How we work
The process behind the pitch.
Every engagement starts as a plain conversation about a real problem, not a slide deck. Here is the shape of how we actually work: the four ways clients hire us, what the first week looks like, and the principles behind it.
Four shapes, one way of working
Build and handover, and retainer or fractional CTO work, are where most engagements land. The other two exist because not every problem needs the same shape of help.
Build and handover
What it is. We build the system to production, document it, and hand the keys to a non-technical owner who can run it day to day.
When it fits. You need a specific system built once and then owned internally, with no ongoing engineering relationship required. Sebastian Watch Co runs this way today.
Retainer, fractional CTO
What it is. We own a product's engineering over time: roadmap, builds, infrastructure, and the on-call reality of keeping it live.
When it fits. You have an ongoing product but no full-time technical lead yet, or you would rather have one experienced hand across roadmap and infrastructure than assemble a team.
Productized
What it is. A fixed-scope, fixed-price build of a known shape: a storefront, an automation pipeline, a booking or billing module.
When it fits. The shape of what you need already exists, in our portfolio or in the broader market, and you want a fast, bounded build instead of a long discovery process.
Consulting
What it is. Architecture, stack selection, and review for teams who want a second set of eyes before they commit.
When it fits. You already have engineers, and the open question is a decision, not a build: a stack choice, a system review, a second opinion before you sign a bigger commitment elsewhere.
What the first week looks like
Whichever shape an engagement takes, the opening week looks close to the same.
- 1
A scope conversation
We talk through the real problem, not a wishlist. This is cheap to get wrong and easy to fix this early, so we would rather spend an extra hour here than guess.
- 2
Context setup
We wire up whatever this project needs to track state and decisions as it goes, so nothing important lives only in someone's head or a chat thread that scrolls away.
- 3
A first shippable slice
Something real ships in the first week. Small, but running in production or in front of real users, not a plan for what will ship in month two.
Principles
Ship weekly
Something visibly moves every week, even when it is small. Momentum you can see beats a roadmap you have to take on faith.
We say things plainly
Down to the sentence: no em dashes, no hedging, no ten-dollar words where a one-dollar word says it. If that sounds like a small thing, watch how rare it actually is in a project update.
Production is the test
A demo that only works on our laptop does not count as done. If it is not deployed and holding up under real use, it is not finished, no matter how it looked in the last call.
Want to talk about which shape fits?
Tell us the problem, not the solution. We will tell you plainly which of these fits, or if none of them do.