AN INDEPENDENT SOFTWARE STUDIO
We build original products, explore useful ideas and help solve difficult software problems.
Explore our work
01 / OUT IN THE OPEN
Original software, built here.
From the first question to what comes next.
AN ORIGINAL HIDDEN ROOM LABS PRODUCT
Music requests for live streams.
Queuebox brings song requests, paid requests and queue management into one place for streamers and their audiences. The audience helps shape the soundtrack while the streamer keeps track of what’s next.
In active development
Explore Queuebox (opens in a new tab)02 / GOOD COMPANY FOR COMPLEX PROBLEMS
Alongside our own products, we take on architecture, hands-on engineering and technical leadership work. You’ll work directly with Rob, the founder.
The starting point is the problem and the trade-offs. Sometimes the useful answer is a smaller change, or a decision to leave something alone.
Start a conversationWhat needs to change, and what is worth keeping?
Assess the constraints, dependencies and operational risks, then weigh the cost of change against the options it leaves open.
Software that has to keep working.
Hands-on architecture and development for new products, multi-tenant SaaS and complex business systems, including the reliability and support they need.
A direction the whole team can work with.
Connect technical direction with product priorities and the realities of delivery, while building shared accountability across the disciplines involved.
Decide how to judge an experiment before you run it.
Explore AI, automation and agentic workflows with a clear use case and evaluation criteria. Understand failure modes and human oversight needs before taking an experiment further.
03 / THE THINKING BEHIND THE WORK
The “Labs” is a licence to explore.
The engineering is knowing what to keep.
Before getting attached to an approach, decide what a useful result would look like and how to test for it. That applies to AI as much as anything else.
Maintenance, support and the consequences of technical choices belong in the design. A simpler system can leave people with more time and better options later.
Trust and autonomy work best alongside shared accountability. People need to be able to question an idea, understand a decision and take responsibility for what follows.
Rob Ray-White
FOUNDER, HIDDEN ROOM LABSI’m Rob, the founder of Hidden Room Labs. Over 20 years in software, I’ve developed independent products and built and operated multi-tenant SaaS platforms. My experience includes fintech, payroll and complex business systems.
I’ve also led a 17-person function spanning engineering, product, design, QA and infrastructure. That experience shapes how I work across the code, the architecture and the decisions around both.
04 / THE DOOR IS OPEN
A product idea, a tricky engineering problem or an interesting possibility. There’s room for a conversation.
rob@hiddenroomlabs.com