The humans behind the unicorn.
Built By Unicorns is a senior product and engineering team building websites, apps and AI that move real business numbers. A decade shipping software at some of the world's biggest tech companies taught us the judgement that matters most: helping you build the right thing before you spend.
James Levine
James founded Built By Unicorns to bring enterprise-grade engineering to businesses of every size. He works directly with founders and business owners, leading a team that builds websites, custom apps and AI automations aimed at a real result: more customers, more sales, fewer wasted hours.
At AWS he delivered full-stack projects for enterprise customers across media, healthcare, finance and aviation, and contributed production code to AWS's core products (CLI, CDK, Amplify, IAM, SAM). That rigour — earned at AWS, Reach plc, ChargedUp and Ticketmaster — now shapes how the whole team works.
Where the rigour was earned
Our team spent years inside enterprise engineering organisations before Built By Unicorns: full-stack projects at AWS for customers in media, healthcare, finance and aviation; mobile and web apps at Reach plc for the UK's largest news publisher; engineering leadership at ChargedUp through a COVID-era pivot; and front-end work at Ticketmaster shipping accessible features to 17 countries.
Business first, code second
Before software engineering, James founded three startups and held sales leadership roles across health-tech, marketing consultancy and SaaS — managing teams of 3–10 to real commercial outcomes, including a successful exit.
That entrepreneurial background is why we think about engineering in business terms first. The technical work serves a customer, a roadmap, and a company that needs the work to land. Code is a means, not the goal.
Let's move your numbers.
Got a product to build, a website that should be pulling in more enquiries, or a technical decision you want a straight answer on? Tell us what you're trying to grow and we'll tell you honestly how we can help.