Who we are, what we do, and why we do it.
Northern Dread is a Canadian company that makes products for people who are tired of being lied to by marketing departments. We're small, we're independent, and we're committed to honesty over profit.
We make mobile apps that solve specific problems. We make beeswax-based products that don't pretend to be more sustainable than they actually are. We're working on games that respect your time and intelligence. Everything we do is guided by one principle: make things that work, and be forthcoming about them.
The name comes from a recognition that life is hard. Nothing hits harder than reality. Northern winters are brutal. Life is expensive. The world can be overwhelming. That's the "dread"—not as a negative thing, but as an acknowledgment of what's real.
But there's also resilience in the North. Strength. Honesty. No room for bullshit when you're dealing with real challenges. That's the spirit we bring to everything we make. We're not here to sell you dreams or aspirations. We're here to make products that help you deal with reality.
Mobile and web applications that do one thing well. No feature creep. No predatory pricing. Just tools that solve actual problems without the bloat.
Candles, lip balm, beard wax, toilet spray and other goods made with real, sustainable ingredients. No soy. No paraffin. No fake eco-friendly marketing. Just beeswax doing what it does best.
Games that respect your time. No pay-to-win mechanics. No energy systems. No psychological manipulation. No Fake Ads. Just entertainment that's actually entertaining.
We say what we mean and mean what we say. No fine print. No gotchas. No corporate doublespeak.
We release functional products and improve them over time. No broken features or false promises. What we ship works, even if it starts simple.
We use materials that are actually sustainable, not just marketed as sustainable and green-washed. Beeswax over soy. Every time.
We don't use psychological tricks to manipulate you. Our products succeed by providing value, not by exploiting human psychology.
Your data is yours. We don't collect what we don't need, and we don't sell what little we're required to collect. Simple as that.
We don't add complexity just to look smart. Simple tools that work beat complicated ones that don't.
We're a Canadian company, and we're proud of it. Our .ca domain isn't just a technical choice — it's a statement. We're born of the North. We understand harsh winters, long nights, what it takes to survive them and the value of things that actually work when you need them to.
We operate with Canadian values: honesty, resilience, and a certain lack of patience for unnecessary complexity. If that resonates with you, regardless of where you are, we're glad you're here. If it doesn't, that's fine too - we're not for everyone.
Northern Dread is young. We're building as we go. Not everything is perfect yet, and we're okay admitting that. But we're committed to these values, and we're committed to building products that deserve your trust.
If you have questions, feedback, or just want to tell us we're full of shit (constructively), we're listening. Join our Discord - real humans, real conversations. We're small enough that we actually read everything.
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