Services
Advice first. Building when it’s needed.
Most of our work starts as a question. Some of it ends with a written answer. Some of it turns into something we build, run or automate, done by the same person who gave the advice.
Advice
For decisions you’re making alone.
Each one ends with something in writing.
A second opinion
One decision, checked properly before you commit to it.
Fixed fee, agreed before we startYou have a quote, a proposal or a contract in front of you and nobody to check it. We read it, ask the questions you wouldn’t know to ask, and send back a written answer: what’s fair, what’s missing, and what to change before you sign.
What you get
- A written answer you can forward
- What to change before you sign
- Questions to send back to the supplier
- A call to go through it together
It fits when
- You’re about to sign something expensive
- A quote looks high and you can’t tell
- Two proposals say opposite things
A written plan
What to fix, what to build and what to leave alone, in order, with rough costs.
Fixed fee, agreed before we startWe look at what you run on and how your team actually works, then write down what needs doing and in what order. Each line has a rough cost and the risk of leaving it. Some lines will say to leave something alone. It’s written so that anyone could carry it out, not only us.
What you get
- A picture of what you run on today
- What to do first, next and later
- A rough cost and a risk on every line
- A walk through it together, line by line
It fits when
- Nobody can say what you actually run on
- Everything feels urgent at once
- You’re setting next year’s budget
Help hiring
An engineer’s opinion on a developer, agency or freelancer before you commit.
Fixed fee, agreed before we startHiring a developer when you aren’t one is mostly guesswork. We help write down what the job actually needs, sit in on interviews, look at work the candidates have done before, and tell you what we think of each one. The same applies when you’re choosing between agencies or freelancers.
What you get
- A job description that asks for the right things
- An engineer in the interview
- A look at their previous work
- A written opinion on each candidate
It fits when
- You’re hiring your first developer
- You have to choose between agencies
- A contractor’s work is hard to judge
Someone to ask
A regular call with a senior engineer, for as long as it’s useful.
Ongoing, at whatever pace suits youIn most small companies, technology decisions get made by whoever is nearest, with nobody to check them. Should we build this or buy it? Is this quote reasonable? Will the system we run on last another two years? You get a senior engineer to bring those questions to — someone who reads what you’re about to sign, joins the calls with suppliers, and tells you when the right move is to do nothing.
What you get
- A regular call, as often as you need one
- Questions answered by email between calls
- An engineer on your supplier calls
- Guidance for the developers you already have
It fits when
- You make technology decisions alone
- You have developers but nobody guiding them
- You keep being asked to approve things you can’t judge
Building and running
When the answer is to build.
Done by the engineer who gave the advice, on accounts in your name, and documented as it goes.
Custom software
Software built around how your business already works, so you stop working around the software you rent.
Fixed price, agreed in stagesMost small companies don’t have a software problem. They have six tools that almost fit and a spreadsheet holding the gaps together, and it works until the one person who understands it goes on vacation. We build the piece that replaces it: the thing your customers log into, the thing your team works from, or the link between two systems that were never meant to talk to each other.
What you get
- Working software, live, on accounts in your name
- All of the code, in your possession
- Changes that go out safely and can be undone
- Written instructions, and help after handover
It fits when
- A spreadsheet has quietly become essential
- The software you rent makes you work backwards
- Someone left and nobody can touch their work
Hosting and reliability
Fewer outages, a smaller monthly bill, and updates that are routine instead of nerve-racking.
Fixed price, agreed before it startsMost companies ignore this until something breaks or the invoice arrives, and both are bad moments to start learning how your own systems work. We move what you run onto something dependable, make updates safe and ordinary, set up alerts so problems reach us before they reach your customers, and write down how all of it works so nothing depends on one person’s memory.
What you get
- A plan showing the cost now, and after
- Everything set up so it can be rebuilt
- Routine updates that can be rolled back
- Alerts, and backups that have been tested
It fits when
- Things break and nobody knows why
- The monthly bill keeps climbing
- Changes are rare because they’re risky
AI and automation
Repetitive work taken off your staff, one job at a time, and only where it pays for itself.
A small trial before anything biggerThe useful applications of AI are rarely the ones in the news. They’re the dull jobs that eat your team’s week: typing information off documents, sorting what arrives in the inbox, drafting the same quote for the hundredth time. We pick one of those, build a small version, measure it against what the job costs you today, and grow it only once it has earned it. If a simple rule would do the job, you get the rule.
What you get
- An honest look at where the hours go
- A small working version, on your real work
- Measured against what the job costs today
- A person checking anything it’s unsure about
It fits when
- Staff retype the same information all day
- One small judgment call eats hours every week
- You’ve been pitched AI and want to know if it applies
You don’t have to pick one.
Describe what’s going on and we’ll tell you which of these fits, if any.