I first ran across the words "local-first software" while browsing Hacker News, and it immediately resonated with me. Corporations think they've captured their audiences and watching them tighten the screws across the board has been incredibly disheartening. We’ve seen countless examples of this from Unity changing to a ridiculous pricing structure to Amazon deleting and changing data they paid for on their own devices. Despite all that, I remain a tech optimist. I've been saying for a while that once tech started making real money the finance bros muscled their way in to management and have been ruining tech ever since. Folks in tech who believe in actually doing good for humanity are still out there! They were just driven underground. I am done hiding. I’m not asking permission any more. I’m building the tools and software I want. Tools and software that’ll make it easier for folks I care about. They should not have to worry that their data will be abused, changed, or disappear. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way, so we started a company! Cloverfield Tech LLC. We’re building Cloverfield as a company that actually represents our values. Local-first software is one of those core values. We don't want your data. We don't need it. If we never store the data we can't have any hacks or leaks, nor can we be forced to hand it over to any government. Want to learn more about local-first software? I recommend the following essay by Ink & Switch!