You don't need a co-founder. You need it built.
You have the idea, the customers in mind and probably a waiting list. What you don't have is someone technical you trust to turn it into a product. We do that part - on a written scope, at a fixed price, with the code in your name from the first commit.
“They’re building our SaaS end to end - auth, billing, dashboards. 12 weeks in we had paying users on it.”
Elena Marsh
Co-founder, Stackfold
48h
From first call to a written scope and a fixed price
3-8
Weeks to a live MVP with real users in it
0
Equity required, and no technical co-founder needed
100%
Of the code and accounts in your name from day one
The six months before founders call us.
Almost every founder arrives having lived at least three of these. None of them mean the idea is wrong - they mean the building part hasn't been solved yet.
You've been looking for a technical co-founder for months
Every conversation ends the same way: they love the idea, they have a job, and they'd need equity to leave it. Meanwhile the idea sits still. You don't need a co-founder to get version one in front of users - you need someone to build it.
Two freelancers in, nothing works end to end
One did the front-end and stopped replying. The second says the first one's code has to be thrown away. You've paid twice and you still can't show anyone a working product.
You can't tell if a quote is fair
One agency says six weeks, another says nine months, and you have no way to judge which one is lying. Without a technical person on your side, every number is a guess you're being asked to sign.
The scope keeps growing and launch keeps moving
The feature list started at six and is now at thirty, every one feels essential, and nothing has been in front of a real user yet. The market has had six months to move without you.
Investors want traction, not a deck
You're being asked for signups, usage, retention - numbers that only exist once something is live. The round is waiting on a product that's waiting on the round.
You're worried about being locked in
You've heard the stories: the agency owns the code, hosts it on their account, and every small change is an invoice. Whatever gets built has to be something you can walk away with.
Three starting points. Pick yours.
What you need from us depends almost entirely on what already exists. Find the one that describes your Tuesday and that's the conversation we'll have.
Tell us where you are- Stage 013 to 8 weeks
You have an idea and no product
Nothing exists yet except conviction and probably a Figma file a friend made. The goal is not to build the vision - it's to build the smallest version that proves someone wants it.
- Half-day scope workshop that ends with a written core loop and a not-now list
- Clickable prototype in week one, testable on real people before code exists
- A live MVP with sign-up, payments if the loop needs them, and analytics
- A read of the funnel two weeks after launch, and a decision made on evidence
How MVP Development worksYou end up with
Something live, with real users in it and numbers you can show.
- Stage 026 to 16 weeks
You have users and the thing is straining
The prototype became the product. People are paying, every new feature takes longer than the last, and nobody wants to touch the auth code. This is where a rebuild is either cheap or ruinous, depending on when you do it.
- A paid audit first - architecture, data model, auth, and what's genuinely at risk
- Multi-tenancy, roles and billing rebuilt properly, incrementally, while you stay live
- Onboarding and activation redesigned around the moment the product clicks
- CI, error tracking and preview environments, so shipping stops being frightening
How SaaS Development worksYou end up with
A platform that can take your tenth feature without unpicking the first three.
- Stage 03Sprint by sprint
You've raised and the clock is running
You have eighteen months of runway and a board expecting a chart to bend. Hiring a team takes four of those months before anyone writes a line. We run alongside while you hire, then hand over cleanly.
- Two-week sprints against a prioritised backlog, each ending in something deployed
- We sit in on your engineering hires and tell you honestly what we think
- Documentation and architecture notes written as we go, for the team you're building
- A clean handover whenever you're ready - no notice period, no dependency
How SaaS Development worksYou end up with
Velocity now, and an in-house team that inherits something readable.
Handing your company to strangers.
It is a genuinely large amount of trust to ask for, so here is exactly how we make it reversible rather than asking you to take our word.
You own all of it, from commit one
The repository sits in your GitHub organisation and everything deploys into accounts registered to you. We work as collaborators and can be removed the day you'd like - no hostage code, no hosting you can't leave.
A fixed price against a written scope
You get a document listing what's being built, what isn't, when it lands and what it costs - before anything starts. Nothing off that document appears in an invoice later.
You watch it being built
A staging URL exists from the first week and updates continuously. No four-week silence, no reveal that misses - a wrong turn gets caught on day four while fixing it is still cheap.
We act as the technical half of the conversation
Architecture decisions explained in English, vendor quotes sanity-checked, and an honest read on your first engineering hires. The part a technical co-founder would do, without the equity.
Your idea stays yours
We'll sign your NDA before the first call if you want one, we don't build competing products in your category while we're working with you, and we don't put anything in public case studies without written permission.
Built so your own developer can take over
A conventional stack, no clever abstractions, a README that gets you running in one command, and a walkthrough with whoever you hire. The handover is the plan, not a threat.
From message to live, step by step.
Nothing here is a commitment until the scope is signed. The first two steps cost you a call and a read.
A call, not a pitch
Forty-five minutes on the business - who it's for, what has to be true for it to work, and what you're actually trying to change. No slides.
A scope and a real number
In writing, normally inside 48 hours: what's in, what's explicitly out, how long it takes and what it costs. You say yes or no to a document, not a vibe.
Something clickable
The core flows designed and linked. Put it in front of five people who resemble your users before a line of production code is written.
A staging URL that keeps moving
Real code, deployed, updated as work lands. Two short check-ins a week and one channel where the people building it answer you directly.
Live, measured, yours
Domain, analytics, error tracking and a soft launch to your first cohort - then two weeks of close support, included, while the first real users arrive.
The ones asked on every first call.
Anything about a specific service lives on the FAQ, and how we arrive at a number is on the pricing page.
Describe it in a message.Get a scope back in 48 hours.
You don't need a spec, a deck or a technical co-founder to start - just the idea and an honest budget range. Worst case you get a free second opinion on what it should cost.