Technical Advisory
Get the Technical Calls Right Before the Money Is Spent.
For founders and operators who have to choose a stack, judge a quote, hire an engineer, or answer an investor, and have nobody technical to ask. A two-week assessment, then a monthly retainer with one named lead. We'd rather tell you not to build than build the wrong thing.
Available for new projects
Who This Is For
If one of these is you, keep reading.
Non-Technical Founders With a Product
Customers, a build in progress or a build that's done, and nobody to tell you whether it's any good.
Operators Buying Software for the First Time
You run a business that's about to replace the spreadsheet or the old system, and you've never bought custom software before.
Companies Between Technical Leads
The CTO or lead developer left. You need decisions made and the codebase understood while you find the next one.
Startups Heading Into a Raise
Technical diligence in the next six months and a codebase nobody independent has looked at.
Businesses Fielding Agency Quotes
Three proposals on the desk, three different numbers, and no way to tell which one understood the brief.
Why Get a Technical Lead on Retainer
Six moments where the wrong call costs more than the advice.
A Quote You Can't Judge
An agency says $80k and four months. A freelancer says $20k and six weeks. You have no way to tell which one has understood the problem, or whether either number is real.
A Stack Decision You'll Live With for Years
Which database, which framework, which vendor, build or buy. Cheap to decide now, expensive to reverse once customers are on it.
Hiring Your First Engineer
You can't interview for a skill you don't have. The first technical hire sets the ceiling on everything built after them.
An Investor Asks Technical Questions
Diligence is coming and someone will read the code, ask about the architecture, and want to know who owns what. You need answers before they ask.
The Developer Left
One person built it and understood it. Now they're gone, the code is yours, and nobody can tell you whether it's salvageable.
Everyone Selling You Something
Every agency, tool, and platform has an opinion on what you should do next, and every one of them gets paid if you agree. You need one voice that doesn't.
What Makes Technical Decisions Hard
Not the technology. The people giving the advice.
Advice From People Who Want to Build It
Ask a builder whether you need a build and the answer is yes. The incentive is in the invoice.
Decisions Made in Chat
A Slack thread, a phone call, a nod in a meeting. Six months later nobody remembers why the database was chosen, and the person who chose it has moved on.
Fixing the Wrong Thing First
Most technical to-do lists are ordered by what's annoying. Ours is ordered by what could lose a customer. The security hole waits while the button colour gets fixed.
A Full-Time CTO Is the Wrong Size
A senior technical hire costs more than the software budget, and at your stage they'd spend half their week with nothing to decide.
Not Knowing What You Don't Know
The dangerous decisions aren't the ones you agonise over. They're the ones you didn't know were decisions.
The Agency Needs an Answer by Friday
A decision that takes a week to make properly gets made in an afternoon because the agency needs an answer by Friday.
Technical Decisions in Numbers
Why the expensive mistakes are made before the build starts.
45%
average budget overrun on large IT projects, which also deliver 56% less value than promised.
6%
of very large software projects succeed, against 61% of small ones. Size is decided at the start.
42%
of failed startups built something nobody wanted enough to pay for.
45%
of the time, AI coding tools pick the insecure option when a secure one exists. Someone has to check.
Sources: McKinsey & Oxford, Delivering Large-Scale IT Projects · Standish Group, CHAOS Report (2020) · CB Insights, Why Startups Fail · Veracode, GenAI Code Security Report (2025)
Where Founders Get Burned
Five patterns we see in the codebases and contracts that land on our desk.
Paying Twice for the Same App
The first build didn't work. The second team says start over. Nobody checked whether the first one was fixable, because nobody independent looked.
Locked Into a Vendor by Accident
A platform chosen for a quick start becomes impossible to leave once the data and the workflows are in it. The bill grows with the business.
Hiring a Senior Engineer to Do a Junior Job
Or the reverse. Without someone who can read a CV and a code sample, the first hire is a coin toss that costs a year's salary.
Scope That Nobody Wrote Down
The agency built what was said. You wanted what was meant. The gap is a change request, and change requests are where budgets go.
Failing Diligence on Things That Were Fixable
No tests, secrets in the repo, one person with the keys. An afternoon's work each, if someone had known to do them before the investor's adviser opened the codebase.
How the Retainer Works
One named lead who has built and run software products, on your side of the table.
Independent by Design
The retainer doesn't grow if you build more. If the right answer is a $50 tool instead of a $50k build, that's the answer you get.
Every Decision in Writing
What was decided, why, what it rules out, and what would change our mind. A record the next engineer, agency, or investor can read.
Quotes and Code Reviewed Before You Sign
Send us the proposal or the repo. You get a plain-English read on whether it's sound, what's missing, and what to push back on.
Hiring Done With You
Job spec, the technical screen, reading the code sample, the offer. You make the call. We make sure it's an informed one.
Diligence-Ready Before Diligence
We know what an investor's technical adviser looks for. The gaps get closed before they open the codebase.
