The initials are mine.
SLK isn't a faceless agency. The initials are mine — Sam Lùc Katshinda — and the studio is the work of someone who decided, at the exact moment the ground shifted, to build the future instead of waiting for it.
Sam Lùc Katshinda
Founder & Principal Engineer
The shift
Retrenchment is a strange kind of clarity. One day you're an engineer inside someone else's machine; the next, you're standing outside it. I could have looked for the same role at a different company. Instead I looked at what was actually happening to work itself — and I saw the 4th Industrial Revolution arriving whether we were ready or not.
The realisation
Technology, the internet of things, and AI weren't coming to replace us — they were coming to change what 'us at our best' even means. The businesses that would thrive are the ones that integrate the future into how they operate, while keeping the human-led judgement that makes their work worth anything. That gap — between what's possible and what most companies are actually doing — is where I decided to live.
The mission
I started SLK Projects to help African businesses make that leap. Not by chasing hype, but by building real systems: AI that augments teams, software that earns its cost back, brands that command respect. I believe Africa shouldn't be a late adopter of the digital age — it should be part of writing it. So I set out to serve the continent's leading and growing companies, and to be part of the growth process that takes us to higher heights.
The way I work
Small enough to care, technical enough to deliver. I bring in trusted collaborators when a project needs more hands, but you always work with the person who's accountable for the outcome. I'd rather tell you the honest answer than the convenient one — and I'd rather build you a system that keeps working than a project that just compiles.
Human-led, AI-accelerated
AI should amplify your people, not replace their judgement. We keep humans in the loop by design.
Equal access to information
Technology should open doors, not gatekeep them. That conviction is in the brand's DNA.
Africa, writing the future
The continent deserves to be a builder of the digital age, not a late adopter of it.
Ship the thing
Strategy is cheap without delivery. We measure ourselves on what actually goes live.
From inside the machine to building it.
- Earlier
Software engineer building JavaScript & Python systems at Waidler.
- The turn
Retrenchment becomes the catalyst — a decision to build for the 4IR, not against it.
- 2022
SLK Projects founded in Rosebank, Johannesburg.
- 2022→
Volunteer development for the Lincoln Mali Leadership Foundation.
- 2023–24
Travel, brand and web clients ship — a quiet niche forms.
- Now
Leaning fully into AI integration & transformation for African business.
BSc Information Technology
Richfield
CS50
Harvard University (online)
Prior: Software Engineer
Waidler
Pro-bono
Lincoln Mali Leadership Foundation
Let's build the system that runs your future.
Tell us what you're trying to do. You'll talk to the person who'll be accountable for getting it done.