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FAQ

Common questions.

Answers to the questions we get on almost every first call. If yours is not here, ask it on the call -- we would rather answer it before you sign than after.

Engagements

How engagements work.

What is the minimum engagement?

A two-week Migration Audit or Architecture Review. We do not do one-hour strategy calls billed as engagements. The minimum deliverable is a written brief your team can act on.

Who does the work?

One of the two principals. We do not use subcontractors or staff engagements with junior engineers without telling you. If the work requires a specialist outside our core practice, we will say so before the contract is signed.

How do you handle scope changes?

We renegotiate before the extra work begins. We do not run overages and invoice you at the end. If the scope changes materially, we pause and get written agreement on the new scope and price before continuing.

What happens when the engagement ends?

We hand off everything -- infrastructure-as-code, runbooks, access credentials, documentation, and architecture diagrams. The work product belongs to you. We do not create artificial dependencies to keep you retained.

Pricing

How pricing works.

Do you charge hourly?

No. Every engagement is fixed-scope with a fixed price, or a monthly retainer with a defined scope. We do not bill by the hour because it creates the wrong incentive -- slow work pays more.

Do you mark up the cloud bill?

No. You pay your cloud provider directly at their published price. We charge a flat retainer for the engineering hand. Our revenue is the retainer; your cloud bill is between you and the provider.

Can we cancel a retainer?

Yes. Any monthly retainer can be cancelled with 30 days written notice. No annual lock-in, no penalty. We earn the next month, every month.

Do you publish your rates?

We publish engagement types but not rates. Every scope is different, and publishing a rate without knowing the scope is how you get surprised on the invoice. Schedule a call -- we will give you a number in the first 30 minutes.

Working with us

What to expect.

How fast do you respond?

Under four hours during business hours for all active clients. For after-hours incidents on monitored retainers, the SLA is defined in your contract -- typically 15 to 30 minutes for severity-one events.

Do you work with our internal team?

Yes. Most engagements involve a knowledge transfer component -- we prefer to leave your team more capable than when we arrived, not more dependent on us.

Are you a good fit for early-stage companies?

Depends on the work. We are not a good fit for companies that need a generalist "do anything" technical co-founder. We are a good fit for early-stage companies that have a specific infrastructure, AI, or growth engineering problem they need solved by someone who has solved it before.

How do we get started?

Schedule a 30-minute call. We map your current situation and tell you which engagement type fits the work in front of you -- or whether we are not the right firm for it.

Still have questions?

Ask on the call.

30 minutes. We answer every question before you sign anything.

Schedule a call
Direct to a principal · Response under four hours