Why we don't publish a number
A price list assumes we already know what you need. We don't yet. Two projects that would sit on the same row of a table — "an MVP", "an AI agent" — can be nothing alike in work or in price, depending on what systems they have to talk to and what state your data is in. Both still ship in weeks. What changes is how much has to be solved inside those weeks.
Publishing "$X for an MVP" would leave us two ways out, both bad for you: pad the number to cover everything we don't know yet, or shrink your scope until it fits the number. In the first case you overpay. In the second you pay a fair price for something that doesn't solve the problem.
So we take the boring route: understand the goal first, put the number second — in writing, with what it includes and what it doesn't.
What actually moves the price
These are the variables we work through when we build a proposal. Come to the call with a sense of where you land on each one and you'll walk out with a much tighter number.
The outcome, not the screen count
"Validate the idea with real users before year-end" and "replace the system we invoice with" look similar in a brief and are nothing alike. The second one can't fail on a Tuesday morning, and that means testing, monitoring and fallbacks the first one simply doesn't need.
What it has to talk to
A greenfield product with nothing behind it is the cheap end. Wiring into a fifteen-year-old ERP with no API, a CRM every department uses differently, or a supplier who only emails you a CSV — that's where the hours actually go.
The state your data is in
If the information already lives structured in a database, an agent can use it this week. If it lives in forty spreadsheets where the same customer is spelled three different ways, it has to be cleaned up first. That's real work, and it's much better known up front than halfway through.
How many people have to say yes
A founder who decides on the call and a committee with legal, procurement and security do not cost the same, even when the software is identical. That's not a dig at committees — it's calendar time, and it belongs in an honest estimate.
What your industry demands
Traceability, audit trails, data that can't leave the country, the security questionnaire your enterprise customer sends. None of that is decoration on top of the product — it changes the architecture from day one.
Who runs it afterwards
Do we hand it over running and your team takes it from there? Then documentation, handoff and training are part of the price. Would you rather we stay on for a while? That's a different shape. Neither is better; they cost differently.
The deadline
Our normal range is already weeks, not quarters — so the lever isn't "fast or slow", it's how far below that you need to push. Compressing means more people in parallel and decisions that get expensive to reverse. If your date has any give in it, that's the cheapest lever you have, and almost nobody asks about it.
What doesn't move it
- The hours we sit at the keyboard. The price comes from the scope we agreed on, not from how long it takes us to get there. If we get the estimate wrong, that's our problem.
- How many check-ins you need to feel calm about it. Ask for more.
- Whether the project has the letters "AI" in it. We use agents because they make us faster, not as a surcharge.
How we get to your number
A 30-minute call
You tell us the outcome you want and what you've already tried. We walk the variables above. There's no pitch: if it turns out on that call that we're not the right people for this, we'll say so right there.
A written proposal
Scope, what's explicitly out of scope, timeline and price. At no charge: if you read it, take the map and carry on by yourself, that's a fine outcome.
We start, or we don't
If it works for you, we begin against the signed scope. If it doesn't, we're not going to chase you around your inbox.
What's included no matter the number
- The code is yours and lives in your organization from day one — not a deliverable handed over at the end.
- Senior engineers. No juniors offshored behind the logo, no staff aug.
- The scope in writing before anything starts, instead of an open-ended contract.
- No lock-in: if you carry on without us tomorrow, everything we built keeps running.
And if the cheapest path is to build nothing, we'll tell you
Sometimes the goal is met by a two-week automation and not by a whole platform. Selling you the big one is better for us this quarter and worse for us over time — we'd rather do the small project properly and be the call you make next time something expensive breaks. We're four engineers, not an agency with seats to fill, so we can afford to say "you don't need this".
Questions we get about this
How much does an MVP cost?
There's no honest number without the scope. What we can tell you on a 30-minute call is exactly which variables drive it in your case, and the written proposal that follows carries a closed price.
Do you charge by the hour or by project?
By agreed scope. The proposal states what's included, what isn't, the timeline and the price before any work starts.
Does the proposal cost anything?
No. If you read it and decide to carry on by yourself, you keep the scoping work anyway.
What happens if the scope changes mid-project?
The new part gets quoted separately and in writing before we build it. It never shows up as a surprise line on an invoice.
Do you work with small budgets?
It depends on the goal, not on the amount. Some goals are met by a two-week automation; others don't fit in any small budget. Say it on the call and we'll tell you honestly whether we're the right partner.
Isn't "contact us for pricing" just a way to charge whatever the client can afford?
That's a fair suspicion. It's exactly why the proposal is written, with the scope itemized and the price closed before anything begins: you can put it side by side with any other quote, and if the scope doesn't move, the price doesn't either.
Tell us what you're trying to reach
Half an hour. No twelve-field form, no email sequence afterwards. You leave with a concrete sense of where your number lands — and if you'd rather go think about it, with the problem mapped better than when you walked in.
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