A Roadmap Ordered by Risk
What to fix, build, buy, or ignore, in the order that protects revenue. Revisited every quarter, or whenever the business changes.
What we build with
- Next.js
- React
- TypeScript
- PostgreSQL
- Supabase
- AWS
- Vercel
- Stripe
- React Native
- Flutter
- Figma
Built the same way: Receivables · Banyan · Egis · Lift
Why Advice Before a Build
Most expensive software mistakes are made in the first two weeks, before anyone writes code. That's where we spend the most time.
Cheapest Decisions First
Every technical choice is cheap on paper and expensive in production. We make as many as possible on paper.
We'd Rather You Didn't Build
If an off-the-shelf tool does the job, that's the recommendation. The retainer is the same either way, so there's no reason for us to say otherwise.
Stop Any Month
The retainer is monthly with thirty days' notice. Everything decided is written down and yours, so there's nothing to lose by stopping.
Change the Question Cheaply
New investor, new competitor, new idea. The roadmap gets revisited. Advice that can't change with the business isn't advice.
Riskiest Decision First
The one that's hardest to reverse gets the most scrutiny. Data model and vendor lock-in before framework and hosting. Framework before button colour.
No Lock-In to Us
You can take every decision record, roadmap, and review to any builder you like, including one that isn't us.
How a Retainer Runs
A two-week assessment, then a monthly retainer with a weekly call and a named lead you can message. You own every document from day one.
- Assessment
- 2 weeks
- Standing call
- Weekly
- Answer on anything
- Within a day
- 01
Assessment
Week 1-2A fixed-fee fortnight. We read what exists, talk to whoever built it, and map the decisions in front of you. You keep the assessment whether or not you continue.
- Written assessment
- Decision map
- Retainer proposal
- 02
Roadmap
Week 2-3Fix, build, buy, or ignore, ordered by risk to revenue. Agreed with you, written down, and the first month's priorities picked from it.
- Roadmap by risk
- First-quarter priorities
- 03
Weekly Call
OngoingOne standing hour a week for whatever's on the table: a quote, a hire, a bug, a vendor, an investor question. Decisions from it go into the record the same day.
- Decision records
- Weekly call
- 04
Reviews as They Come
OngoingProposals, contracts, code, architecture, and vendor pitches, reviewed before you commit. Turnaround inside a working week for anything that isn't urgent.
- Written review per item
- 05
Hiring and Vendor Selection
As neededSpec, screen, technical interview, and offer for engineers. Shortlist and scoring for agencies and tools. You choose. We make sure the choice is informed.
- Job spec and screen
- Vendor scorecard
- 06
Quarterly Reset
Every 3 monthsThe roadmap re-ordered against what the business did in the last quarter and what it needs in the next. Retainer scope adjusted up or down to match.
- Updated roadmap
- 07
Handover Whenever You Hire
When you're readyWhen you bring on a full-time technical lead, they inherit every decision record and roadmap. We stay for a month of overlap, then step back.
What It Costs
Fixed fee
Two weeks. Ends with a written assessment, a decision map, and a retainer proposal sized to what you need. Yours whether or not you continue.
- Written assessment
- Decision map
- Retainer proposal
$4k - $12k / month
The number moves with how many decisions are in flight, whether a hire or a raise is on, and how much review work there is. A founder with one product and a quarterly hire sits at the low end; a company mid-raise with two agencies and an open CTO search sits at the top.
- Billed
- Monthly
- Stop
- Thirty days' notice
- Grows
- Only if you ask it to
Advisory or a Build
Two different problems that often start in the same conversation.
Advisory When
Someone else is building, or nothing is being built yet, and the risk is in the decisions: what, who, how much, and whether at all.
A Build When
The decision is made and the risk is in the execution. Then you want one of the services on this site, with the fixed price and the two-week steps.
Both When
We advise, you choose a builder, and if that builder is us the retainer keeps running as the independent check on our own work. Separate people, separate invoice.
What Comes Out of It
Advice you can't hand to someone else isn't worth paying for.
Decision Records
One page each. What was decided, why, what it rules out, and what would change it. Readable by a future engineer or an investor's adviser.
A Roadmap by Risk
Fix, build, buy, or ignore, in the order that protects revenue. Updated quarterly.
Reviews You Can Forward
A quote, a contract, or a codebase, read and written up in plain English. Send it to the agency with your questions attached.
A Hiring Kit
Job spec, screening questions, a code exercise with a scoring guide, and an interview loop. Reusable for the second hire.
A Diligence Pack
Architecture summary, ownership and access list, known risks and what's been done about them. The document the investor's adviser wishes every founder had.
Someone to Call
A named lead with a phone number. Weekly by default, same day when it matters.
Common Questions
If yours isn’t here, book a call and ask.
Got a Decision You Can't Judge?
A quote, a stack, a hire, or an investor's question. Tell us what's in front of you, on the call. If it's a fit, a two-week assessment follows, and at the end of it you have the decision map, in writing, and a retainer sized to what you need.