Bring in senior engineering for a specific problem.
Some engagements aren’t a full build. You already have a team — you need a second opinion on an architecture call, a database that’s misbehaving, or a system on fire at 2 a.m. We offer scoped consulting engagements for exactly those cases.
Six ways to bring us in
Most consulting engagements are bounded — fixed scope, fixed timeline, written deliverable at the end. Larger engagements can spin into implementation work; smaller ones often finish in a single afternoon.
Architecture review
You have an idea for a new system or a major refactor and want senior eyes on the design before you commit. We read the existing code, listen to the use cases, and come back with a written assessment — what fits, what won’t scale, what we’d sequence differently.
Deliverable: 4–8 page memo with risks, recommendations, and a rollout sequence. Timeline: 1–2 weeks.
Database audit
Slow queries, locking issues, runaway storage, MyISAM→InnoDB conversions, charset cleanups, replication problems. We profile the database, identify the top offenders, and either fix them in place or write you a punch list your team can work through.
Deliverable: profiling report + prioritized fix list, plus any quick wins applied in-session. Timeline: 1 week.
Code review
Honest second opinion on a feature, a refactor, or a candidate’s pull requests. We’ll tell you what’s solid, what’s a hidden cost, and what we’d change — without the politics of an in-house reviewer.
Deliverable: inline comments on the PR / repo + a short summary memo. Timeline: 2–5 days per review.
Fractional CTO
Recurring senior engineering presence for companies that don’t need a full-time CTO yet but do need someone calling architecture, hiring, and vendor decisions. Typically a half day to a day a week, ongoing.
Engagement: monthly retainer, 3–6 month minimum. Format: standing weekly with you + as-needed sessions with your engineers.
Incident response
Production is broken. Database is slow. Mail isn’t delivering. Your phone system answered with the wrong IVR for a week. We jump in, find the cause, fix the immediate problem, and document what to do differently so it doesn’t recur.
Engagement: ad-hoc, hourly. Response time: within hours for clients on a relationship; same business day otherwise.
Build vs buy assessment
Considering a SaaS vendor vs. an in-house build? We’ll evaluate the actual fit against your existing stack, model the integration cost both ways, and give you a recommendation backed by numbers instead of vendor pitches.
Deliverable: comparison memo + integration sketch + 5-year cost model. Timeline: 1–3 weeks depending on number of vendors.
Three scenarios where we usually help most
The original engineer left and nobody touches the code
You inherited a system that works, but nobody on staff understands it well enough to change it. We can either help your team learn it or quietly maintain it ourselves while they focus on the new stuff.
It worked at 100 users; it’s breaking at 10,000
Queries that ran in milliseconds now take seconds. Cron jobs that used to finish in five minutes now run into the next hour. The fix is rarely “buy a bigger server” — we’ll find the actual bottleneck.
You’re about to sign a contract and want a sanity check
Whether it’s a build proposal from another vendor, a SaaS contract, or a hosting commitment — an outside read before you sign can save a lot of regret. We’ll tell you straight whether the proposal is sound, padded, or missing things you’ll need later.