49.10°N 119.55°W South Okanagan, BC Open to conversations
Danny Halarewich Company & product builder

Product, AI, commerce & company building

I build products and companies, then write about what I learn.

Essays on startups, product judgment, emerging technology, AI, leadership, and the difficult work of turning ideas into useful products.

Now
Build mode
Based in
South Okanagan, BC
Coord
49.10°N 119.55°W

Founder of LemonStand, acquired by Mailchimp. Most recently CEO at Orbit Apps, building Shopify apps for commerce brands. Now in build mode: heads-down on what's next, and open to starting my next company or joining one already in motion. I write about AI, product judgment, commerce, design taste, and company-building.

Built
LemonStand acquired by Mailchimp
Led
Orbit Apps Shopify apps, through 2026
Now
Build mode starting or joining what's next

01 Featured

Featured essay

All essays
Featured Essay Jul 22, 2026

Most AI Writing Doesn't Sound Like You

It isn't that the models can't write. Sounding like you takes context no prompt carries. So I built Writers Room, and today it's open source.

A clever prompt can get you competent prose. It can't get you your voice, because your voice lives in context the model was never given: who you write for, what's true about you, and how you respond when a draft gets it wrong. Writers Room is my attempt to hold that context, and it now learns from my edits.

02 Notes

Recent notes

Short observations and half-formed thoughts, caught before they fade.

All notes

03 Proof of work

Selected work

The companies I've built and the products I'm building now.

All work
  • Company 2011–2019

    LemonStand

    Founder & CEO · LemonStand

    A hosted e-commerce platform for growing brands, built and led from founding through its acquisition by Mailchimp in 2019.

    Open record ↗ live
  • Company 2019–2021

    Mailchimp

    Product · Mailchimp

    Product work on commerce tooling inside a large marketing platform, building for merchants at a scale and surface area an independent startup rarely sees.

    Open record ↗ live
  • Company 2021–2026

    Orbit Apps

    Founder & CEO · Orbit

    Commerce software built in and around the Shopify ecosystem. A return to focused, independent building after time inside scale.

    Open record ↗ live
  • Product 2024–2026

    Alliance Pro

    Co-founder & Builder · Orbit

    Software for outdoor-industry pro programs, treating the pro channel as a managed channel of trusted advocates rather than a discount leak.

    Open record ↗ live
  • Product 2025–

    Ontrack

    Founder & Builder

    A trail-running coaching app that turns training science into a plan you can actually follow, built solo for runners like me.

    Open record ↗ live
  • Project 2026–

    Writers Room

    Creator

    An open-source writing studio that runs inside Claude Code and learns to sound like you, including from the edits you make when it gets you wrong.

    Open record ↗ live

About

A founder and operator who writes, with a bias for product judgment and design taste.

I build software companies and write about what I learn at the edges, where product judgment, AI, commerce, and the outdoor world overlap.

More about Danny