Engagements · how we work

Three
engagement
shapes. Fixed fee,
no surprises.

Three shapes · at a glance
Sprint4 wks
Brief
Design + Build
Ship
Build12–20 wks
Discovery
Design
Build
Launch
Founding6+ mo
Embed
Ship · Ship · Ship
Brief & discoveryDesignBuildLaunch

Every project is scoped and agreed before we start. We don't do retainers, hourly billing, or open-ended engagements. Brief us and we'll tell you exactly what it takes.

Engagement 01
Sprint / 4 wk
A focused, scoped project — usually a brand refresh, marketing site, or single product surface.
4 wks
fixed-fee · 50/50 split
  • One core deliverable, scoped tightly
  • 3-person team · weekly demos
  • Brand or product, not both
  • 2 rounds of revisions
  • Production handoff included
  • Ongoing support
  • Mobile or AI engineering
Brief a sprint
Engagement 03
Founding / 6+ mo
We embed as your founding design + engineering team for a defined window. Reserved for one client per quarter.
6+ mo
fixed-fee · monthly
  • 2–3 humans embedded full-time
  • You set the roadmap; we ship it
  • Equity-friendly (small grants only)
  • Direct Slack with the founder
  • Hiring & team-building help
  • Quarterly strategy retros
  • Hand-off plan from week one
Talk to the founder
Add-ons · à la carte

Extras you can
bolt on, scoped to fit.

Discovery workshop

Two-week brief-and-audit phase, deliverable independent. Often the start of a Build.

Brand-only system

Identity, type, color, motion principles, guidelines doc. No product work.

Mobile app add

Adds native mobile capacity to a Build engagement. iOS/Android, ~12 weeks.

AI eval harness

Scoring rubrics, regression suite, dashboards. Standalone or with a Build.

Launch-only package

You ship; we orchestrate. Asset kit, press list, run-of-show, day-of cover.

Founder coaching

Direct with Anish, 1:1, biweekly. Design and shipping advice. 6-mo blocks.

Internal-tools audit

Two-week audit of your back-office UX. Memo + prioritized fix list.

Pitch deck design

One Series-A or B fundraising deck, end to end. 14–22 slides typical.

Frequently asked · honestly answered

Things people
ask before they
sign.

If yours isn't here, write to us — we'll reply within a working day, and we'll add the good ones to this page.

Why fixed fee?
Hourly billing pays vendors more when projects take longer. That's the wrong incentive. With a fixed fee, the only way for us to make more per project is to ship better, faster work — which is the same outcome you want.
What if scope changes mid-project?
Small changes (a paragraph rewrite, a new screen state) we absorb. Large changes — a new product surface, a third platform, a re-positioning — we re-quote as a separate phase. We'll always tell you in advance and put it in writing before any work starts.
Do you take equity?
In Founding engagements only, and only as a small supplement to a real cash fee — never instead of one. We've turned down a lot of "great equity deals." We've never regretted it.
What's your payment schedule?
Sprints are 50% upfront, 50% on delivery. Builds are phased: 25% on signature, then milestone payments tied to discovery sign-off, design sign-off, and launch. Founding is monthly, billed first of the month.
Can you start next week?
Almost never. We're typically booked 6–10 weeks out. We deliberately don't keep "bench" capacity, because that means people sitting around — and we'd rather pay our team to take time off. Plan ahead.
Do you do retainers?
No. Retainers are a way for studios to lock in revenue without committing to outcomes. We bill per project, with optional 30-day post-launch cover included free. After that, you can rehire us for a new project — or not.
Who exactly will I work with?
A small, focused team — full-context, end-to-end. No middlemen, no account managers, no strategists who don't ship. The people you brief are the people who do the work.
What happens if you go over?
We eat it. Fixed fee means fixed fee. If a build runs three weeks long because we under-scoped, that's on us — you don't pay extra. The only exception is if scope changed (see above), which we'd have flagged at the time.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes, mutual NDAs, no questions asked. We can also work in stealth — your project never appears on this site, in our portfolio, or in our case studies. About 15% of our work is invisible for that reason.

Scope feels right?
Let's talk about the work.

Brief the studio