How we workEngagement
A few partners at a time

How a partnership with us runs.

We work with a few founders at a time, for years. You work directly with the people building your product, and the founder is in every major decision.

Retainers$3,000a month, minimum
Projects$20,000minimum, in total
Partners2–3product partners at a time
Longest runningSince 2020Shopping Event VIP, ongoing
Time zoneISTMumbai · calls in your working hours, US or EU
A–A
Principles

Four things hold on every project. Each one has a cost, and we can show where we paid it.

  1. 01

    Diagnose first

    Many problems that look like engineering problems are product or process problems. We find the cause before we write code.

    In practice · Shopping Event VIP

    The marketing tool was the wrong tool for the business. We replaced it with a CRM of our own, then moved sending to a cheaper provider: 43% less per email, now with a dedicated IP.

    Read the case →
  2. 02

    Choose the tool, including nothing

    An existing service, a custom build, an AI system, or nothing at all. We pick what fits the problem and the product’s future, and we explain why.

    In practice · Shopping Event VIP

    Asked to build a ticket feature overnight, we read the code across four repositories first. We recommended against it and explained why.

    Read the case →
  3. 03

    Performance

    We started by making slow sites fast. The same care goes into queries, APIs, infrastructure costs and architecture.

    In practice · TribeCrafter

    Updates reach every community in parallel with no downtime and no failures, in about half the time. Database writes on bare metal are about 18× faster after tuning.

    Read the case →
  4. 04

    We stay

    Over 90% of our revenue comes from clients who stay. We build what we expect to run for years, so we build it to be run.

    In practice · Shopping Event VIP

    We started working with Shopping Event VIP in 2020. Six years on, we still run the whole product, from the apps to the servers.

    Read the case →
B–B
How an engagement starts

No pitch decks and no sales process. A conversation about the problem.

  1. E1

    You write to us

    Your stage, the problem, your timeline and your budget.

  2. E2

    Faizan replies

    He reads every enquiry himself and answers if it looks like a fit.

  3. E3

    A call about the problem

    We ask why before we talk about what to build.

  4. E4

    A written plan

    What we found and what we would do. The call and the plan are free.

  5. E5

    We start

    A monthly retainer or a defined project.

Fig. 1 · From first email to first week
C–C
Working together
D–D
Terms at a glance
Retainers
$3,000/monthMonthly retainers from $3,000. We work as part of your product team.
Projects
$20,000Defined projects start from $20,000 in total.
Currency
USD or INRFees are agreed in writing before work starts.

Cancellation needs 14 days’ written notice before the next billing cycle. The full details are in our terms.

E–E
Who it’s for

Founders and operators building real software products: funded startups, growing SaaS companies, and established businesses where software is core.

The common thread is founders who want someone to be honest with them. Someone who will push back on a bad idea, propose a better one, and still be there for the next hard problem.

Not a fit forExcluded from scope
  • X1marketing websites
  • X2WordPress work
  • X3one-off projects
  • X4sub-$3k work
  • X5“MVP in 2 weeks”
F–F

Building something serious?

Send your stage, the problem, your timeline and your budget. Faizan reads every enquiry himself.

Get in touch