As far as we know, we are the world's only software development agency that exclusively works with circular economy companies. Why would we choose such a singular niche, you say? In a nutshell, not because it makes a good marketing angle, but because it's the work we find most meaningful, and it means we bring real context to every project, in addition tonot just technical skill. 

But it wasn’t always that way. 

From the beginning, being a company that just did what it was told didn't appeal to us. We wanted to create and practice “tech for good.” But that was amorphous and could mean just about anything. There was good intention behind it, but it lacked focus. Underneath, we felt something was missing. An anchor point around which we could orient ourselves. 

The journey to being a solely circular serving company wasn’t a straight one. There were no watershed moments. It was more a case of increasingly noticing how the interplay of aspects that a circular business embodies had a need for someone like ourselves: technically skilled combined with values driven, practicality undergirding it all. 

Then, 2-3 years ago, it gradually came into focus: We are the technical partner for circular economy businesses; building, evolving and guiding digital products so founders can grow their business and scale their impact.

Perhaps the best way to show how and where we see ourselves in the circularity equation is this diagram, where circularity meets in the middle of the intersection of values, business and technology. Let’s break it down:

Natural World

We, like most people, value an environment that is supportive to all life on our planet. 

As it is, the production of products and materials is a huge contributor to emissions. Biodiversity has been impacted from various angles, one of them being habitat destruction. This is partly driven by the ongoing extraction from said habitats, for the production of new materials. Circularity is a major lever for positively affecting the equation. By efficiently making use of what already exists and reducing what’s needed to be produced in the first place, it reduces emissions, decreases biodiversity loss, and therefore climate impact. 

Social Value:

There's something the circular economy does almost by accident: it forces honesty about where things come from. Tracking materials through their full lifecycle isn't a social policy, it's just how circular systems have to work. But that same visibility ends up exposing labour conditions and practices at every point in the chain. Linear supply chains have thrived on the opposite, where distance and complexity kept uncomfortable realities out of sight. That gets much more difficult in a circular model.

Supply chains also tend to get shorter. Products designed to be taken apart, repaired and put back into use need to stay closer to where people actually are. At that point, labour arbitrage on the other side of the world stops making as much sense. Shorter chains are cheaper to oversee, less vulnerable when geopolitics shifts, and the money tends to stay somewhere useful. It won't happen on its own, and a clumsy transition brings its own risks. But the incentives point somewhere better than they do in a linear system.

Business:

Businesses of course need to make money, and in the process of doing so, often need to make and move physical things.In these turbulent times supply chains and resources to supply production are becoming less certain. Circularity opens doors for new revenue models that aren’t as focused on the continual production of new products, and in the process increasing efficiency and reducing the risk factors impacting linear businesses currently. Circularity, in many ways, is simply the most sensible, durable, effective way to do business. 

The way we see it, circular models can align incentives in a way that makes ecological, economical and societal sense. Tending to environmental values through how you operate  in this case increases commercial resilience and efficiency. Circularity opens doors for new revenue models, reduces risk, and increases customer loyalty and satisfaction. 

Bottom line: To us, there is a genuine business case for circularity, it is not only morals driven. 

Technology:

Circularity doesn't happen in isolation. Technology is what makes a lot of it actually work, and when the data behind day-to-day activity is put to proper use, it starts to reveal things worth knowing: where to improve, how to engage customers differently, and where the take-make-waste logic can be interrupted.

That needs platforms shaped around a fundamentally different relationship with customers, not just the same tools pointed in a new direction. It also needs infrastructure, digital and physical, that keeps goods and materials moving in loops rather than disappearing out the other end. Get that right, and technology stops being something the business has to manage and starts being what lets the people in it focus on the work that actually counts.

Which brings us to a point worth mentioning: Circularity is a space where technology is essential, but it’s not enough in and of itself. The human factor is the glue that holds this all together, and makes circularity a unique way of doing business.

HappyPorch embodies this, in that we combine a depth of software development and technical problem solving expertise, but at the same time bring deep caring, nuance, long term perspective coupled with a desire to both maximise the impact of the companies we serve and minimise the sweat of those running it, letting them focus on their core mission. 

And in the middle:

To us, the overlap of what matters + what businesses need + what we’re good at = Circularity, 

Said another way, the Circular Economy sits at the intersection of what we care about, where there’s a strong business case, and where our technical skills can actually move the needle. Seen in that light, it’s a natural thing, to place all our focus on evolving and elevating this sector.