Engagement — qberi.

— Three shapes

— Shape A

The build.

A discrete project with a fixed scope, a fixed fee, a fixed end date.

$48–180kfixed · scoped

▸Discovery week (always)

▸Brand or product or both

▸10–20 weeks, typical

▸One contract, one team

▸Source & assets handed over

— Best forFounders with a defined deliverable: a brand, a pitch deck, a product surface, a marketing site. You know what you need; we name the price, the date, and the door we walk out of.

— Most engagements

— Shape B

Build & operate.

We build it. Then we host it. Then we keep hosting it. The shape this practice is designed for.

$48–180kbuild · then $4–14k / mo

▸Everything in The build

▸Hosting, monitoring, secrets

▸Founder-direct pager line

▸Quarterly review, in person

▸Annual brand & site audit

▸30-day exit clause, both ways

— Best forFounders who'd rather run their company than its infrastructure. The retainer pays for our time — not the cloud's; that bill stays itemized and in your name.

— Shape C

Stewardship.

You already have the thing. You need someone to look after it like it's theirs.

$3–9k/ month · 12-mo minimum

▸Inherit hosting + accounts

▸Audit + remediation in month 1

▸Pager + status page

▸Quarterly review

▸Small changes, included

— Best forFounders inheriting a codebase from a vendor that has gone quiet. We pick up the keys, write the runbook, and answer the phone. No build-fee gate.

— What's never extra

✓Discovery week— always included, never billed separately

✓Plain-English contract— a single document, drafted by us, redlined by you

✓Source & asset handover on exit— written into every contract; thirty-day window

✓Quarterly business review— in person where geography permits

✓Itemized hosting bills— our time billed by us; cloud billed by the cloud, in your name

✓The 2 a.m. number— answered by a principal, not a tier

— What's never priced

✗“Phase two”— if it's a real second project, it gets its own contract; we don't quietly extend

✗Per-seat anything— our retainers don't index on your headcount

✗Vendor markup— Cloudflare, AWS, Postmark all bill you directly; you see the receipts

✗Lock-in clauses— 30-day exit, both directions, written into every retainer

✗“Strategy days”— the strategy is in the work; we don't sell it twice

— Frequently asked

How many clients do you take at a time?

Twelve, give or take. The cap is structural — it's how the principals stay reachable. When we're full, we say so on this page (we're not, today). If a fit is obvious and a slot is months out, we'll tell you that, too.

Why do you insist on holding the hosting?

Because the alternative is asking you to hold it, which is asking you to become an operations team you didn't sign up to be. Hosting we hold is hosting we can fix at 2 a.m. without a permission email. The contract still gives you the keys whenever you want them.

Can we use our own designer / dev / vendor?

Yes — we work alongside in-house teams and other vendors regularly. The constraint is the contract, not the org chart: we still write a single plain-English scope, and we still won't ship past the line we drew.

What if we want to leave?

Thirty days, written notice, in either direction. Source, assets, hosting accounts, and a written runbook handed to the engineer or vendor of your choice. We've never had a hostile exit — but the contract is built for the day we might.

Do you take equity?

Rarely, and only on flagship engagements with founders we'd back personally. The default is cash. If equity comes up, it's after Discovery, in writing, and at standard SAFE terms.

Will you sign an NDA?

Yes — ours, or yours if it's reasonable. Most NDAs we see are reasonable. We've signed two in the last year that were not, and politely declined.

Three shapes. One conversation.

// We figure out which shape on the call · No pressure either way

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