Pricing
Starting points for serious platform work.
Platform systems and AI agent systems have different scope, risk, and delivery economics. The pricing tracks below keep those offers distinct, alongside ongoing technical leadership and custom work.
Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute discovery call. If the fit is wrong, I will say so directly.
Ways to work together
Platform Architecture Sprint
Starting at $15K
3 weeks
A platform architecture decision document, in 3 weeks.
You bring an open question. Shopify Plus alternative? FileMaker rewrite? Move off SaaS to AWS?. and walk out with a practical assessment your team can actually act on. No code shipped. The deliverable is the decision.
What’s included
- Current-state architecture audit (system diagrams + risk surface)
- Identified failure modes ranked by likelihood + business impact
- Migration / build roadmap with sequencing + effort bands
- Cost analysis (build, run, opportunity)
- Live walkthrough + Q&A with you and up to 3 stakeholders
What’s NOT included
- Implementation work (separate Platform Build engagement)
- Embedded participation in your team's standups
- Vendor selection beyond the recommendation memo
Best fit
You're 60–80% sure of the path forward and need an outside read before committing $200K+ of build budget. or you're stuck and want a senior architect to map the actual choices.
Platform Build
Starting at $80K
3-6 months
A production system, deployed and running, in 3–6 months.
End-to-end delivery: I scope it, build it, ship it, and run it through the first cutover. You get production code on AWS, full CI/CD, observability, and a zero-downtime migration from whatever you're moving off of. Real example: a 19-month engagement that built and now runs Fine's Gallery's commerce platform supporting millions in annual revenue.
What’s included
- Production AWS environment (Terraform-managed, multi-account)
- Custom application + integrations (payment, email, search, etc.)
- CI/CD pipelines + observability + on-call runbook
- Zero-downtime cutover from your existing system
- 30 days post-launch hypercare
What’s NOT included
- Marketing, paid ads, SEO services (recommend specialists)
- Mobile apps (iOS / Android / React Native)
- Generic Shopify theme work (this is custom platform engineering)
Best fit
You've decided to build, the spec is clear, and you'd rather have a principal-level engineer ship it than coordinate a 5-person agency. Typical: $5M–$50M revenue businesses outgrowing SaaS, or regulated firms needing custom data architecture.
Agent Architecture Sprint
Starting at $10K
3 weeks
A production-ready agent architecture, in 3 weeks.
Bring one recurring workflow that consumes senior attention. The sprint maps the systems it crosses, the tools the agent may use, approval boundaries, failure modes, model and infrastructure costs, and the smallest production scope worth building.
What’s included
- Workflow and system-boundary map
- Tool contracts, permission scopes, and approval gates
- Failure-mode and operational-risk register
- Model, AWS, and implementation cost model
- Written production architecture and delivery roadmap
What’s NOT included
- Production implementation (separate Agent Production Build)
- A generic chatbot or unbounded assistant
- Replacement of unreliable source systems or undefined business processes
Best fit
You have one high-value operational workflow, know what a wrong action would cost, and need a defensible architecture before granting an agent access to real systems.
Agent Production Build
Starting at $25K
6-8 weeks
One bounded agent workflow running in production.
The build implements the approved architecture inside your AWS environment: runtime, business-specific tools, required integrations, scoped access, human approval, operator experience, observability, and audit evidence.
What’s included
- Client-owned AWS runtime and deployment pipeline
- Business-specific tools and required integrations
- Scoped access and human approval for consequential actions
- Operator experience in Slack or an existing internal interface
- Observability, verification, and auditable run evidence
What’s NOT included
- Unlimited workflows under the entry price
- Marketing-content automation as the primary use case
- Opaque third-party agent platforms that retain operational control
Best fit
The architecture is settled and one workflow has enough repeat volume, operational cost, or risk to justify production implementation.
Fractional CTO
Starting at $10K / month
3-month minimum
Embedded technical leadership, with a 3-month minimum.
You have a small engineering team and a CEO who doesn't speak engineering. I'm in your standups, on your decision threads, reviewing your architecture, and shipping critical pieces directly when needed. Active retainer with Fine's Gallery; available for one or two more.
What’s included
- Architecture governance. review every major technical decision
- Vendor + tooling decisions (build vs. buy, when to switch, when to stay)
- Engineering team mentorship + code review on critical paths
- Direct shipping when scope warrants. not just consulting
- Monthly written exec summary for non-technical stakeholders
What’s NOT included
- Full-time substitute for a VP of Engineering at scale (>30 engineers)
- People management (hiring, firing, comp decisions)
- Vendor relationship ownership
Best fit
$5M–$50M businesses with 5–30 engineers navigating a critical scaling, migration, or platform decision. You don't need a $300K full-time exec. you need senior judgment on the hard calls.
Custom Engagement
Scoped after discovery
Scoped after discovery
Scoped when the problem does not fit a standard lane.
If your situation doesn't match Sprint / Build / CTO. security audit, regulatory data architecture, due-diligence support, executive technical advisory, founder pairing. send the relevant context and I will define the shape before money changes hands.
What’s included
- Discovery call (30 minutes, free)
- Scoping document. fixed-price or T&M depending on shape
- Defined deliverables, defined timeline
What’s NOT included
- Hourly contract dev work at staffing-agency rates
- Anything that requires more than one full-time engineer (let me refer you)
Best fit
Work that is valuable enough to define carefully before it starts. Examples: a regulated registry's UTXO ledger design, a confidential due-diligence engagement, a fractional pairing arrangement.
Decide quickly
Which engagement is the right shape?
Read this top-to-bottom. The first row that matters to you usually decides which platform engagement fits. Agent work has its own sprint/build track above. Custom is scoped after a discovery call.
| Decision / condition | Platform sprint | Platform build | CTO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get a written architecture decision document | |||
| Code shipped to production | Partial | ||
| Vendor / build-vs-buy decisions made for you | Partial | ||
| Embedded in your team async / in standups | Partial | ||
| Fixed scope, fixed price | Partial | ||
| Done in under a month | |||
| Useful when you already know what to build | Partial | ||
| Useful when you don’t know what to build yet |
FAQ
Common questions
Platform and Agent sprints and builds are fixed-price with a 50% deposit at start and the balance on delivery. Fractional CTO is a monthly retainer billed in advance, net 15. Custom work is usually milestone-based.
Platform Architecture Sprint: 3 weeks. Platform Build: typically 3–6 months. Agent Architecture Sprint: 3 weeks. A focused Agent Production Build is usually 6–8 weeks. Fractional CTO: 3-month minimum, then month-to-month with 30 days' notice.
No. straight retainer or fixed-price only. Equity-for-services creates incentive misalignment that I've seen damage too many engagements. If equity makes sense, it'd be a separate conversation.
Yes. Sprint and CTO engagements are explicitly designed for this. I'll review your team's work, pair on hard problems, and write decision memos that everyone can execute against.
Standard mutual NDAs, yes. I won't sign anything that prevents me from disclosing the engagement existed (that hurts both sides) or that requires assigning IP that's clearly outside the engagement scope.
Pick "Custom / not sure yet" in the contact form. The 30-minute discovery call exists for exactly this. By the end of it we'll either know which engagement structure fits, or it'll be clear that I'm not the right person and I'll tell you so directly.
Pressure-test the platform decision before you commit budget.
Schedule a complimentary 30-minute consultation to align on objectives, stress-test your architecture, and leave with a concrete set of recommendations. No obligation, no sales pitch. Just actionable technical guidance.