Deliverable 01
A shipped product.
Deployed, monitored, in the hands of the users the brief was written for. Not a demo; not a phase-one; the actual thing.
S8 · Build · Phase 2 — booking now for later this year
Bespoke Software Development
Full production software delivery, usually with AI at the core — fixed team, named engagement lead, no staffing pyramid.
We do this work because the alternative — a body-shop consultancy layering juniors under a sales lead — is a bad deal for our clients and a boring one for us. Small team, senior people, code you keep. The engagement ends because the work is done, not because the retainer expired.
This service ships in Phase 2. If you’re planning an MVP or a defined build for later in the year, tell us the shape and we’ll see if it fits.
When to bring us in
Signals we're the right fit.
- You have a product idea that needs AI at its centre and don't want to hire around it before you've validated the shape.
- Your internal team is at capacity and the next capability can't wait for a hiring round.
- You've been quoted a build by a body-shop consultancy and the org chart alone made you flinch.
- The problem is small enough that a fixed team can carry it, and important enough that a senior lead is warranted.
- You want the code, the tests, the runbooks, and the CI to stay with you at the end — not to be re-bought as support.
How we approach it
The moves that repeat.
-
Fixed team, named lead.
A small pod — usually three to five people — with a lead who's on the code every day. No staffing pyramid. No handovers between "senior" and "delivery".
-
Written-down scope, weekly demo.
A short brief we agree on before we start. A working demo every Friday for the sponsor. Scope changes are discussed in the room, not through change requests.
-
Boring engineering as a feature.
Tests, CI, migrations, observability, deploy pipelines — from the first week. Not because we like ceremony; because we've all met the alternative.
-
Handover is a phase, not an event.
From the third week on, we're pairing with the team who'll own it. The last week is on-call with them, not for them.
What you get
Deliverables, in plain English.
Deliverable 02
The full engineering fabric.
Tests, CI, migrations, observability, runbooks, deploy pipelines, infra-as-code. Your ownership from day one; ours to help you keep healthy while we're there.
Deliverable 03
A "what's next" document.
Written on the last week. The known unknowns, the tech debt we called out and left, the sequence for the next quarter's work. Honest.
Engagement models
Shapes the work comes in.
BUILD
Bespoke build engagement.
Twelve to twenty weeks, fixed team, fixed budget, weekly demo. Discovery is a separate short engagement before the build.
MVP
AI-Native MVP package.
Founder-focused build for a product where AI is the product. Rails, TypeScript, and Python where each is best-shaped for the job.
Related services
Often composed with this one.
S2 · Build
Agentic Systems Engineering
Multi-step LLM workflows with clean topology, tool surfaces, memory, evaluation, and safety — built to land in production, not stall in a demo.
S3 · Build
LLM Integration
Chat, RAG, and the wider integration stack — measured, regression-tested, and cost-aware from the first prompt.
S5 · Advise
Technical & Solutions Architecture
A senior architect embedded with your programme — end-to-end design, build-vs-buy calls, vendor evaluation, technical risk review.
Ready to talk about a bespoke software development engagement?
A 30-minute discovery call. We'll get to the shape of the work and whether we're the right fit.