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R&D Partnership

Bring the idea.
We'll bring the engineering.

For people sitting on a product worth building — and no team, no runway, and no spare evenings to build it. We co-invest the engineering, share the risk, and you keep the IP.

Pitch Your Idea See how it works
2 weeksIDEA TO FEASIBILITY CALL
You own itIP STAYS YOURS
Stage gatesEITHER SIDE CAN STOP
SKETCH
concept-v1 · napkin sketch
Fleet Utilisation LIVE · PILOT
ACTIVE UNITS128
UTILISATION86%
IDLE COST↓ 31%
week 0 — your idea week 10 — real users

Most good ideas don't fail. They just never get built.

Not because they were wrong — because the person who had them was already doing a full-time job. We exist for the gap between "someone should build this" and actually shipping it.

No timeThe idea competes with a day job that always wins.
No budget for a full buildAgency quotes come back at six figures before anything is validated.
No technical co-founderYou know the industry cold. You just can't build the thing.
No proof it'll workHard to fund or commit without evidence the market wants it.
Where This Sits

This is not an agency job, and it isn't staff augmentation.

Three ways to get software built. They're priced differently, they carry risk differently, and only one of them means we're in it with you.

OPTION A

Agency build

You write a spec, they quote it, they deliver it. Clean and predictable — if you already know exactly what to build.

You bringFull budget, upfront
Risk sitsEntirely with you
They careUntil handover
Best whenRequirements are already settled
THIS PAGE
OPTION B

R&D partnership

You bring the idea and domain knowledge. We put engineering capacity in alongside it, at reduced or deferred cost, and we find out together whether it works.

You bringThe idea, the market access, some cost
Risk sitsShared — we're exposed too
We careUntil it earns money
Best whenThe idea is unproven and worth proving
OPTION C

Staff augmentation

You already have a product, a roadmap, and a team lead. You need more hands under your own management.

You bringDirection, management, monthly rate
Risk sitsEntirely with you
We careAbout delivery quality
Best whenYou know what to build and need velocity
Engagement Models

Three ways we structure it.

Which one fits depends on how much cash you can put in and how much of the upside you want to keep. We'll be straight with you about which makes sense.

MODEL 01

Shared cost

You fund part of the build at a reduced rate. We absorb the rest as our investment in the outcome.

YOU FUNDPartial
YOU KEEPMost equity
Fits when you have some capital but not enough for a full build, and want to stay firmly in control.
MODEL 02

Build for equity

We fund the engineering ourselves and take a minority stake in what gets built. You pay in ownership, not cash.

YOU FUNDLittle / none
YOU KEEPMajority
Fits when the idea is strong, the market is real, and cash is the only thing missing.
MODEL 03

Revenue share

No equity changes hands. We build at cost and take an agreed share of revenue for a fixed period once it sells.

YOU FUNDCosts only
YOU KEEP100% equity
Fits when you don't want to give up ownership and there's a clear path to revenue.

Every arrangement is written up properly before any code exists — scope, cost split, ownership, exit terms. Nothing starts on a handshake.

The Process

Five stages. Four chances to walk away.

Each stage ends in a decision, not an invoice. If the evidence says stop, we stop — that's the point of doing it this way.

STAGE 01

Pitch & first read

You tell us the idea and what you know about the market that nobody else does. We tell you honestly whether we think it's buildable and worth building.

OUTPUTWritten first read
Free · NDA signed first
GATEProceed only if both sides want to.
STAGE 02

Feasibility sprint

Two weeks. We pressure-test the hard part — the technical risk, the data you'd need, the cost to run it — and size what a first version actually takes.

OUTPUTTechnical plan
Cost & timeline
Go / no-go call
GATETerms and model agreed here, in writing.
STAGE 03

Prototype

A working thing, not a slide deck. Narrow on purpose — the one workflow that proves or kills the idea, built properly enough to put in front of a real user.

OUTPUTWorking prototype
6–10 weeks typical
GATEReal user feedback decides whether we continue.
STAGE 04

Pilot with real users

Put it in the hands of people who'd pay for it. We instrument everything, watch what they actually do, and rebuild the parts that were wrong.

OUTPUTUsage evidence
Pricing signal
Revised roadmap
GATEScale, spin out, or stop — your call.
STAGE 05

Scale or hand over

If it works, we harden it for production and either keep running it with you or hand the whole thing to your own team — documented, tested, and yours.

OUTPUTProduction system
Full handover pack
The Deal

Who brings what.

You bring

THE PART WE CAN'T BUY
  • The idea, and the domain knowledge behind why it works
  • Access to the people who'd actually use and buy it
  • Decisions — a few hours a week, reliably, not full time
  • Honesty when the evidence says the idea needs changing

We bring

EVERYTHING BETWEEN IDEA AND PRODUCT
  • A real product team — engineers, design, QA, architecture
  • Funded engineering capacity, at reduced or deferred cost
  • Cloud, tooling, and infrastructure for the build phase
  • Twenty years of shipping enterprise software that survives audit

Your idea stays yours

NDA before the first real conversation. What you tell us doesn't go anywhere else, and we don't build a competing version.

IP ownership written down first

Who owns the code, the brand, and the data is agreed in writing before stage three — not negotiated after something works.

You can take it and leave

Every engagement has an exit clause. Source code, documentation, and infrastructure hand over cleanly if you want out.

Fit

We say no to most of these.

Not because the ideas are bad — because we can only do a handful properly at a time. Here's what tends to get a yes.

Usually a yes

  • You've lived the problem. You've worked in the industry and know exactly why the current way is broken.
  • Someone would pay today. You can name three organisations that would buy it, not a vague market size.
  • It's software-shaped. The hard part is building it, not manufacturing, licensing, or regulation.
  • You'll stay involved. A few reliable hours a week beats occasional bursts of enthusiasm.

Usually a no

  • "It's like Uber, but for…" No specific customer, no specific problem, no unfair insight.
  • You want it built and gone. If you're not staying involved, hire an agency — that's a better fit and we'll say so.
  • Nothing to validate. The requirements are already fixed and signed off. That's staff augmentation.
  • Speed above evidence. If the plan is to skip the pilot, we're the wrong partner.
Pitch

Tell us the idea you can't stop thinking about.

A paragraph is enough to start. If there's something there, we'll come back with an honest first read within a week.

NDA SIGNED BEFORE YOU SHARE ANYTHING SPECIFIC
Pitch Your Idea Read the process again