If you're building with an agency or a remote team and can't tell whether it's going well, I can help you find out.
I've been on both sides of this. I ran a development agency for 15 years, and I've managed other agencies as the client. So I know how these projects go wrong from both sides, and how to get them back on track.
90-minute call, $500. Refundable in one click.
- Status calls that sound fine
- A launch date that keeps moving
- Invoices, but nothing released
- Status calls that say what's really done
- A launch date that holds
- Every payment tied to a released feature
What I usually find
Usually, everyone is working hard
The trouble is underneath: the agency is stretched across too many clients, or has the right intent but not yet the skills for this job, or you each mean something different by “done”.
One thing I usually do first
I change what each payment pays for. Every milestone is a feature your users can actually use (released, stable, and complete) instead of a task ticked off on the vendor's list.
Estimates that add up
I also push back on estimates that don't add up. On one project, a quote for four developers for three weeks came down to about one developer for three to four weeks.
A note from me
On paper, the solution is always the same: a small MVP, a good scalable architecture, GitHub issues, daily scrums, QA and verification, and automation wherever possible. Then why do so many projects struggle to get to the finish line? The devil is in the details, all the hundreds of little things that need to be kept in mind while following these best practices. I help teams get those right, even if it means sometimes (very rarely) pushing back and helping everyone understand the how and why.
- Sachin
Some of the work
A virtual-events platform, built by six teams in several countries. I sat between the founders and the development teams, turned what users needed into what the teams would build, and tied every payment to a milestone we could check. That kept an estimated 30% cost overrun from ever happening.
On a client's telehealth platform, the development team was 13 people across three countries. Over three years I helped bring it down to a remote team of four, by simplifying the architecture and the tech stack, upskilling the team, improving the process, and automating what we could. Less overhead made delivery twice as fast.
A New York based VoIP company had spent nine months on an AI project that was moving at a crawl: self-hosting ASR models and LLMs for transcribing and summarizing calls, to keep costs down at scale. I recruited the right specialists, and it shipped in two months. I also drove the GPU batch-processing optimizations.
Clients stay unnamed here. I'm happy to walk you through any of these on a call.
How I work
What I look at first
What you're trying to achieve, and where things really stand. The quality of the work so far, and how the ground reality compares with how it feels to you. That can go either way: sometimes the work is worse than it looks, and sometimes it's much better than it feels, simply because it isn't finished yet. The skills the job needs against the skills on the team. Whether your timeline and budget estimates are realistic. And the gap between what I hear from leadership and what I hear from the people doing the work. That gap usually tells me the most.
Progress everyone can see
Status updates that say what's really done, in enough detail to act on, and a working build you can try every week. A lot of the misunderstandings I see start with updates that skip the details.
People who've solved it before
I look for people and tools that have already solved the exact problem you're struggling with, not just a good developer, a good marketing team, or a good CRM. A job post that says “great machine learning engineer” vs “a machine learning engineer who has worked on audio models, and plays a musical instrument” can turn a 3-month project into a 3-week sprint.
A team that doesn't need me
Knowledge moves to your team, and if you need a full-time CTO, I help you find the right one. By then, no part of your product should depend on one person, including me.
How we'd start
Everything starts with one paid call. By the end of it, we'll both know whether there's more to do, and which of the other two options fits.
A first call
- 90 minutes with me, working on your actual problem.
- Real answers and clear next steps on the calls themselves.
- Up to two follow-ups, with you or the people on your team.
- If it wasn't worth it, one click refunds the full $500.
The right first step for nearly everyone.
Some teams take the solutions and run with them on their own. That's a perfectly good outcome.
A fixed-price review
A close look at the build, the agency, and your plans, over two to three weeks.
- The code, the agency's team, and the contract
- Whether your timeline and budget estimates are realistic
- Solutions to the problems we find, worked out together with you and your team
Your fractional CTO
A few hours a week, on your side of the table. The monthly range depends on how much of my time you need.
- Payments tied to features your users can actually use
- Closing the gap between what leadership hears and what's happening on the ground
- A planned hand-off to your own team
Bootstrapped and pre-revenue? Book a 40-minute Founder Call for $200. It doesn't include follow-up calls, and the same one-click refund applies.
Fair questions
Because it's working time on your problem, and you get real answers on the call itself. It also covers up to two follow-ups, including calls with people on your team if needed.
Yes. Often the agency is doing its best, and trust has worn thin on both sides. Fixing what's broken is usually easier and better than wholesale replacement. Sometimes all that's needed is adding an expert with the missing skill set. Replacement is the last option.
Access to the code, the task tracker, and the agency contract, and time with the people doing the work, on your side and on the agency's.
Sometimes, for a tricky performance problem or a code review. Mostly I make sure the right people are writing it, and that what they build is what you actually need.
Book your first call
Pick a time that works for you. Bring whoever on your team knows the build best.
$500 for the first call
- 90 minutes with me, working on your actual problem.
- Real answers and clear next steps on the calls themselves.
- Up to two follow-ups, with you or the people on your team.
- If it wasn't worth it, one click refunds the full $500.
Need more than one person? Rawzor is my firm, a small senior team of experts that works alongside your people. Explore rawzor.com →