Five gates. Nothing moves on a verbal.
Every engagement runs through the same five gates, each named for a stage of metalwork, each closing on a written deliverable. You always know where the work stands, because it's written down.
01 — 2–4 wks
4 deliverables
Assay
Discovery. We interrogate the idea: the problem, the users, the constraints, what already exists, and whether software is the right answer at all. Fixed fee, and the fee is the same whichever way the recommendation goes.
Gate closes whenYou hold a written recommendation and, if it says build, a fixed price against it.
You receive
- Written recommendation — build, or don't
- Problem and scope definition
- Risk register
- Fixed-price quote, if building
02 — 2–4 wks
4 deliverables
Smelt
Architecture. The system is designed on paper before anyone opens an editor: data model, service boundaries, infrastructure, and the written spec the fixed price is pinned to.
Gate closes whenThe spec is signed. Nothing gets built that isn't in it.
You receive
- System architecture document
- Written technical spec
- Stack and infrastructure plan
- Delivery schedule with gates
03 — 4–7 mo
4 deliverables
Cast
Build. Senior-led implementation against the spec, delivered in weekly or fortnightly increments you can see running. Demos every cadence; surprises never.
Gate closes whenThe spec is implemented and every increment has been demonstrated live.
You receive
- Working software, every cadence
- Demo at each increment
- Repository access from day one
- Running documentation
04 — 3–6 wks
3 deliverables
Temper
QA and hardening. Load, security, and failure testing — the system is stressed on purpose so production doesn't do it by accident.
Gate closes whenThe system survives what we throw at it, and the evidence is written down.
You receive
- Test reports — load, security, regression
- Hardening changelog
- Runbooks and incident playbooks
05 — Ongoing
3 deliverables
Finish
Deploy and support. Production cutover, handover, and — if you want it — a support agreement with named response times. You own the repos and every artifact either way.
Gate closes whenIt runs without us in the room. Support continues only if you choose it.
You receive
- Production deployment
- Full handover — repos, docs, credentials
- Optional SLA with named response times
Three models. None of them hourly.
01
Fixed-fee discovery
Assay is priced before it starts. It ends in a written recommendation — build, or don't — and the fee is the same either way.
Every engagement begins here
02
Fixed price against written spec
The build is quoted against the spec produced in Smelt. If it's not in the spec, it's not in the price — and the spec is yours either way.
Scoped projects
03
Monthly per engineer
For embedded teams and long-running work: a flat monthly rate per engineer, senior-reviewed, with the same demo cadence.
Embedded and ongoing work
Never hourly — keeping the incentive on the right side of the table.
Billing by the hour pays us to be slow. Fixed price against a written spec pays us to be right the first time, and puts the cost of a bad estimate on us rather than on you.
Next — Start with discovery
Bring us the raw idea
Discovery is a fixed fee. The recommendation is honest — even when it's “don't build.”
What follows
- 01
- Reply within 2 business days
- 02
- 45-min scoping call
- 03
- Fixed discovery quote