How we work
Three engagement models, and a few things we do the same way regardless.
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You need people.
An engineer on your team
We give you one or more engineers who become part of your team. They’re in your Slack, your GitHub, your Jira, at your standups. You manage the work directly. We handle contracts, payroll and everything administrative, and we check in weekly to make sure it’s going the way you want.
Hourly or monthly. Part-time from 20 hours a month, full-time at 160. You can scale it up or down with reasonable notice. It usually takes us one to two weeks to get someone started.
This is right for you if you need engineering capacity but not a permanent hire, you’ve got a product that needs ongoing work, or you’re filling a skills gap while you build the capability internally.
- Part-time from 20 hours a month
- Full-time at 160
- One to two weeks to get someone started
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You need a thing built.
A product built
You bring the problem. We scope it, write you a fixed price or a T&M budget, and then build it — architecture, design if you need it, development, QA, deployment, documentation, handover.
You get a named lead engineer who’s accountable for the whole thing, a demo at every milestone, and a weekly written update. Payment is usually 30% up front, 40% at an agreed midpoint, 30% on delivery.
This is right for you if you want to hand a problem over entirely, the outcome is definable, and you’d rather buy a result than manage a team.
- 30% up front
- 40% at an agreed midpoint
- 30% on delivery
- A demo at every milestone
- A weekly written update
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You need someone to tell you what to do.
A decision made
Architecture reviews with a written report and a call to walk through it. Help choosing a platform or a stack, with an actual recommendation rather than a comparison table. A senior engineer acting as your part-time technical lead, ten to thirty hours a month. ISO 27001 and SOC 2 preparation from the engineer who took a 35-person SaaS company through both, first attempt. Data strategy for companies that have outgrown spreadsheets and aren’t sure what comes next.
This is right for you if you’re about to make an expensive decision and want someone with no stake in the outcome to look at it first.
- Ten to thirty hours a month
- Architecture reviews with a written report
Getting started
Twenty minutes is enough to know whether we’re the right people. If we are, the rest looks like this.
- 01
Discovery
A twenty-minute call
We ask what’s going on and tell you honestly whether we’re the right people.
- 02
Proposal
Written scope and price
If we are, you get a written scope and price within a few days. The rate or the fixed price is in front of you before anything starts.
- 03
Kickoff
A named senior lead
A named senior lead owns the engagement, and that person doesn’t change after you sign. It usually takes us one to two weeks to get someone started.
- 04
Build
A demo at every milestone
A demo at every milestone and a weekly written update. If something’s blocked we tell you the day it’s blocked, not at the next call.
- 05
Delivery
Deployed, tested and documented
Deployed, tested and documented, with a handover. Code, data and designs transfer to you on final payment.
What’s the same either way
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Communication.
Your tools. Weekly written updates as standard. If something’s blocked we tell you the day it’s blocked, not at the next call.
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IP.
You own the work. Code, data and designs transfer to you on final payment.
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NDAs.
Standard. We’ll sign yours before the scoping conversation if you’d rather.
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Pricing.
You get the rate or the fixed price up front. We’ve never sent a client an invoice they weren’t expecting.
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Hours.
Someone senior is online 8:00am to 12:15pm Eastern every working day, year round, and the whole UK working day.
Where your code and data live
Your code stays in your repositories and your infrastructure. Our engineers work inside your GitHub organisation and your cloud accounts, with access you grant and can revoke in a minute. We don’t take copies, and we don’t use subprocessors — we work in your Azure, AWS or GCP, not ours.
Rujen Shakya led the ISO 27001 and SOC 2 programme at a 35-person AI SaaS company and passed both on the first attempt. That’s his record and that company’s certification, not ours — we’re not audited. What we sell is getting you through yours.
If your security team has a questionnaire, send it. We’ve filled in a few.
What we’re not
We’re not the cheapest. There are people on Upwork at eight dollars an hour and we’re not going to compete with that, or pretend we’re the same thing.
We’re also not a fifty-person agency. If you need thirty engineers next month, we’re the wrong call. Four senior specialists is the whole firm, and that is the reason the work is good — the people who scope it are the people who build it.
Questions
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It usually takes us one to two weeks to get someone started.
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You do. It transfers to you on final payment.
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Yes. We’ll sign your NDA, or send you ours, before any scoping conversation. Either is fine.
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For a scoped build, payment is usually 30% up front, 40% at an agreed midpoint, 30% on delivery. USD by wire or ACH through New York. Local fiat through Kathmandu. We settle in USDC or USDT too — tell us on the call and it’s set up before your first invoice.
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Someone senior is online 8:00am to 12:15pm Eastern every working day, year round, and the whole UK working day.
Tell us what’s broken.
Twenty minutes, no deck. We’ll tell you straight whether this is work we should be doing, and if it isn’t, we usually know who should.
We come back within one business day.