Three ways to access the same judgment — no tiers, no programs, no discovery decks. Say what’s on your desk and you get the engagement that fits, number and timeline included.
DRAFT COPY — AWAITING APPROVAL
01THE SHAPE OF EVERY ENGAGEMENT
Every engagement, at any size, runs the same way. It starts with a conversation, not a contract: a free technical fit call, or an email if you’d rather write. You describe what’s on your desk; I tell you which engagement fits — or that none does, which is a real answer and costs you nothing.
The fee is fixed before the work starts and invoiced 50/50 — half to begin, half on delivery. No day rates, no meter running, no scope that quietly grows.
The work ends in writing. Every engagement closes with a written memo and one working session to walk it through — a document you can act on after I’m gone, not a slide deck that needs me in the room.
And I work for the company buying the technology, not the vendor selling it: no commission, referral fee or revenue share from any vendor. It is a term of the contract, not a promise on a website.
02THE THREE ENGAGEMENTS
The rungs differ in scope, not in kind — the same judgment applied to one decision, to a whole stack, or on retainer.
01IF ONE DECISION BLOCKS YOU
2 WEEKS
One live decision — a proposal, a quote, an architecture — judged against what it will actually cost you. You get a written decision memo and the questions to put to your vendor.
Not for choosing a website builder.
02IF THE STACK NEEDS JUDGING
3–4 WEEKS
Your stack, your vendors and your roadmap, read end to end. You get a written assessment, a ranked list of what to fix first, and the cost of leaving each one alone.
Not for teams that already have a CTO they trust.
03CONTINUING OVERSIGHT
3-MONTH MINIMUM
A senior technical read on decisions as they arrive. You get a standing review of vendor work, a working session every fortnight, and someone to call before you sign.
Not for day-to-day engineering management.
Everything paid for 01 is credited in full against 02 within 90 days — starting small costs nothing extra.
03FROM FIRST EMAIL TO DELIVERED MEMO
The fit call. Thirty minutes, free, no deck required. Say what’s blocked. If it’s a fit, you’ll know which engagement and why before we hang up; if it isn’t, I’ll tell you that instead.
The quote. One page: the fee, the timeline, what you get. Fixed before anything starts. Full rates are on the rate card — ask for it on the homepage and it arrives by email.
The work. I read what you send — the proposal, the codebase, the contracts, the roadmap — and talk to the people who have to live with the decision. You hear from me while it runs, not just at the end.
The delivery. The memo lands in your inbox first, so you can read it before we talk. Then the working session: what I found, what I’d do, and what I’d refuse to do — and you keep both the document and the reasoning.
04TERMS