HOW WE WORK

rent an engineer

You can rent one or two of our senior engineers by the month, split however you like. What that turns into depends on what you haven't got the people for, and there are three versions of that.

It might be automating something still done by hand, an internal tool nobody has had time to build, a small application, or extra hands on something your team already started. We're a small team. Two engineers, six days a week between them, and we publish how many of those days are already committed. That's a real limit, and it's also the reason nothing here gets dropped.

CAPACITY · AUGUST + SEPTEMBER

UPDATED 29 JULY 2026

OPEN · 6

6 of 6 engineer-days a week are open across August and September.

Combined team availability. We keep this current. If we're full when you call, we'll say so and give you a date, rather than taking the work and finding out in month two.

what it costs

Pick the line that describes your situation. The prices and the first step are different for each, and offering you the wrong one wastes your time.

START HERE · 30 MINUTES

The first call

Thirty minutes with Carsten. Tell us what broke. You'll get a straight answer on four things: whether it's worth fixing, roughly what size of job it is, whether the right fix is a tool you configure, something built properly, or a bit of both, and whether we're the right people for it. Including when we're not.

Sometimes the honest answer is that you don't need us. There's a tool on the market that does it, or what you actually need is a person on staff, and we'll say so.

Afterwards we'll write it up and send it to you. What we heard, what you're trying to get to, what kind of fix suits it and why, and what working with us would look like from there. Enough for you to decide what to do next, and short enough to forward to whoever else needs to see it.

IF THE JOB ISN'T CLEAR YET · 1 TO 4 WEEKS

Creating and agreeing the plan

The write-up from the first call tells you what kind of fix you need. This tells you what the fix actually is.

We sit with the people who do the work and count what the process costs in hours. Not an estimate, a count. Then we write the thing out properly: which tools, in what order, what talks to what, where it's likely to break and what happens when it does, how many hours a week it gives you back, and a fixed price to build it. Nothing gets built until you've agreed it.

If you go ahead, this comes off your first invoice in full. If you don't, you keep everything we wrote, including the plan, and you're welcome to take it to somebody else.

THE WORK · 3 OR 6 MONTHS

An embedded engineer, by the day

One named engineer, fixed days on your calendar, for three or six months. What gets built each month we plan together in the last week of the month before, against what we know by then.

We're not going to promise you a fixed scope for six months. Anyone who does that is guessing, and you'd be the one paying for the guess. What we will commit to is the days, the Friday status, the response time, and a number at the end you can check against the number at the start.

This is our introductory rate while we build our first references, and it's held for the whole term of your agreement. In return we ask for two things, and only if the work goes well: your numbers, anonymised, and one introduction to somebody with the same problem.

AFTER IT'S LIVE · 12 MONTHS, CANCELLABLE AFTER 3

Care

The automation at the top of this page had been reporting success every morning since it stopped working. Care is the reason that doesn't happen twice.

You find out before your customer does. It's watched. When it stops, we know that morning, not the day somebody rings up about an order that never arrived.

Somebody handles the things that change around it. An API gets deprecated, a supplier changes a file format, a system it talks to gets upgraded. Without this, each of those is a quote and a wait. With it, it's done before you've noticed.

Hours each month for the changes you'll want. Once people are actually using it, they always want something adjusted. A few hours a month keeps those small instead of letting them turn into projects.

Two people still know your system. The two-person rule doesn't stop when the build does. That's the difference between a system with an owner and one nobody has opened in eight months.

First reply within four business hours, one hour if it's down, with a named person to escalate to.

We don't take a build without this, and we'd rather say so now than at handover. Twelve months, and you can stop any month after the third if it isn't earning its place.

IF YOU'D RATHER HAVE ONE NUMBER QUOTED PER PROJECT

A fixed price for a defined project

Some people need a single figure they can put in front of a partner or a bank. We'll quote one, after a plan, never before. We won't invent a number on a first call, and we won't reopen one we've already given you.

Quoted work is priced higher per day than an embedded engineer, because on a fixed price we're carrying the risk of having guessed wrong instead of you.

IF YOU NEED ONE NUMBER FOR A DEFINED PIECE OF WORK

A project, quoted

Most of what we do is days. But some decisions need a single figure, because that's what goes in front of a board, a bank or a partner, and a monthly rate doesn't survive that meeting. So we'll quote a project.

Tell us what you want built. We'll quote it after we've agreed a plan, never before, because a number invented on a first call is a guess you'd end up paying for. Once we've given you a figure we don't reopen it.

Quoted work is priced higher per day than an embedded engineer, because on a fixed price we're carrying the risk of having guessed wrong instead of you.

If we build it, we stay on it. A project ends with a system running in your business, so Care starts when the build ends, on the same terms as everything else here: twelve months, and you can stop any month after the third. That's part of the quote from the beginning, not a conversation at handover.

We won't do this through a tender or a procurement process. If it goes that way we'll take ourselves out, and we'd rather say so now.

ON EVERY ENGAGEMENT

The Operating Promise

Six things we put in writing and don't negotiate. They're the whole reason to hire a small team instead of one freelancer.

every fridayA written status, in your language, including the weeks where the answer is no progress and here's why.
four hoursFirst reply from a person within four business hours. One hour if production is down, with a named escalation.
two peopleTwo engineers understand every system we touch. Never only one. Nobody here is a single point of failure.
before go-liveNothing goes live without a runbook: how to tell it's broken, what to check first, who to call.
no lock-inA standard, boring, proven stack, named up front. You own the code and you can take it to anyone.
bad news firstIf something's late you hear it the day we know, with a new date and the reason. Not at the deadline.

Costs we pass through are billed at cost with no markup. Quotes in EUR, 14 day terms, 50 percent up front on builds.

Read the full Operating Promise →

SO YOU DON'T WASTE A CALL

what we turn down

Tenders and formal RFPs. If it goes to procurement we'll take ourselves out, and we'd rather say that now.
Anything in a regulated high-risk class until your own counsel has scoped it. The rules there are still moving and we're not the right people to interpret them for you.
Building you something new and then walking away from it. If we build it, we stay on it. That's different from working inside a system your own team owns and keeps running, which is fine.
"Can you add AI to it." Tell us which process, and roughly what it costs you in hours a week, and then there's something to talk about.
More than three days a week from one engineer. Three days is one person's entire allocation and we won't oversell it.
Work we can't take on without dropping something we already promised. We take two clients at a time.

Book a first call

Thirty minutes, no preparation needed. Tell us which of the three situations above fits and we'll put the right person on the call. If we're full we'll tell you a date and hold you a slot.

Book 30 minutes →