Engagement models¶
How we structure commercial relationships. Three models, each with a defined deliverable shape and pricing structure.
Project¶
A defined scope, a fixed price, a defined deliverable. The default model for custom development and customization & extension engagements.
A project engagement opens with a separately-quoted scoping phase (1-2 weeks) that produces the specification the build is quoted against. The build phase is fixed-price against that specification. Phase boundaries are gated on working software: a phase exits when the agreed surface runs end-to-end against the agreed acceptance criteria.
Suitable when the customer has a defined need, a defined budget, and wants risk-bounded delivery.
Retainer¶
A monthly fee against a defined hours envelope or a defined scope of operational responsibility. The default model for managed operations and for ongoing customization-and-merge support against a previously-delivered framework deployment.
Retainers carry forward a defined percentage of unused hours; they do not borrow forward against future months. The retainer envelope and the operational SLA are the contract — pricing is not per-incident.
Suitable when the customer has ongoing need but the work is variable in scope month to month.
Equity-bearing partnership¶
For engagements where the customer is an early-stage company and the work is large relative to their cash position, we accept a portion of consideration as equity, vested against delivery milestones rather than time.
Conditions: written term sheet, customary investor protections, independent legal counsel on both sides, and a defined cash-floor (we do not work for equity-only). Equity-bearing partnerships are evaluated case by case.
Defect liability¶
Every engagement carries a structured defect-liability commitment. If delivered work fails to operate materially as specified, we correct it at our cost within the cure window agreed in the SOW; if correction is not possible within that window, we refund the fees attributable to the affected work. Cure windows, response times, remediation scope, and overall liability cap are sized per engagement to system class and SLA tier as defined in quality standards. Higher-stakes capabilities — payments, DeFi brokerage and clearing, trading execution — carry tightened cure windows and additional carve-outs documented on the relevant capability pages.
Pricing structures¶
Pricing structure is selected per engagement against the capability, the delivery model, and the customer's procurement preferences. Common structures include per-deployment fixed fees, per-seat licensing (including fully-managed per-seat where the studio absorbs infrastructure cost), per-engagement project fees, and retainer envelopes for ongoing operations. Hybrid combinations are normal — per-seat for some user groups, per-deployment for others, managed in some regions and customer-operated in others — and are documented in the SOW.
Capability pages document the pricing structures applicable to each capability. The default for network services covers per-deployment, per-seat, fully-managed-per-seat, and hybrid combinations; the default for enterprise platforms is per-engagement project fees plus optional retainer; payments and DeFi engagements carry the additional structures and intensifiers documented on those capability pages.
What we don't do¶
- Time-and-materials without a specification. T&M against a vague brief produces budget overruns and disputes; we price against a written specification.
- Acquisition introductions in lieu of payment.
Contracts¶
Master Services Agreement plus per-engagement Statements of Work. SOWs include the specification, the deliverable schedule, the acceptance criteria, and the payment milestones. Standard terms are net 15 on milestone acceptance; net 30 by negotiation for enterprise procurement.