Developer by day,
composer by night.
Aka Luap Dever. Born in Cotonou, I grew up between equations and screens. Today I design digital products — and I still write lines… of code as much as music.
My story (the honest version)
It all started without a powerful computer, without a mentor and without a career plan — just stubborn curiosity and an internet connection that tested my patience. I learned by breaking things, reading docs at ungodly hours, and redoing ten times what could have worked the first time.
From volunteer to intern, then to software engineer, I kept the same approach: understand the problem better than the solution. That's what let me tackle demanding topics — per-minute billing, real-time video streaming, government e-invoicing, multilingual enterprise WordPress ecosystems — without ever losing the thread (or my sense of humour).
I believe good software is recognized by its discretion: it does the job, wakes no one at night, and reads back without dread. And when I close the editor, I compose music — because after all, code and melody are the same quest for structure and emotion.
My principles
Ship, don't promise
A running demo beats a thousand slides. I'd rather show than tell.
Simple first
Complexity is easy. Simplicity that holds in production is the real work.
Document as if I'm leaving tomorrow
Future me (and the rest of the team) says thanks every time.
Learn in public
I break things, I understand them, I share. That's how you move fast.
Automate the boring
A script today, hours saved tomorrow. Well-placed laziness is an engineer's virtue.
Context before code
Understand the business and the user before opening the editor: half the bugs then never exist.
A few landmarks
On June 30th. Long before my first “Hello World”.
Maths and physics — excellent debugging training.
Self-taught, between volunteering, tutorials and sleepless nights.
Internet & Multimedia by day, client projects by night.
Sites & apps for major accounts (MTN, Moov…).
End-to-end dating app (Flutter + PWA): per-minute video, KYC, payments & payouts.
Multilingual corporate portal & internal platforms, built at KAMGOKO Technologies.
Beyond the code
Music compositionWriting melodies like I write code: by structure and by emotion.
FootballA pitch, a team, a game plan — the best product metaphor.
ReadingFrom docs to essays: feeding the curiosity that started it all.Three different ways to recharge — and often, that's where the best architecture ideas show up.
Shall we build something?
Frequently asked questions
The questions recruiters ask most often — the ones PaulBot answers every day.
Is Paul available for a mission?
He studies freelance and full-time opportunities, remote or based in Cotonou, Benin. The fastest way to know is to write to hi@paulzannou.com — or to paste your job posting into PaulBot, which returns a structured fit analysis.
What is his flagship project?
Emilia Cross (emiliacross.com), a live-video dating platform built for France Assist: Flutter mobile app and PWA, NestJS back end, real-time via Socket.IO, payments and moderation.
Which technologies does he master?
Core stack: NestJS and Node.js on the back end, Vue/Nuxt and React/Next.js on the front end, Flutter for mobile, Docker and CI/CD for delivery. Also AI/LLM integration, retrieval (BM25, vector search) and real-time systems.
How many years of experience?
Five years and counting, some twenty projects across six companies and three countries — including telecom accounts such as MTN Benin and Moov Togo, delivered through KAMGOKO Technologies.
Can his code be seen?
Public repositories are on GitHub (github.com/luapdever). Client work delivered for telecom operators remains under confidentiality: the company can be named, the project details cannot.
Does he work remotely?
Yes. He is based in Cotonou, Benin, and has delivered for clients in Benin, Togo and France — remote collaboration is his usual working mode.