Working software every week — paid on acceptance
The build runs weeks to months on milestone billing. From week two there is running software in your hands, and from week one there is a deploy log you can read. The status report is the software itself.
What actually happens
No sprint ceremonies borrowed from a bigger company. Six mechanics, repeated until the system is live.
Week one — access, not slideware
The shared channel opens, staging goes up, the deploy pipeline runs. You can see the deploy log from day one — nothing about the build is behind a curtain.
Week two — first working software
Not a mockup, not a walkthrough of tickets: something that runs, in your hands. It will be narrow. It will also be real, and it compounds weekly from here.
The weekly loop
Monday: the week's plan in writing. Tuesday to Thursday: build, deploy, repeat. Friday: a 30-minute demo of running software. The loop is the methodology — there is no other ceremony.
Milestone acceptance
When a milestone is done, you click through it against the agreed scope and accept it — or you don't, and we fix what fell short. Payment follows acceptance, not effort.
Monthly business review
Once a month, a partner walks you through progress against the metric, budget burn against plan, and an honest risks list. Thirty minutes, no theatre.
Scope changes, priced first
Ideas will come up mid-build — good ones should ship. Every change is scoped and priced before work continues, never discovered on an invoice after.
A build week, hour by honest hour
Less ceremony than you'd expect. One written plan, continuous deploys, one demo — and a monthly review with a partner. Everything else is building.
The deliverable
Production software, milestone by milestone — and everything around it that makes the software yours rather than ours.
What we need from you
Honest answer: not much, but not nothing. Three things keep a build moving.
One accountable owner
A single person on your side who can answer questions and make calls. Roughly 2–4 hours a week: the Friday demo, async answers in the channel, milestone acceptance.
Decisions when they're named
We surface decisions explicitly — in the Monday plan or the Friday demo — with the trade-offs spelled out. A stalled decision is the only thing that stalls a build.
Access to the people who do the work
An hour with the dispatcher, the lawyer or the warehouse lead beats ten hours of assumptions. We'll ask early and rarely.
Stop after any milestone. Keep everything.
Every accepted milestone is yours — code, deployments, documentation, tests. If priorities change, the budget moves, or you simply want a different partner, you walk away with working software, not a half-finished liability. The first invoice comes after the first delivery, so the risk order is always: we ship, then you pay.
Common questions about the build
Can we change scope mid-build?
Yes — good ideas shouldn't wait for v2. Every change is scoped and priced before work continues, never after. You decide with the numbers in front of you.
What if we don't accept a milestone?
Then you don't pay for it. We fix what fell short against the agreed scope and demo it again. Payment follows acceptance — that's the whole point of milestone billing.
What if the build runs long?
The estimate holds. If we under-scoped, the overrun is ours — you never discover it on an invoice. Only scope you explicitly approved and priced changes the number.
Can our engineers work in the codebase with you?
Yes — we regularly pair with internal teams, share a codebase and review each other's work. Handover is cleaner when your team was there from the start.
What does the Friday demo actually look like?
30 minutes, running software only, your team invited. We click through what shipped, name the decisions we need from you, and stop on time. No slides.
How do we see progress between demos?
You have staging access and the deploy log from week one. Open them whenever you like — the build is visible continuously, not weekly.
Want to watch a build before you buy one?
Thirty minutes with an engineer — we'll walk you through a live deploy log and a real milestone plan.