You're starting something
You know the market. We become the technical half.
Every conversation with a developer ends in a number you can't sanity-check and a timeline you have no way to judge. That is not your failing — you are being asked to buy something nobody will describe to you in your own language.
How this gets paid for
You pay for it, we take equity, or some of each.
Which one it is gets decided together, after we understand what you are building. Anyone who tells you on a website is selling you their preference rather than answering your question.
You pay, you own it
A fixed scope against a signed specification, the same as any engagement. Most founders with funding should want this: it is cheaper than equity and nobody else is on your cap table.
We take equity instead
We come in as the technical co-founder, take a share rather than some or all of a fee, and carry part of the risk. We do this rarely, and only where we believe the market is real.
Some of each
A reduced fee and a smaller share. Often the sensible answer when there is some money but not enough to build the whole thing properly.
What each side carries
The division of labour, stated plainly.
We are not looking for someone to hand us a brief. The ventures that work are the ones where the person who understands the market stays in the room.
You bring
- The market, and why you understand it better than the people in it
- Access to the customers who feel the problem
- Commercial judgement — pricing, positioning, who to sell to first
- The time to operate it, not just to fund or advise it
We bring
- The specification, written before anything is built
- Architecture, engineering and delivery to the same standard as any client
- Technical ownership as it grows, rather than a build and a goodbye
- An honest read on whether the thing can be built for what it is worth
Fit
What we ask before we commit.
Not a test to pass. If several of these have no answer yet, that is worth knowing before either of us spends money — and it is usually the conversation, not the code, that is missing.
- 01Is there a real, recurring problem — not just an idea?
- 02Do you have direct access to the people who feel it?
- 03Is it big enough to support a company, not just a feature?
- 04Can software actually solve it, or only document it?
- 05Are you going to operate this, or advise on it?
- 06Is there a credible path to revenue you could describe?
- 07Are you open to a long-term technical partner?
- 08Is there something here only you can see right now?
Tell us about the opportunity.
What the problem is, who has it, and why now. You get a straight answer about whether we think it can be built — and whether we are the ones to build it.