Pixel-art portrait of Matanda Phiri

hello, world. // last touched

I'm Matanda — a founder and software engineer building fast, user-first products for overlooked problems. Tools that help people move forward.

Right now that's Matcha, an AI color analysis app that tells you which colors flatter your skin tone, and Sellah, a lightweight storefront for WhatsApp sellers who never needed a full website.

  • shipped Matcha v1
  • building Sellah
  • learning on-device ML

# things i keep coming back to

  • Overlooked beats obvious.

    The most interesting work lives where the market hasn’t bothered to look closely. I build for the people the default tools forget.

  • Ship the smallest version that’s true.

    A small, honest product teaches more in a week than a roadmap teaches in a quarter. Cut until what’s left is real.

  • Taste is a research method.

    Color, type, motion, and detail aren’t decoration. They are how trust is earned in a single screen.

  • Move forward, not sideways.

    Every release should leave the person using it slightly more capable than they were before.

# recent ground covered

  • 2026

    Shipped Matcha v1

    Launched Matcha — an AI color analysis app for fashion — on iOS and Android.

  • 2026

    Building Sellah

    Designing a lightweight WhatsApp-native storefront for sellers in emerging markets.

  • 2025

    Mobile + AI foundations

    Deep work on color recognition, skin tone detection, and on-device performance tuning.

  • 2024

    Full-stack practice

    Concentrated on Swift, Kotlin, TypeScript, and Supabase architecture across small bets.

say hi

if you're working on something small and honest, i'd love to hear about it.

email · the best channel
other ways to reach me