matthew at genericalternatives dot co dot uk

Matthew Don!

I'm a 23-year-old, self-taught software developer from Belfast, Northern Ireland focused on building outbound marketing tools that get your product, offering, or brand out there to the masses. I started building tools for myself because I didn't want to pay exorbitant fees for things I could do in-house, and those same tools have helped dozens of teams and clients. I’ve worked mostly independently, and I prefer leading projects end-to-end while still collaborating closely when it matters.

Me with friends in Guangzhou
pivora.co

pivora.co

Aug 2025 – Present
Outbound platform

Built a Telnyx + WebRTC softphone and power‑dialer. I created isolated Docker services exposed through ngrok to handle Google Maps/Google scraping, Instagram messaging, and Discord community outreach for mass booking workflows. I added an SMS follow‑up module using Convex Agent components to keep booking follow‑ups organized with a human‑in‑the‑loop rather than fully automated replacements. The platform includes credits, multi‑workspace RBAC for agencies, real‑time activity views, call recordings, and AI transcription analysis. It began as a personal tool and reached 35 users in one month.

Skills
  • Automated outbound workflows with personalization and follow-up loops.
  • Sourced and enriched leads to improve targeting and reply rates.
  • Designed sequencing logic to control timing, channels, and escalation.
Diala

Diala

Feb 2025 – Sep 2025
Realtime AI sales scenario engine

Built after receiving 1,000 hours of AMD Developer Cloud inference in June 2025. OSS/FOSS architecture to replicate voice using Emotion2Vec for prosody and timbre analysis, ASR with source separation, and a RAG stack for realtime sales scenarios. This was my original idea to replace sales reps for finding freelance/contracting work, and the tooling now lives inside my dev-tooling stack plus pivora.co.

Tooling
  • Emotion2Vec for prosody/timbre vectors and labeling.
  • Demucs for audio source separation.
  • Whisper v2 turbo + IBM Granite for realtime ASR.
  • Google LangExtract with Convex vector DB for RAG.
  • Jina v4 embeddings over yt-dlp subtitle corpora.
  • GPT-OSS-120B with AudioCraft background audio.
  • GStreamer streaming + Silero VAD for turn-taking.
Captivatedsocials

Captivatedsocials

Sep 2022 – Mar 2024
Social media marketing agency

At the University of Salford on a scholarship, I ran a social media marketing agency delivering organic content campaigns, marketing, and design. I’m self-taught in graphic design, video editing, and motion design, specializing in short-form content. Campaigns grew creators across Ireland, Northern Ireland, and England—one client scaled from 30k to 700k in two months, and our output reached 100M+ views. I also built scripts to programmatically subtitle videos, source content online, and auto-expand images with AI to ship 2–3 videos per day.

Scope
  • Organic campaigns, branding, and motion-led short-form content.
  • Creator growth across UK/Ireland niches (30k → 700k in 2 months).
  • Automation scripts for subtitles and AI image expansion.
Built with:PythonPythonAfter EffectsAfter EffectsSRTSRTJavaScriptJavaScript
Sourcing ops

genericalternatives.co.uk

Nov 2025 – Present
Sourcing company in China

While working on Diala, I met Hu Yu Dong in Vietnam when he was exploring building a factory. He invited me to China to work directly for Jianxi Plastic Factory and to build a similar scraping and messaging system for his China-based sales team and himself. There, I learned how regional, provincial, and international trade is handled in China and built bespoke systems to automate the monotonous outreach tasks involved in running a factory. That work sparked my interest in sourcing, so I created a sourcing company using the same stack and expanded it with additional channels (LinkedIn, Reddit, SMS, Instagram, and Facebook) via my outbound tool Pivora. This helped me book meetings with coffee shop and boutique restaurant owners in California to replace their current suppliers with factories I partnered with in China.

Skills
  • Mapped suppliers and validated capacity across sourcing categories.
  • Ran vendor outreach and negotiation to secure reliable partners.
  • Coordinated fulfillment operations from order to delivery.
Taiwan build

fitexto.com

Sep 2025 – Nov 2025 (Taiwan)
Mandarin translation tooling

I was brought in to help Jane improve her existing product, which translated Simplified Chinese to Traditional Chinese. I introduced newer Chinese models for cost-effective clothing replacement, and advised on a front-end redesign. Over three months, I consulted on a go-to-market plan to add and position these new features.

