Role: Freelance tech lead · Company: Autobutler (car repair marketplace) · Impact: 2M+ DKK a year saved on infrastructure alone, team from 11 to 4
Context
Autobutler connects car owners with workshops across Denmark. After a few years of growth the tech had become complicated and expensive, and the team had gotten smaller. The job was to simplify it, cut the cost, and keep the team shipping.
What I did
No rewrite and no new layers. I simplified what was there.
- Merged services and removed abstractions that cost more than they gave.
- Cut infrastructure: right-sized what we ran, shut down redundant systems and moved to cheaper options.
- Wrote down the trade-offs, so leadership and engineering agreed on why.
- Moved over in small steps, so nothing broke for the business.
Result
- More than 2M DKK a year less on infrastructure alone.
- Engineering went from 11 people to 4, and delivery kept its pace.
- A codebase the smaller team could understand and change.
What I took from it
Removing things is often worth more than adding features. Writing the trade-offs down saves a lot of arguing. And small steps beat one big risky move.