replay without the enterprise bill, currently in quiet beta.
• KineticMade: an activity and accountability app, in the works for iOS and Android.

Why would a client shop run products? Because it changes how we build for you. When you live with your own shortcuts, you stop taking them. When we push back on a roadmap item, it's usually because we've already paid for that lesson on our own products.

How we work

• Small and senior. There are no account managers and no junior bench. The engineers on your kickoff call are the ones writing the code. The team is distributed across the US, Poland and Ukraine, and many of us have worked together for years. You can meet them.
• Ship every week. You get working software on a regular cadence, not a big reveal at the end. You see progress, and we get your feedback while it's cheap to act on.
• Built to hand over. Clean code, real documentation, and everything in your accounts. We build as if you might leave, and that's a big part of why clients stay.
• Long relationships. Some of our clients have worked with us for more than twenty years. Here are a few of them.

Three ways to start

Most clients start small, see how we work, and go from there:

1. A triage. It starts with a free 30-minute consultation. If your app is in trouble, we assess it, and you get a written diagnosis and a priority list whether or not you hire us for the fix.
2. An MCP Sprint. Two to four weeks, fixed scope and fixed price, connecting one system to the AI tools your team already uses.
3. A first build. One product, one team, one quarter. We scope it with you in week one, ship every week after that, and you own everything at the end.

Why Austin still matters

We're an Austin company, and that's more than a line in the footer. It's where we started and where many of our longest client relationships began. Austin's tech scene has changed enormously since 2000, and so has how software gets built. What hasn't changed is that clients want a team that tells them the truth about the size of the job and then does it.

What's next on this blog

We'll post here regularly about the work: plain-English guides to AI and MCP, what we see when we rescue AI-built apps, and honest notes from running our own products. If there's a question you want answered, send it to us. A real person reads every message.