About Us
An independent studio. A clear point of view.
Watchlight Interactive is a small, focused team building software and AI solutions for businesses that want real results — not meetings about meetings.
What we believe
Real problems only
Good software solves a problem your team runs into every day — not a hypothetical future problem or something that looks impressive on a deck.
AI is a tool, not a strategy
We help businesses find the specific places where AI actually moves the needle and build those things well, instead of chasing hype.
Small teams ship faster
We keep engagements focused so decisions are made quickly and software gets in front of real users quickly.
Respect your audience
Interactive software — especially apps and games — should respect its audiences, particularly families and younger players.
Two things we build
Business software
Custom tools, AI automations, and integrations that help companies run better. We work with small businesses through growth-stage companies.
Consumer apps
We also build and operate our own apps — PlayNxt, PlayBeacon, PlayCompass, and RootedPost — designed to respect their audiences, especially families and curious players.
The name
A lighthouse doesn't chase ships — it stands in one place and makes navigation possible. That's how we think about technology: the right tool, in the right place, making everything else easier to navigate. We believe interactive media should feel like a guiding light, not noise.
We're based in Madison, Wisconsin and work with clients locally and across the country.
Who's behind it
Thomas Tague is the founder of Watchlight Interactive. He spent five years as a software engineer and four more as a product manager — long enough to get good at building things, and long enough to realize he wanted to build things that were his own.
He started Watchlight to do exactly that: take the craft of software and the discipline of product thinking and apply it to problems worth solving. Some of those problems came from clients. Some came from home — PlayBeacon grew out of watching his own kids spend hours in Roblox and wishing parents had better visibility into that world.
He's based in Madison, Wisconsin.