For startups & founders

Fixed scope. Fixed price. Shipped fast.

We agree on exactly what "done" looks like before I start. Then I build it, quickly, and hand it over clean. No hourly meter, no surprise invoices.

Scope a sprintSee offers
Try me out

Spike

1–2 days on one focused question or feature.

$1,500
  • A prototype, proof of concept, or technical deep-dive
  • "Can we actually do X?" answered with working code
  • Integration spike: a third-party API, payments, auth, an LLM
  • Written findings and recommendations
Book a spike
Most popular

Sprint

One week, one agreed result.

from $4,500
  • A feature, an internal tool, a dashboard, or a clean-up
  • Written scope and acceptance criteria up front
  • Daily async updates and a demo at the end
  • Code in your repo, documented, with tests where it counts
Scope a sprint
Zero to launch

MVP

2–4 weeks to a first version real users can use.

from $12,000
  • Web app with auth, database, payments if needed
  • Deployed, monitored, and handed over
  • Milestone billing
  • Optional monthly care afterward
Talk about your MVP

Paid 50% to start and 50% on delivery. MVPs are billed by milestone. Prices plus Hawai‘i GET.

Accelerator cohort rate

10% off for founders in a Hawai‘i cohort

If you're in a current accelerator or incubator cohort here in the islands, mention it on our call. The cohort rate applies to Spikes, Sprints, and MVPs.

Good fits

  • You have a clear next milestone and not enough engineering hands
  • You need a demo for investors, a pilot customer, or a pitch
  • Your prototype works but needs to be production-ready
  • You want to get your team productive with AI coding tools (see the AI Tune-Up)
How a sprint works

Agree first, then build fast

Scope call

Free, 30 minutes. What does done look like? What's out of scope?

Written scope

A one-page brief with acceptance criteria and a fixed price. You sign off.

Build

Daily async updates. Early previews so there are no surprises on demo day.

Demo & handoff

A walkthrough, docs, and the code in your repo. Small fixes in the week after are included.

Background

Who's building it

Maxwell Pauly. BS/MS in Electrical & Computer Engineering from UH Mānoa, with graduate work in AI and large language models. Started on AWS EC2 in Seattle. The last two years: shipping production software for startups.

Call-analysis pipeline on AWS

Backend for an auto-care analytics startup. Ingested and analyzed recorded calls, with integrations to 4 VoIP providers.

DevOps & MVP for a restaurant-tech startup

Built the infrastructure and deployment pipeline, shipped frontend and backend MVP work, and helped run the engineering team.

Edtech platform engineering

Ongoing development for an early-literacy curriculum company serving preschools and K–3 programs.

Why fixed price instead of hourly?
You know the cost before we start, and I'm rewarded for finishing quickly instead of slowly. If scope changes mid-sprint, we write the change down and price it before I do it.
What stack do you work in?
Mostly TypeScript/JavaScript and Python, React on the front end, Node or Python on the back end, Postgres, AWS and Cloudflare. I'll work in your existing stack when it's reasonable.
Who owns the code?
You do, once it's paid for. It lives in your repo and your cloud accounts from day one.
Can you join our team longer-term?
Often, yes, as back-to-back sprints or a monthly arrangement. Let's start with one sprint and see how we work together.

What's the next thing you need shipped?

Bring the milestone. Leave the call with a scope and a price.

Book a scope callEmail me