Fit
Reasons not to hire us.
A good share of the calls we take end with us saying no, and both sides are better for it. This page is that call, compressed: the honest disqualifiers, what we look for instead, and how an engagement is priced. Read it before you book and the thirty minutes will be worth more.
01When to Walk Away
Five ways this goes wrong.
Each of these has ended a first call. None of them is a criticism. They are shapes of work we are the wrong instrument for.
01You need staff augmentation.
We embed one senior engineer with authority over the system, not seats on your org chart. If the plan is five contractors working tickets under your project manager, a staffing firm will serve you better and cost you less.
02You want the plan, not the build.
Our deliverable is a running system. If what the board needs this quarter is a strategy document, hire an advisory firm and come back when someone has to build what it says.
03The spreadsheet actually works.
If nobody is afraid to touch it, one resignation wouldn't slow the close, and audit season is calm, keep it. Rebuilds pay for themselves on fragility, not on age. We will tell you this on the call, for free.
04Nothing ships until it's perfect.
We put working software in front of your team in weeks and improve it in production. If your process requires a year of specification before anyone logs in, the model will fight you the whole way.
05You're running a vendor process.
Twelve-week RFPs, procurement scorecards, and a shortlist of eight are built for buying licenses. We are two people deciding whether an engineer should sit inside your operation. If that can't be decided in a few conversations, it's not a fit yet.
02What Fits
The engagements that work share three things.
A fragile system carrying real money
Reporting, reconciliation, allocation, compliance: work that matters, running on something only one or two people understand.
An owner with authority
Someone on your side empowered to change the process, grant access, and make decisions in days, not committees.
Tolerance for working software
You would rather run real work through version one in week four than review a specification in month six.
03What It Costs
Two fees, no theater.
An engagement has the same two phases as the model: build, then operate. The build phase carries an embed fee while a senior engineer works inside your operation. After launch it steps down to an operate retainer that covers monitoring, tuning, and extension of the running system.
There are no per-seat licenses on top, and no discovery phase billed before any building starts. If a first conversation gets to specifics, you will have real numbers before the second one.
Still here? Then it’s probably a fit.
Thirty minutes with the engineer who would do the work. If the honest answer is no, you’ll hear it in the first ten.
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