01: The problem
Most companies need senior brains occasionally, not full-time, not on a 60-page deck.
You're stuck on a single architecture decision. You hired junior or mid-level engineers and you need a senior to sanity-check the plan. You're between agencies and want a second opinion before you sign. You shipped something and want a fast review by someone who's actually built this kind of system.
Hiring a senior engineer for that costs you a six-figure salary plus equity. Hiring a consulting firm gets you a deck and an account manager. Both are overkill for the work you actually need done.
We do the work in between. A real senior engineer, by the hour, or on a recurring retainer. Same people who'd lead a full engagement, just talking, reviewing, and advising instead of building.
02: Right fit?
Is this the right fit?
Best for
- ✓Founders and CTOs who need senior expertise occasionally, not full-time
- ✓Engineering leaders making a one-off architecture, model, or vendor decision
- ✓Boards and investors wanting an honest technical review of a portfolio company's AI work
- ✓Companies between agencies who need a sanity check before committing
- ✓Teams who'd rather pay for an hour of clarity than a month of meetings
Probably not
- —Buyers who actually need a build (route to one of our build services, consultation isn't a discount on the work)
- —Compliance certifications (HIPAA / FedRAMP / SOC 2 audits), those need a certified firm
- —"Pick our brain forever for free", the scoping call is generous; the ongoing retainer is paid
- —Pure brainstorming with no decision attached, we're more useful when there's a real call to make
03: What you get
What you get when we engage
Three formats. Pick the one that matches how much you need.
01Scoping call (free, 30 minutes)
- The starting point for any engagement, including build work. We'll ask sharp questions about your problem, give you our honest read on whether we can help, and, if we can't, point you somewhere useful. No slides, no sales script. The call is for buyers who want to figure out the next step, not be sold to.
02Hour-based consultation (paid, fixed fee)
- For when you have a specific question and need a senior opinion fast. Examples:
- "Should we build this AI feature in-house or buy?"
- "Is our RAG architecture going to scale?"
- "Review our prompt and eval suite, what would you change?"
- "Audit this codebase before we sign with the agency that built it."
- "We're picking between Claude, GPT, and an open-source model. What's your take?"
- You get an hour (or two, or three) on a call, plus a written follow-up summarizing the recommendation, the reasoning, and any flags worth following up on. Fixed fee, paid up front, no surprises.
03Fractional advisor retainer (monthly)
- For founders and engineering leaders who want recurring access to a senior brain without hiring one full-time. A monthly fee gets you:
- A standing weekly or bi-weekly call (30–60 minutes)
- Async access via Slack or email, questions answered within a defined window
- Code reviews, architecture reviews, and decision sanity-checks on demand
- Optional attendance at internal architecture meetings, board calls, or vendor evaluations
- Cancel with 30 days' notice. No annual lock-in. The retainer ends when you don't need it anymore.
04: How we work
How we work
Consultation engagements are intentionally lightweight. No Production Path, no Scoping Sprint required. The methodology here is honesty, speed, and a paper trail.
01
Honesty
If the right answer is "don't hire us" or "don't build it," we'll say so. If we can't help, we'll point you at someone who can.
02
Speed
Hour-based consultations book within a week. Written follow-ups land within 2 business days of the call. Retainer questions get answered inside the agreed response window.
03
Paper trail
Every consultation ends with a written follow-up, what we discussed, what we recommended, the reasoning behind it. You walk away with something to share with your team, not just a memory of the call.
05: Stack
What we'll consult on
We're an AI-first engineering team, so most consultation requests fall in these areas, but the boundary is "what we'd actually have an opinion on," not a fixed menu.
- AI strategy & architecture
- Build vs. buy decisions, model selection, agent architecture, retrieval design, eval design, vendor evaluations.
- Web & mobile architecture
- Stack selection, scaling decisions, refactoring strategies, code reviews.
- Engineering operations
- Hiring decisions for senior engineering roles, agency selection, vendor management.
- Project audits
- Codebase audits, eval audits, cost audits, ongoing-system reviews.
- Outside scope
- Pure design work, pure compliance certification, regulated-industry audits (HIPAA / FedRAMP / SOC 2), legal advice, financial advice. We'll point you at specialists for those.
06: Why us
Why we'll tell you the truth
No conflicts of interest
We're an engineering team, not a consulting firm with a partner program. No vendor kickbacks. If the right answer is "don't build it" or "use the off-the-shelf product," we'll say so.
Recommendations we'd own
Every consultation recommendation is one we'd implement ourselves. If we wouldn't build it, we won't recommend it.
Written follow-ups standard
Every paid consultation ends with a written summary. You can audit our reasoning, share it with your team, and refer back to it months later.
No retainer lock-in
Fractional advisor retainers cancel with 30 days' notice. If we're not earning the fee, you shouldn't have to argue your way out.
NDA standard
Every consultation is covered by an NDA by default. Mutual NDA on request before the first call.
07: FAQ
Frequently asked
What does an hour of consultation cost?+
We don't publish hourly rates. Fixed fee is quoted after a free scoping call, based on the question and the seniority required. The fee is paid up front; no hidden charges, no escalation.
What's the difference between this and the Strategy Sprint?+
A Strategy Sprint (1–4 weeks, deliverable-led) is for deeper questions, full audits, multi-system roadmaps, build-vs.-buy reports with cost modeling. Consultation is for lighter questions, single decisions, code reviews, architecture sanity-checks. If your question fits in 1–3 hours plus a written follow-up, it's consultation. If it needs a written report and a working session, it's a Strategy Sprint.
Is the scoping call really free?+
Yes. No commitment, no credit card, no "free with caveats." It's the call we'd want to be on before we agreed to take your money.
Will you do code reviews on a consultation basis?+
Yes. Send the repo (under NDA), spend an hour walking through it on a call, get a written follow-up with our findings. Useful before signing with another agency, hiring an engineer, or making a refactor decision.
Can you serve as a fractional CTO?+
A fractional advisor, yes. A fractional CTO with hire/fire authority and direct reports, no, not at our current size. We'll advise the CTO; we won't be one.
Will you talk to our investors or board?+
Yes. Common during AI-related diligence or technical reviews. We'll join an investor call or board meeting to explain technical risks and tradeoffs, sign the NDA in advance, and follow up in writing.
Do you do hourly rates for actual development work?+
No. Builds are fixed-scope, fixed-quote. Consultation is the only place we work in hours, because consultation is genuinely time-bounded; building isn't.
Can the consultation lead into a build?+
Yes, frequently. Many clients start with a single consultation, then engage us for a Scoping Sprint, then a Production Build. The consultation cost isn't credited toward the build (it's a different service), but the context carries over.