Zakarya El Quaroui

Zakarya El Quaroui

I build stuff online and write on LinkedIn

Currently living in Malaysia

1,815 followers on LinkedIn

Projects

Things I build and ship on my own time.

BankConvert

Live

Turns bank statement PDFs into clean CSV/Excel, ready for accounting.

In beta

KitaPhone

Live

Browser-based international calling — no app, no SIM, just open and call.

Building

Bento Portfolio

Live

This site. Next.js 16, Tailwind v4, shadcn registries.

Open source

Experience

Indie Hacker · BankConvert

Oct 2025 — Present
  • —Building and shipping self-hosted web tools and automation workflows solo.
  • —Run the infrastructure end to end: Kubernetes clusters, Dockerized apps, CI.
  • TypeScript
  • Next.js
  • Docker
  • Kubernetes

AI Support · Part-time · TELUS International

May 2022 — May 2023
  • —Reviewed and corrected AI model output against quality guidelines. (Ireland, remote)
  • Data annotation
  • QA

Web Developer · Freelance · Swey

Jan 2022 — May 2022
  • —Built and shipped client web front-ends. (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  • JavaScript
  • React
  • CSS

Activity

Articles

Building KitaPhone: Why I Wanted International Calling to Work From a Browser

Building
Why I built KitaPhone, a browser-based international calling platform designed to make calling abroad simpler without installing another app or managing another SIM.

From Idea to SaaS: What Building Small Products Has Taught Me

Indie hacking
Lessons from building independent SaaS products, from validating ideas and shipping quickly to finding users and improving products based on real feedback.

Why I Self-Host: What Running My Own Homelab Has Taught Me About Software

Homelab
What running a self-hosted homelab with Proxmox, Unraid, Docker, Kubernetes and Home Assistant has taught me about infrastructure, reliability and software.

Building Software While Working Full-Time: The System That Works for Me

Process
Practical lessons on building SaaS products and technical projects while maintaining a full-time career, without waiting for perfect conditions.

How KitaPhone Turns a Browser Tab Into a Phone Line

Building
A plain-English look at how KitaPhone connects a call from a browser to a real mobile or landline abroad, using WebRTC, Twilio and the traditional phone network.

Why KitaPhone Uses Pay-As-You-Go Credits Instead of a Subscription

Building
Why I chose credits that never expire over a monthly subscription for KitaPhone, and what that decision says about who the product is for.

Skype is gone. The need for international calling isn't.

LinkedIn
Why I started building KitaPhone from Malaysia.

Progress rarely looks dramatic

LinkedIn
What building BankConvert taught me about small weekly improvements.

Let's work together

Got something worth building? Mail is the fastest way to reach me.

beardnetworks@gmail.com

© 2026 Zakarya El Quaroui