Think it through.
Build to find out.
Company31 is an independent think tank and lab. It asks how people and technology can work well together, then tests each idea by building something small and useful, putting it into use, and writing up what it teaches.
Applied research · Open tools · Sydney, Australia
How the lab works
A think tank that builds. A working tool answers questions that an argument alone cannot, so thinking, building and learning share the same loop.
Ask a real question. Start from a difficulty people actually live with, and frame it as something that can be tested.
Build to find out. Make the smallest useful thing that could answer it. Building is how the thinking gets checked.
Learn in the open. Release it, watch what happens in use, and write it down. Findings go to the essays; the code goes in the drawer.
From a sketch to something that works
The loop that builds the lab’s own tools is open to your business. Company31 brings 25 years of work where people, technology and now AI meet, across banking, government, automotive and media. It starts from the question your business actually has, and builds only what answers it.
A prototype
Take the idea off the whiteboard and put a small working version in front of real users, before you commit the big budget.
A working product
Apps and web platforms that are secure, private by design and ready for real customers on iPhone, Android and the web. Documented and handed over, so your team can run it.
A dashboard that shows what matters
Scattered data turned into one clear view: what drives your company’s value, where profit is leaking, and where to look next.
AI that earns its place
Where AI really saves time or lifts revenue in your business, and where it only adds cost. You hear which before you pay for it.
From the workbench
Each tool here began as a question. Can a security check speak plain English? Can notes outlive the app that made them? Can practice meet each learner at their level? Can a small daily moment make work lighter? Can booking software respect a practice’s roles? Can funding obligations be seen before they are due? Some are released and free, some are still in trial; each has its own scope and stage of development.
CyberSafe
Point it at a website you own and get a plain‑English health check: a 0–100 score, an A–F grade, and a prioritised list of fixes. Consent‑based, non‑intrusive and free, and it stays that way.
Check a site →Owly
Notes that stay yours. Owly keeps every note as plain Markdown in a folder you choose — no account, no subscription, no proprietary storage. Delete the app and your notes are still there, readable in any editor. Free for the Mac, and on the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Now in preview on Windows 11.
Open the Owly page →Math Citizen
Math that grows with you. Math Citizen sets every puzzle at the edge of what you can do, from Level 1 to 50, and writes fresh story problems on the device with Apple Intelligence. No account, no ads, and nothing leaves the device. Free on the App Store.
App Store → Math Citizen page →Grinly
A smile a day, and a pause when you need one. Grinly brings one small card a day — a joke, a kind note, a little wonder — and a minute or two to reset when work gets heavy. It never asks how you feel, and nothing leaves the device. Free on the App Store and Google Play.
App Store → Google Play → Grinly page →Zen Chess
Chess as a path of calm attention. Zen Chess teaches the game the way a patient master would: eight stages from how the pieces move to strategy, each with lessons, puzzles, a short breathing practice and a trial game, plus eight opponents to play. No account, no ads, and nothing leaves the device. Free on the App Store.
App Store → Zen Chess page →Slotello
Online booking and practice admin for allied health. Slotello gives each practice a booking page in its own colours, takes payment at booking, sends the reminders, and keeps the client records — with each person seeing only what their role needs. Free for founding practices during the beta.
Open the Slotello page →Company31 Radio
Lo‑fi for focus and code, 24/7. Five stations of our own original music, for coding, good vibes, crunch time, chill sax jazz and gaming, composed live in your browser, plus a few free stations we like, played from a pixel‑art desk with a view of Sydney Harbour. Rain on the window, a focus timer, no account.
Tune in →Proofline
For anyone holding a grant or funding agreement with a report due. Proofline tracks the obligations you record from your funding agreement and shows which ones have evidence behind them, which do not, and how exposed you are — before the acquittal deadline, not the week after.
Open the Proofline page →Everything still in pencil
Experiments, prototypes and small tools live at c31labs, left open on purpose. The repositories put the thinking behind the builds out for inspection, reuse and further work.
Side quests
Not everything the lab builds begins as a serious question. These were sketched in the margin while the ink on the main drawing dried: games, toys and tributes, built for the fun of it. Play is still a good way to find out what a browser, a camera or a 1969 flight computer can do.
Continued on another sheet
Where the lab thinks out loud: essays on technology, change and applied AI — and what building things teaches about all three. The thinking continues on the next sheet.
Sheet 2 of 2 manuelre.com ↗ Essays and notes · Manuel ReIf there is something worth exploring.
A question you keep turning over, a reply to an essay, a difficulty that deserves a closer look, or an idea for an experiment. Company31 is independent and self-directed, and now and then explores an open question together with others. Every message gets a personal reply.
connect [at] company31 [dot] com