About Us
Palapa started in 2020, founded by Taras and Katia, a developer and a designer who wanted to build products the way they always wished they could: properly, end to end, and with real ownership.
We've deliberately stayed a product studio rather than becoming a traditional agency. Design and engineering live in one team, so the whole product is one team's responsibility from blank page to live, with no handoffs to third parties.
We build our own products alongside our partners', which keeps us honest about what shipping actually takes.
We're a small, senior team by choice. We take on work we'd be proud to put our own name on, and we reach for the best tools available.
We work best with founders and teams building serious digital products, whether that's something starting from zero or an existing product ready for its next version.
Taras
Over 14 years building software. Taras leads engineering and the company's direction while staying hands-on with the build. He cares about shipping things, and about shipping them right.
He pushes us to use modern tools where they genuinely make the product better, AI models and agentic workflows included. The tooling gives us leverage and speed; senior people still make every decision that matters.
He started as a developer and never stopped being one. Most weeks he's still in the codebase, making architecture decisions and staying close to the critical parts of the build.
If you work with us, he's the person you talk to about scope, tradeoffs, and timelines.
Katia
A deeply creative person with a background in art and over 10 years in UI/UX. Katia leads design and brand across everything we make, and she's the reason our products look and feel the way they do.
Design and engineering sit in one team here, so her work doesn't stop at a handoff. She stays with a product through the build and all the way to release.
It's also why we'd rather do less, better, than ship work that feels generic.
She works from research rather than taste and treats design as something that has to hold up in production, not just in a mockup.
Every product we ship goes through her, from the first flow to the last word on a button.
Our
Team
