How we work

An honest map of the next 90 days, if we end up working together.

Most agencies hide their process behind a sales deck. Ours fits on this page. Every engagement splits into two phases — the first is small, paid, and ends with a written document. The second only happens if both sides still want it after reading that document.

Phase 0

The diagnosis

Length: 1–2 weeks
Output: One page
Price: €500–€1,500 upfront

You write us a short note. We read it, we talk for 30 minutes, and then we write back. Not a proposal. A diagnosis.

What we think you’re actually trying to do — sometimes different from what you described.
The two or three decisions that will matter more than everything else combined.
The shape of the build we’d recommend, including what we’d cut from your current scope.
An honest range on cost and time. No precision theatre.
A clear “we wouldn’t take this on” verdict if that’s what we believe.

About one in three diagnoses end with us saying don't build this yet. The page is the deliverable. If we both want to keep going, the diagnosis cost rolls into Phase 1.

Phase 1

The build

Length: 4–12 weeks (typical)
Output: Working product, in production
Price: Fixed-fee, paid in two halves

We don’t do hourly. Hourly punishes speed, and speed is half of what we’re selling. Fixed-fee forces both sides to agree on scope before the work starts — which, after the diagnosis, is the easy part.

The product, end-to-end. Frontend, backend, deployment, the boring infrastructure underneath.
The architecture diagram. The decisions log. The “here’s why we built it this way” memo.
A handover doc your next developer can read in an afternoon.

The code is yours. The accounts are yours. Infrastructure runs on your bill. No vendor lock-in is a feature, not a footnote.

Tooling

Where the AI shows up

Every line of code that ships is read by a human before it ships — usually the same human who decided what to ship and why. The AI takes the recurrent work off the plate. The judgement stays where it should.

In the diagnosis

We use AI to stress-test the brief against patterns we’ve seen before. Faster than a five-person team could.

In the build

Scaffolding, boilerplate, integration glue, test coverage — all AI-assisted, all reviewed.

When AI gets it wrong

Which it does. Often. That’s where 20 years of operating businesses earns its keep.

Posture

What we expect from you

This is not a vendor relationship. You’ll need to be in the room for the trade-off conversations — usually one 30-minute call a week, plus async for the smaller calls.

The single biggest predictor of a project that ships well is a client who answers questions within 48 hours. The single biggest predictor of one that drags is a client who disappears for ten days and then asks why we haven’t shipped.

If you’re going to be hands-off, hire a black-box agency. They’re built for it. We aren’t.

Negative space

What we won’t do

Hourly engagements.
See above.
Rebuilds of products we’d recommend killing.
If the diagnosis says don’t build it, we don’t take the contract.
Pure staff augmentation.
We’re not a body shop. If you need a developer to clear tickets, we’re the wrong fit.
Marketing-led builds.
"Make us a landing page so we look like we have a product" is not the work we want.
Lock-in.
No proprietary frameworks, no opinionated CMS you can’t escape, no hosting tied to our account.

The honest part

We’re a small studio. We take on roughly one project at a time. If we say yes to you, it’s because we said no to two others that week, and we’re going to be paying attention.

If our calendar is full when you write, we’ll tell you. We won’t push you into a queue and bill a retainer to hold your spot.

Tell us your idea