How we engage
Honest about what it takes.
Every engagement is defined clearly before work starts, and every change is agreed before it happens. No surprises, no silent scope creep. Most relationships that start as a project continue as a retainer — the first engagement is rarely the last.
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Engagement models
Three ways to work together.
Project
Fixed scope, defined deliverables, clear end date. Best for a specific thing that needs to be built or solved. Typical duration: 4–12 weeks. Includes discovery, delivery, review, and handover.
Start a projectRetainer
Ongoing access to strategy, advice, and delivery. Best for teams that need consistent senior input without a full-time hire. Monthly commitment reviewed quarterly. Flexible on mix of work.
Discuss a retainerAdvisory
A focused relationship for founders and leadership teams. Structured calls, direct access, no project overhead. Best for organisations navigating decisions, not yet ready to build.
Book a callThe natural progression
Most relationships start as a project.
The first engagement is usually a defined piece of work — a platform built, a strategy defined, a technology decision made. That's the natural starting point.
What happens after depends on what was built and what the business needs next. Many clients move to a retainer once the first project is complete — ongoing development and maintenance for a platform we built, or continued strategic input as the business grows and faces new decisions. The relationship continues without needing to be negotiated from scratch.
This only works because the first project was built to be maintained. Clean code, documented decisions, systems the client understands. That's the standard regardless of whether the relationship continues — but it's why continuing usually makes sense.
Pricing
How pricing works.
We price by scope, not by the hour. Here's what that means in practice.
Every engagement is quoted as a fixed or capped amount based on what we agree needs to be done. That means you know what you're committing to before work starts — not an hourly rate that compounds unpredictably over a period of time.
It also means we have skin in the game. If something takes longer than expected because we underscoped it, that's our problem to manage — not a reason to invoice you for more hours. If something takes less time because we found a better approach, you get the benefit.
Scope changes are handled openly. If the brief changes materially, we stop, assess the impact, agree any change to the price or timeline in writing, and then continue. We don't absorb changes silently and we don't surprise you at invoice time.
We don't publish rates, because the right scope for a given problem varies too much to quote from a price list. We'd rather give you an accurate number after understanding what you actually need.
Example scopes
Typical scope shapes.
To give you a sense of what different engagements look like. These are shapes, not quotes — every scope is tailored to the specific problem.
Getting started
What the first conversation looks like.
A 45-minute call. No deck, no pitch, no sales process.
Most people arrive with a problem they haven't fully defined yet. That's fine — working out what it actually is together is usually where the useful conversation starts. We'll ask about what you're working on, what you've tried, what's constrained the approach so far, and what good looks like to you.
You'll leave with: a clear sense of whether there's a fit, a rough shape of how we'd approach the problem, and honest feedback on the scope — including whether we think it needs to be smaller, larger, or approached differently than you've framed it.
If there's no fit, we'll say so on the call. If someone else is better placed to help, we'll say who. We don't follow up indefinitely or create pressure to commit.
Book a strategy callBook a strategy call.
A focused 45-minute conversation. You share what you're working on, we share how we might help.