Curio Software is an independent, one-person software studio based in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve been building software for more than 30 years, starting with shareware for Windows back in the 1990s, and now creating high-quality, boutique applications for macOS, iPhone, and the web.
I build software to solve my own real-world problems. If something frustrates me or slows me down, I try to design an elegant solution. And when I do, I make it available to others because many people out there share the same pain points.
I’m not driven by chasing the biggest or most lucrative market. Instead, I’m motivated by quality, usefulness, and innovation. My belief is that with thoughtful design, relentless refinement, and strong automated testing, a single developer can create software that can surpass what larger teams produce.
Automation is at the heart of how I work. It enables a solo developer to maintain solid reliability and deliver updates with confidence. This makes it viable to build niche applications - projects that would never be profitable for larger companies but are incredibly valuable to the people who need them.
Although I deeply appreciate open source, turning an internal tool into something polished, intuitive, and consumer-ready takes roughly twice as much effort as building it for myself. Designing, testing, refining, and documenting all require sustained motivation. Selling my apps helps justify that investment and supports the level of quality I want to deliver.
Alongside Curio Software, I work professionally in the finance and cybersecurity industries. My focus on software quality (especially through automated testing) comes from years of building systems where correctness, reliability, and clarity are essential.
That same discipline goes directly into every app I release.
Curio Software began in 2013 with the creation of CopyQueue, and the realisation that the Mac App Store was a viable platform for an individual developer.
The idea arose during what should have been a simple backup job. I was dragging folders into an external USB hard drive one at a time, and after starting around ten transfers, everything slowed to a crawl. The system was becoming unusable.
Although macOS presented these transfers as a queue, it was actually copying them all at once behind the scenes, forcing the disk to thrash as it tried to handle multiple concurrent operations.
The solution was obvious: copy the files sequentially.
That idea became CopyQueue. To make it work properly, I had to implement pausing and resuming file transfers, which naturally turned into core features. From there, queue reordering, speed limiting, and other refinements evolved as part of the design. The result was an app that made file transfers faster, smarter, and far more controllable.
In 2015, while working in the finance industry, I frequently encountered another problem: markets that should have been trading were mysteriously inactive. Sometimes it was a system issue but more often, it was a market holiday no one was aware of. Some brokers published holiday flyers, but they were quickly outdated and easy to overlook.
I realised what I really needed was a live, accurate database of market holidays, along with notifications when closures were approaching.
But holidays are only part of the story. Different markets follow different trading hours, and when trading internationally, keeping track of opening and closing times (especially with daylight savings shifting in multiple time zones) is tedious and error-prone.
These challenges inspired Market Clock (opens new window), an app designed to make market schedules clear, accurate, and instantly accessible. All the time-zone conversions, holiday exceptions, and schedule irregularities are handled automatically and displayed in your local time.
Market Clock (opens new window) soon became indispensable not just for me, but for anyone trading across global markets.
Curio Software focuses on applications for macOS, iPhone and the web, all with a boutique mindset: thoughtfully designed, thoroughly tested, and built to solve very specific real-world problems.
If you appreciate software crafted with care, focus, and a bit of indie spirit, I hope you’ll enjoy Curio Software!