01 · Underneath
Nobody senior in the room
So the big calls wait, or get made by whoever happens to be closest. And every vendor you talk to, quite reasonably, recommends what it sells.
A small senior team of tech experts, led by Sachin Garg, CTO
We help you make the big calls, before the money moves.
Build or buy, which platform, which partner: we've helped make these calls many times, and we'll tell you plainly what we'd do and why.
Book a first call
90 minutes with Sachin Garg, CTO · $500 · Refundable in one click
Waiting on a decisionDecided
2008 Founded
27+ Years building software
30+ Products delivered
21+ Years leading teams
What building really takes
Custom software is closer to opening a car workshop than buying a car.
It takes more iterations, and more money, than most people expect. Our job is to align this extra complexity with your business goals, simplify the build-or-buy decisions, and keep the iterations few and useful if we decide to build.
We don't rent you developers. Anyone we help you find joins your team, not ours.
The showroom and the workshop
In a showroom, you pay, take the keys, and drive.
Building your own means setting up a workshop: hiring the mechanics, getting the equipment, trying different parts, and getting some decisions wrong before the car is safe to drive.
What we usually find
The big calls keep waiting.
We start with what you're trying to achieve, then look at each option the way you'll live with it.
02 · What we look at
What each option will really take
How it fits with what you already run, how it scales, how quickly the vendor responds when something breaks, what it will cost, and whether your team can run it.
03 · Estimates that add up
A quote, checked
On one project, a quote for four developers for three weeks came down to about one developer for three to four weeks.
Some of the work
Calls we've helped make, and how they turned out.
Open any result for the story. Clients stay unnamed; Sachin can walk you through any of them.
~3 months
To an in-house portal
Operations · Travel Tech
9 → 2 months
An AI project at a crawl, shipped once the right specialists joined
AI · VoIP, New York
Half the team
Two native apps moved to one hybrid app
Mobile apps · VoIP, New York
~3 months · Operations · Travel Tech
At a revived heritage travel brand, an in-house portal replaced several paid travel-booking tools in about three months, built around how their team actually works. It cut both licensing and operating costs.
9 → 2 months · AI · VoIP, New York
A New York based VoIP company had spent nine months on an AI project that was moving at a crawl: self-hosting ASR models and LLMs for transcribing and summarizing calls, to keep costs down at scale. We brought in the right specialists, and it shipped in two months. We also drove the GPU batch-processing optimizations.
Half the team · Mobile apps · VoIP, New York
At the same company, the native iOS and Android apps were brittle and unstable. We planned and led the move to one hybrid app that shared most of its code with their web app, which was already stable. The app became much more stable, customers were happier, and it cost less to maintain, with half the team it needed before.
How we work
From stuck to self-running.
Your team takes on a little more each month, until it runs without us.
01 Weeks 1–3
Get clear
Where things really stand, including what leadership doesn't hear.
02 Early on
Make it visible
Honest updates, and a working build you can try every week.
03 Along the way
Build it up
Simpler architecture, vendors held to their word, gaps filled.
04 When you're ready
Hand off
Nothing depends on one person, including us.
01 · Weeks 1–3 What we look at first
- What you're trying to achieve, and where things really stand.
- The quality of the work so far. It can go either way: sometimes it's worse than it looks, and sometimes it's much better than it feels, simply because it isn't finished yet.
- The skills the job needs against the skills on the team.
- Whether your timeline and budget estimates are realistic.
- The gap between what we hear from leadership and what we hear from the people doing the work. That gap usually tells us the most.
02 · Early on Progress everyone can see
Status updates that say what's really done, in enough detail to act on, and a working build you can try every week. A lot of the misunderstandings we see start with updates that skip the details.
03 · Along the way Stronger, step by step
A simpler architecture, vendors held to what they promised, and specialists added where the team has gaps. Your people take on a little more each month.
04 · When you're ready A team that doesn't need us
Knowledge moves to your team, and we help you hire anyone who's missing. By then, no part of your product should depend on one person, including us.
Ways to start
Everything starts with one call.
By the end of it, we'll both know whether there's more to do, and which of the other two options fits.
01 · Start here
A first call
$500
- 90 minutes with Sachin on your real problem
- Real answers and clear next steps on the calls themselves
- Up to two follow-ups, with you or your team
- Not worth it? One click, full refund
The right first step for nearly everyone.
Some teams take the solutions and run with them on their own. That's a perfectly good outcome.
02 · After the call
A fixed-scope review
$3.5–6K Fixed price, 2–3 weeks
A close look at the decision, the options, and the quotes in front of you, with solutions worked out alongside your team.
- Your goals, the options on the table, and your team
- Whether the quotes and estimates in front of you are realistic
- Solutions to the problems we find, worked out together with you and your team
03 · After the call
Working together
$8–12K a month or a fixed-scope project
Our senior team helps your people carry the decision through, to a planned hand-off.
- Sachin sets direction and checks the work
- Help choosing vendors, negotiating contracts, and getting the setup right
- A planned hand-off to your own team
Book your first call.
Bring whoever on your team knows the options best.
Why is the first call paid?
Because it's working time on your problem, and you get real answers on the call itself. It also covers up to two follow-ups.
What if we've already decided?
A second look before you sign is still worth it. If the decision holds up, we'll say so. If it doesn't, we'll tell you why, and what we'd do instead.
Do we need to start over?
Rarely. Fixing what's broken is usually easier and better than wholesale replacement. Sometimes all that's needed is adding an expert with the missing skill set. Replacement is the last option.
Who would build it?
Your developers, or specialists we help you hire who have done this exact work before. We lead the work and make sure it ships. We don't rent you developers.
Do you take commissions from vendors?
No. We take no reseller fees or commissions from any vendor, so we're truly on your side, with only your best interest in mind.
90 minutes with Sachin Garg
$500 · paid at booking · How refunds work
- 90 minutes with Sachin on your real problem
- Real answers and clear next steps on the calls themselves
- Up to two follow-ups, with you or your team
- Not worth it? One click, full refund
Pick a time below, or open the calendar in a new tab.
Need one senior person rather than a team? Sachin also works directly as a fractional CTO. Meet Sachin →