Services
Everything below is either a block of prepaid hours or a package with a fixed scope, timeline and fee. Most founders start with a ten-hour block or the one-week review, and decide from there. Nothing here is a retainer.
Every fee is fixed and agreed in writing before we start. I give you the number on the call, once I know which of these you need.
For any founder who needs senior judgment without a fixed scope.
Prepaid blocks of ten or forty hours, billed in fifteen-minute increments, that you use when you need them: an architecture decision that will be expensive to reverse, a vendor contract you are about to sign, a board or investor update on technology, an incident you want a second opinion on, coaching for the engineer you just promoted. Unused hours roll forward for ninety days.
For founders who want to know where they stand before a raise, a big customer or a big hire.
One or two weeks, depending on the size of the team, looking at the architecture, the codebase (including code written with AI tools), the security basics, the cloud bill, and how work actually gets from an idea to production. You get a written report a non-technical founder can read, a ninety-day plan, and a readout where you can ask anything.
For companies facing their first customer security questionnaire.
Before SOC 2, there is a shorter list that most questionnaires actually ask about: multi-factor authentication and access control, backups you have tested, secrets kept out of the code, a list of the vendors that touch customer data, a plan for the day something goes wrong, and a handful of written policies. Three weeks to put it in place and to answer the questionnaire in front of you.
For companies whose next enterprise deal depends on a SOC 2 report.
I have taken a company from nothing to a SOC 2 Type 2 report in under eight months. The sprint covers scoping, policies, control owners, choosing the compliance platform and the auditor, and setting up the evidence routine so the audit is boring. It ends with an internal owner who can run it without me. ISO 27001 follows the same shape.
For founders hiring a head of engineering or VP of Engineering for the first time.
I have hired engineering leaders for over a decade and seen what the expensive mistakes have in common. We define the role around what your company needs in the next eighteen months, not a generic job description. I run the search with you, build the interview loop and scorecards so every candidate is measured the same way, sit in the final interviews, help you close, and write the ninety-day onboarding plan.
For founders whose product is being built by an agency or an offshore team.
You should not have to take your development partner's word for it. I review the scope and the contract, sign off on the architecture before it is expensive to change, join the weekly delivery meeting on your side of the table, and check what is delivered against what was promised. When the time comes, I help you bring the product in-house.
For investors and acquirers.
A one- to two-week review of a target's codebase, architecture, security, team and delivery risk, with a written report that separates what is a problem from what merely looks like one, and a hundred-day plan for after the deal.
Questions founders ask
No. Most of the founders I talk to have between one and ten. The one-week review and the hour blocks are sized for exactly that.
Every package has a fixed fee and every block of hours a fixed rate, both agreed in writing before any work starts. I give you the number on the call, once I know which of these you need.
I read a great deal of it and I will write when it is the fastest way to show something. I am not a substitute for your engineers, and I will tell you when you need one.
Yes. That is how most engagements start.
Both. I am in Maryland and work in person with founders from Washington to Boston; everything else is remote.
Then I usually work alongside them rather than above them, on the things they have not done before: a first audit, a first big hire, a first board deck.
Sometimes, alongside cash, never instead of it.
Every package has a written deliverable, every hour is logged with what it produced, and every engagement ends with a handoff. If you cannot see the result, I have not done the job.
I work with at most four companies at a time.
Book a 30-minute callThe call ends with three concrete recommendations whether or not we work together.