Company Profile/
Information Technology & Services/
Est. 2006
Making Sense
The software firm that grew from coastal Argentina into a Silicon Valley technology partner - and it built the whole thing on outcomes, not headcount.
The software firm that grew from coastal Argentina into a Silicon Valley technology partner - and it built the whole thing on outcomes, not headcount.
Making Sense is a technology consultancy that builds software for a living - custom applications, product design, cloud systems, quality engineering, and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. What separates it from the thousands of firms that describe themselves the same way is who it chooses to serve and how it structures the relationship.
The company was founded in 2006 by brothers Cesar and Damian D'Onofrio, with a plainly stated idea: talented engineers in the Argentine coastal city of Mar del Plata should not have to move to Buenos Aires - or abroad - to build serious software. That belief shaped a distributed, nearshore company long before "remote" was fashionable. Today the firm runs teams across the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, with its headquarters at 228 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto.
Over roughly two decades, Making Sense has delivered more than 100 projects and worked with names most vendors never reach - Dell, AMD, Rackspace, Microsoft, Intel, Nokia, 3M, FOX Sports, and more recently Bloomberg, Bain Capital-backed companies, SoftBank, and Royal Canin. But the firm's public focus has narrowed. Its current pitch is aimed squarely at mid-market and private-equity-backed U.S. companies - businesses too large for freelancers and too lean for a five-thousand-person integrator.
That is the gap Making Sense built its business inside. "What I would say has changed for Making Sense in recent years is our focus on serving mid-market companies in the United States," CEO Cesar D'Onofrio has said. It is a deliberate narrowing, and it explains most of what follows.
Growing companies - especially PE-backed ones under pressure to create value fast - need to modernize systems, ship products, and adopt AI without the budget or patience of an enterprise. They get stuck between cheap staff-augmentation shops that deliver tickets and expensive integrators that deliver slide decks.
Position as an outcome-accountable partner rather than a body shop. The firm markets a business-first "technology advisory" practice, a same-time-zone nearshore model, and a product-builder mindset - the argument being that a partner who owns the result behaves differently than one who bills the hour.
The clearest expression of that claim is a case study the company cites often: a roughly $1 million software investment that it says contributed to an $11 million increase in a client's enterprise valuation. It is a single example, and the exact attribution is the company's own - but it captures the pitch precisely. Making Sense wants to be measured in enterprise value, not in developer seats.
What truly differentiates us is our commitment to delivering tangible value right from the start of every project.- Cesar D'Onofrio, Co-Founder & CEO
Tailored, scalable, secure applications built to solve a specific business problem and adapt as the company grows.
User-centered design meant to drive adoption and business results - the firm's original calling card.
Business-first consulting to spot opportunities, cut risk, and align tech spend with company goals.
Customer-facing AI assistants and internal research agents wired into real client operations.
AI-powered pipelines that connect systems, remove manual tasks, and scale operations.
Cloud architecture, QA, and quality control that keep delivery scalable and reliable.
Making Sense is also, unusually, a product company. Over the years it has incubated and spun off five of its own products - among them the email marketing platform Doppler, the landing-page builder Lander (later acquired by a Silicon Valley firm), and Viallion. A services firm that ships its own software is rare, and it lends credibility to the product-builder claim.
Making Sense is a services business. Revenue comes from project and retainer engagements - custom development, design, cloud, QA, and AI work - delivered through a nearshore model that keeps teams in overlapping time zones with U.S. clients. On top of the services core, the firm has periodically incubated products and spun them out. Independent estimates put annual revenue in the neighborhood of $57 million.
Mid-market and PE-backed U.S. companies across agtech, fintech, healthcare, legaltech, high-tech, and veterinary sectors. A sample of names tied to the firm over the years:
Making Sense sits in the crowded, competitive world of nearshore and outsourced software services and product studios. Its most obvious peers are the larger Latin American-rooted engineering firms - Globant, Endava, EPAM, BairesDev, Nearsure - along with global consultancies like Thoughtworks and a long tail of boutique UX and product shops. In that field, Making Sense competes not on scale but on focus: a mid-market specialty, a design-led heritage, and a relationship-first posture built to survive multiple technology cycles.
Never Settle
Radically Real Relationships
One Team, One Mission
Invite the WOW
Proudly Accountable
THE FIVE STATED VALUES THAT ANCHOR MAKING SENSE'S CULTURE
An Argentina-native engineer who moved to Texas in the early 2000s. He holds an engineering degree from Universidad Tecnologica Nacional and completed Stanford's Executive Program in 2021. He has been recognized as a Nearshore Americas Power 50 Leader and a Top Midmarket IT Executive (2017).
Cesar's brother and co-founder. Together the two built the company around the conviction that world-class software could be built from Mar del Plata - and that talent shouldn't have to leave home to do it.
Brothers Cesar and Damian D'Onofrio start the firm to build software with talent rooted in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
The company sets up in the Bay Area to offer UX-focused software to startups and sit closer to U.S. clients.
CEO Cesar D'Onofrio is named a Nearshore Americas Power 50 Leader and Top Midmarket IT Executive.
D'Onofrio completes the program while continuing to run the company.
Making Sense reorganizes its offering around agentic AI, workflow automation, and AI-enabled development.
The firm operates with roughly 350 staff across the U.S., Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia, focused on mid-market and PE clients.
It is a software and technology consultancy that builds custom software, product/UX design, cloud architecture, quality engineering, and AI systems for mostly mid-market and private-equity-backed U.S. companies.
It was founded in 2006 by brothers Cesar D'Onofrio (CEO) and Damian D'Onofrio (President), with roots in Mar del Plata, Argentina.
Headquarters are at 228 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto, California, with delivery teams across the United States, Argentina, Mexico, and Colombia.
Named clients over the years include Dell, AMD, Rackspace, Microsoft, Intel, Nokia, 3M, FOX Sports, Bloomberg, Bain Capital, SoftBank, and Royal Canin.
It positions itself as an outcome-accountable, product-minded partner using a nearshore, same-time-zone model - and has spun off five of its own products, including Doppler and the acquired Lander.