A short, honest guide for founders and product leads about choosing the right small studio, and the right kind of engagement. Written by people who would also like to be hired, but only correctly.
We have been on both sides of this conversation. We have hired contractors who set our codebase back six months. We have been hired by founders who became friends. The difference is rarely about price.
Here is what we wish more clients knew before they hit “send” on the inquiry form.
Not what. Why. “We need an iOS developer” is not the brief. “We have a working web app, and our biggest customer says they need a phone app in four months or they will go to a competitor” is the brief. Once we know that, we can advise honestly. Sometimes the answer is not “hire us”. Sometimes it is “tell that customer no, and build the right thing”. The shops you want to work with will tell you the truth.
Committee briefs produce committee software. Pick one human who can say yes and no, and put them in the room.
Anyone can show you a flashy demo. Ask to see an unglamorous file: the test setup, the migration runner, the error-handling around payments. The boring code is where you see whether a team is professional.
A week, fixed fee, with a written plan at the end. If a shop will not do this, walk away. Free pitching produces free-pitch quality.
Pay for working software. The right cadence is daily or weekly demos against a real environment, not Tuesday morning calls where someone reads a tickets list.
A team that buries problems will eventually bury a critical one. A team that says “this thing is going to take two days longer because…” is going to make it.
The shops you should worry about are the ones who agree with every idea you have. The shops worth hiring will tell you which of your ideas they think are bad, and why.
That is it. None of this is technology-specific. It is mostly about whether the team behaves like adults. If they do, the technology takes care of itself.
If any of this resonated, our inbox is open.