Question.
Plan.
Project.
Three engagements for three sizes of question — Head of Engineering, Architect, Experienced Engineer. Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute intro call and a written scope before any work begins. Pricing is quoted per engagement.
Head of Engineering.
The senior brain you'd want in the room when a tech decision is on the table — without putting them on payroll. Tools, hiring, AI workflows, vendors, what to ship next, whether your developer's plan holds up. You bring the question; we bring twenty years of having made the same call.
What you get
- 01An experienced engineer to think with on the calls you'd otherwise make alone.
- 02Memos you can forward to a developer, a board member, or your future self.
- 03An honest read on AI tools, vendors, and the contract you're about to sign.
- 04A direct path into Architect or Experienced Engineer if the work outgrows the question.
Right when
- 01You have a tech decision and no one senior to call.
- 02Your AI bill is climbing and you want to know what's actually earning its keep.
- 03You're hiring (or firing) a developer and want a sanity check on the role.
- 04You're staring at a vendor pitch you can't fully read.
Architect.
Before a line of code: how the pieces fit, what to build first, where it'll break at 10x, what to skip. You leave with a written plan you can hand to any builder — your team, a contractor, an AI tool, or us — and get the same thing back.
What you get
- 01A written project plan in plain language — what's being built, why, and in what order.
- 02An honest map of where it'll break first, and what to do when it does.
- 03A scoping doc your developer (or an AI) can implement against without guessing.
- 04A list of the parts you should not build — at least not yet.
Right when
- 01You can describe what you want, but not how it should work.
- 02You've started, restarted, and you'd like the next start to be the last one.
- 03You're about to spend serious money on a build and want a plan first.
- 04You've got AI generating code faster than you can review it, and the structure is starting to drift.
Experienced Engineer.
When the build is in front of you and you need senior hands. Automations that run without you. Integrations that hold. The migration, the rewrite, the hardening pass before launch. We ship, we document, we leave behind something you can carry without us.
What you get
- 01A scoped initiative with a written charter and milestones, agreed before we start.
- 02Code shipped to your repo, reviewed by you, owned by you.
- 03Automations and integrations that run on their own — so you stop being the script.
- 04A handoff doc at the end — what we did, why, and what to watch.
Right when
- 01You can see the work — you just can't do it, and you don't have time to teach someone who could.
- 02Something specific is on fire — payments, auth, performance, the part that scares you.
- 03The MVP works; the next version is the one that has to last.
- 04You're growing faster than you can keep up with and need automation that earns its keep.
A predictable start.
Every engagement begins the same way — in the same order — whether it's an hour of advice or a quarter of embedded work.
Read first, talk second.
You send what you have — a repo, a deck, a screenshot, or just a paragraph describing the problem. We read it before we get on the call. The intro is 30 minutes, free, and we show up with notes.
Which engagement fits.
On the call we tell you which engagement the work belongs in — Head of Engineering, Architect, Experienced Engineer — with two or three concrete paths forward. You leave with them whether you hire us or not.
Written follow-up, priced.
After the call we send a written follow-up that prices each path. One page per path. The constraints, the failure modes, the cadence, the cost. You sign one, or none.
Ship, then re-scope.
We do the work in the scope you signed. At the end, we either hand off cleanly or write the next scope. You can stop between engagements — no retainer, no auto-renewal.
Tell us what you're stuck on.
A 30-minute call. We'll tell you which engagement fits.