About Us

Beautiful Canoe grew out of Aston University's Computer Science department, creating bespoke software as a means of giving our students a competitive edge by enhancing their theoretical knowledge with practical and employability skills.

Our core intentions haven't changed but now, using our connections with world-class academics from the business and digital sectors, we are an Innovation Hub -- offering creative problem solving and solution development to businesses, charities, public sector and industry from micro-businesses through to multi-nationals.

Our clients range from professors to peers, and our projects from forensics to pharmacy. We specialise in supporting the digital sector or those companies with digital needs that do not have the necessary in-house expertise.

Our community of developers, consultants and designers draw on excellence and innovation to enable you to achieve your organisational goals.

Student developers demonstrating a product.

Our Attitudes

Our community of developers & designers has a passion for learning new ways to achieve your goals for your software. We are:

Innovative and inspiring

We use mature methods and technologies for reliability and surety; however, we are creative and use innovative approaches to problem solving.

Approachable

We ensure that the experience that our clients and staff have with Beautiful Canoe is supportive, encouraging and pleasant.

Professional

We ensure that the interactions, methods and processes we use are of a high standard.

Knowledgeable

We draw on the best and most relevant knowledge that our staff and the academic community can offer.

Adaptable

We are flexible and responsive to client needs.

Competent

We ensure that the client receives products and services that are of high quality, effective and robust.

Our Values

Our business is based around these values:

Craft

We see our software development as our craft. We value craftsmanship and attention to quality.

Joy

We are here because we enjoy and value what we do, and because it makes us happy.

Flow

We believe that we do our best work when we achieve a state of flow. We are deeply immersed in what we do, and see our adaptivity as natural state of being.

Edge

We embrace challenge, acknowledging that challenging oneself is often uncomfortable. We believe that this is when we learn the most.

Openness

We believe in transparency, honesty and the sharing of knowledge. We acknowledge the massive impact free and open source software has had both on the world and our work, and aim to contribute wherever we can.

Collaboration

We work with our clients and involve them in the development and delivery process to find the most effective solutions.

Leadership

Our leadership team draws on experience in commercial software development, academia, charity governance, team coaching and leadership development.

We work with associates at Aston University and our partners to ensure projects are managed by those with the best skills and expertise for the job.

Julien Barney

Julien Barney

Chief Executive Officer

Current Team

Our Fellows are graduates, placement students and undergraduates from a range of backgrounds, who have been employed for their ability and attitude. We provide training and mentoring and a challenging but safe environment for them to develop their practical and employability skills. At the end of their time with us, they are more competent and rounded individuals who will be an asset to the technology community.

We also work with Associates, who are current students wishing to get practical experience before moving to a graduate or apprenticeship role. Our Associates work with us through final year projects, taught modules, bootcamps or sometimes even as part of their FE studies.

Ebadur Liton Rahman

Ebadur Liton Rahman

Fellow

Anusha Kumar

Anusha Kumar

Fellow

You can see our previous Associates, Fellows and Leaders here.

Interested?

Julien Barney

Julien Barney

Chief Executive Officer

If you're interested in working with us, say hello@beautifulcanoe.com and our CEO, Julien Barney will be in touch.