About Eight Bit Studios — Don Bora and Steve Polacek
Steve Polacek
Co-Founder
Unprofessional Golfer, designer and co-founder. Steve believes life is better when you create with others. He pairs design with product strategy to make sure what you build looks right, feels right, and makes sense for the people using it.
LinkedInYour Quest. Our Story.
Building got cheaper. Choosing got harder.
Every founder hits the same wall. The gap between having an idea and launching something real. AI tools made prototyping fast. But performance, architecture, scalability. Those haven't gotten easier. And that's only half of it. When you can build anything, knowing what's worth building is the real challenge.
We're Don Bora and Steve Polacek. Two people, no layers. We use AI agents and systems to deliver what used to require a team. But the judgment calls, the hard conversations about what to cut and when to ship, those are still human. That's the work we do.
Progress over process.
Functional Beats Fictional
We start with code, not concepts. Real in your hands beats pretty on a slide. You'll have working software to react to, not decks.
Ship Early, Learn Fast
The only feedback that matters comes from real users. We optimize for getting you to market, not building the perfect product.
No Lock-In
You own your code. We use standard technologies and document everything. You can take it anywhere, or we can keep building together.
Two > Twenty
Most studios add headcount. We add systems. AI agents handle the repeatable work. We handle the decisions that matter. The result: founder-level attention at every stage, with the output of a much larger team.
What Makes Us Different
Most agencies sell process. We build things that work.
Where We Work
We're headquartered in Chicago with a presence in Dallas. But we work with founders everywhere. Our process is built for remote collaboration.
Our Expertise
We use modern, proven technologies and processes that scale with your business:
Mobile
Flutter for cross-platform iOS & Android apps
Web Development
Ruby on Rails, React, and Astro
Design
UI/UX, brand systems, and prototyping
QA & Infrastructure
Vercel, Supabase, testing, and CI/CD
Strategy
Feasibility, roadmapping, and scoping
AI Integration
Claude, OpenAI, and custom AI workflows