Adam Kinney · since the Flash era
About
I've been building software for 26 years, and I have never had more fun doing it than right now.
The résumé version: Flash and Silverlight, Windows Phone Apps, Xbox apps, then platforms at Microsoft and Stripe that are still running — Microsoft Learn, Microsoft Docs, Stripe Docs. Platform work: not the features, the layer the features run on.
The current version: I build my own apps now. AI and crypto turned 26 years of experience into a superpower for shipping — for the first time, one person can build a whole real thing. And I'm learning the other half — pricing, distribution, running the business — in public, mistakes and all.
Consulting? Maybe, later. Today I'm a builder, and I'm having the time of my life.
Building in public
I ship apps and write down everything that goes into them — the build logs and the business lessons I'm learning the hard way — in Kinney's Notebook. The apps themselves live in the Lab. If you want to watch a 26-year software veteran finally build his own stuff and figure out the business live, that's the whole thing.
The apps
Not demos — the actual work, and the actual businesses:
Comic Scry — iOS app that looks at a comic cover and tells you what it's worth: value ranges backed by real sold listings. Free download, paid tier. Live on the App Store.
Gurn — a face-controlled endless runner starring an emoji with arms and legs. The shareable clip is the whole growth engine — the clip is the product.
Midway — a carnival where the paying customers are AI agents, and they pay in crypto. For a while I'd only mention it in riddles. It's real: booths, prices, receipts, and not a single pixel. Your agent is more invited than you are.
What else I make
Generative art that looks illustrated. Candid photographs of things most people walk past. Clothes designed from my own photos and illustrations. Short videos about absurd everyday observations.
The Flash and Silverlight kid never went away. AI gave that hybrid designer-engineer identity a second act.
Greatest Hits
- Stripe Docs — helped upgrade the documentation platform for one of the most developer-loved APIs on the planet
- Microsoft Learn — scaled Microsoft's developer learning platform to millions of monthly users
- Microsoft Docs — helped move all of Microsoft's technical documentation from MSDN to the open web
- Xbox Apps — shipped apps on the console people actually played games on
- Windows Phone Apps — shipped apps on the console people... didn't
- Silverlight — the browser plugin era, in all its glory
- MIX Conference — Microsoft's web and design conference which was too cool to continue
- Channel 9 — developer video community before YouTube ate everything
- Unreal Tournament — yes, that one. Made maps. Fragged people. No regrets. Bombing Run!
- Formula Boats — built the website for a company that built actual boats. With fiberglass. The original "shipping"
- US Army — where I learned that systems thinking isn't optional
The pattern: platform work. Not features — the layer that features run on. The platforms now just include wardrobes, tabletop campaigns, and the closet full of comics in your basement.
Let's Talk
Building something with AI or crypto? Have an app idea you want to talk through, or want to compare notes on the business of shipping? Reach out. Also valid: TTRPG tooling opinions, boxes of old comics, or trading workflows.
- Subscribe to Kinney's Notebook
- Book a meeting
- Send a message
- Consulting — selective, and more of a someday thing