Scope
  • Simplified-to-Traditional Chinese translation positioning.
  • Model selection for clothing replacement workflows.
  • Front-end redesign and 3-month go-to-market consulting.
Concierge

gambuy.co.uk

Dec 2025 – Present
Concierge sourcing

While building my sourcing company, friends worldwide asked me to buy items outside my core offerings (PVC, pumps, and plastic utensils). Requests ranged from clothes and toys to tools, so I built Gambuy in Vite with an ingestion engine that pulls listings from 1688, Taobao, Weidian, and competitor agents like Gtbuy, Mulebuy, and Kakaobuy. I aimed for a similar offering but added gamified incentives to drive return visits and give users chances to win shipping discounts. I also reused the clothing-replacement tooling I developed with Jane at Fitexto to build a pipeline for AI-assisted virtual try-ons: a vision model analyzes the garment and the user's uploaded photo so customers can preview fit and style before purchasing.

Skills
  • Built agent workflows to intake and route custom sourcing requests.
  • Handled price discovery and arbitrage across marketplaces.
  • Set up order routing to match requests with the right suppliers.
Recruitment contract

arbeidslink.no

Dec 2025 – Present
Recruitment contract

Approached by friends Martinus and Anders to build a site that places Oil & Gas engineers into roles across Norway’s energy sector. We used Jina’s segmenter and reranker to parse CVs and route strong candidates into an interview pipeline, combining Martinus’ Meta Ads acquisition, my embedding/model work, and Anders’ 8 years of upper-management industry insight. The system shortlists candidates and forwards them to management for review; successful hires generate commission. I built the full software stack as the sole developer and onboarded hiring managers on how to use it.

Scope
  • Meta Ads-driven applicant intake and CV processing.
  • Jina segmenter + reranker for candidate scoring.
  • Shortlisting and interview handoff to management.
Market intel

Evvi.ai

Mar 2025 – Aug 2025
Auction market intelligence extension

Commissioned by City Auction Group (auction houses with Royal Mail partnerships across Northern Ireland and England). I built an extension that fed realtime market info into customer sites and inspection workflows, including Facebook Marketplace ingestion and UK reg lookups to price cars going to auction. Worked remotely while job hunting and coordinated with Autotrader and Dealerkit teams.

Scope
  • Realtime pricing insights for UK second-hand vehicles.
  • Facebook Marketplace ingestion for unbiased comps.
  • Reg lookups for auction-bound car intelligence.

Where I Started,and why now

I am a builder who cares about outcomes. The through line has always been creating tools that reach people in the best way and deliver results at scale.

01

What I build

Unofficial APIs for Weixin + Zalo + Instagram + Facebook.

Diala (a hackathon project and precursor to pivora.co) brought me to China. I built a bespoke Weixin outbound system in a month, then ran it for three months to reach distributors across Guangdong and North Vietnam for Jianxi Plastive Factory in Kaiping, Guangdong. That work evolved into WeChat/Weixin + Zalo tooling, and later Generic Alternatives with internal systems plus reverse-engineered hCaptcha workflows for programmatic social outbound to source Guangzhou products for North American buyers.

DialaWeixinZaloGuangdong
02

How I work

I love contracting but I don't mind employment.

I have done contract work since age 11 and still prefer contracting over employment. I specialize in sales enablement: deep social platform knowledge, programmatic outbound with rotating proxies, and distribution-first tooling. Recruitment contract: Abderslink.no, a Norwegian startup, where I was the sole developer building Meta Ads-driven applicant classification with Jina.ai v4 embeddings and reranking for Oil & Gas placements in the Norwegian gas industry.

ContractorRotating ProxiesMeta AdsJina v4
03

Why it matters

I like making tools that look nice and make money.

I want to join teams that live in social media and automate outbound in unconventional ways that generate revenue immediately. My roots are in video editing; in 2022 I was on a Digital Video Production & Marketing scholarship at the University of Salford, but I didn’t see enough value in the curriculum compared to what I was already teaching myself. I wanted to travel and build real things, and I had already seen results from my own work. So I chose experience over a degree and focused on shipping and learning through real-world projects and extracurricular work. I am looking for a like-minded, sales-first team that wants a sales-focused software developer who generates revenue in out-there ways.

GuerrillaRevenue NowSocial OutboundVideo Editing

Not sure where to start?

Our team will help identify the right approach for your brand and goals.

I’m a contractor who ships fast.Nimble, hands-on, and execution focused.

Speed

I build and ship quickly as a solo contractor, so there are no handoffs or bottlenecks. Fast iteration, fast delivery.

CheckFast solo delivery
XSlow roll out

Content

Deep outbound and sales-enablement focus: messaging, positioning, and distribution-first systems that actually get replies.

CheckOutbound & sales enablement focus
XLacking cultural relevance

Scalability

I automate the boring parts: scraping, enrichment, multi-channel outreach, and telephony so you can scale without adding headcount.

CheckAutomation that scales
XInability to scale regions

Measurement

I build systems with real metrics: replies, bookings, call recordings, and AI transcription analysis so you can see what’s working.

CheckMetrics you can act on
XLow KPI accountability