Founder or COO, 10–200 people
“We need a full tech team, and we needed it last quarter”
Does this sound familiar?
- A product roadmap exists but nobody is building it
- Your one developer is a single point of failure and knows it
- Recruiting has taken months and the good candidates keep declining
- Agencies quoted a big number and staffed it with juniors
- You need design, backend, mobile and DevOps but cannot justify four salaries
What it costs to ignore
Every month without a team is a month competitors ship and you do not. Hiring a single senior developer in Montreal takes three to six months and costs well over $120,000 a year before benefits — and if that one person leaves, you are back to zero with no documentation.
How the engagement runs
- 1
Scope and honest assessment
We map what you are trying to build, what exists already, and what genuinely needs to be staffed. Sometimes the answer is two people, not eight — we will say so.
- 2
Team assembled to the work
You get the mix the project needs: full-stack, mobile, UI/UX, AI, infrastructure or security. Not a fixed pod you pay for whether or not it fits.
- 3
Embedded, not siloed
We work in your tools, your repo, your standups. Code review and documentation as we go, so knowledge lands with you rather than leaving with us.
- 4
Ship in increments
Something working and useful early, then iterate. No twelve-month build with nothing to show at month six.
- 5
Scale down deliberately
When the heavy build is finished, the team shrinks to maintenance. You stop paying for capacity you no longer need.
The hiring maths does not work for most companies
You need a backend developer, someone who can do mobile, a designer with real UX judgement, and somebody who understands infrastructure well enough to keep it up. That is four salaries, four recruitment cycles, and four people you must keep busy indefinitely.
Most companies at this stage do not have four jobs’ worth of work in each discipline. They have one intense build, then maintenance.
What engaging a team actually looks like
You describe the problem. We tell you honestly what it needs — including when it needs less than you assumed. A team assembles to that shape, works inside your tools and your repository, and ships something usable early rather than disappearing for a year.
When the build is finished, the team contracts to maintenance. No layoff, no severance conversation, no capacity you are paying to keep warm.
Why the security background matters here
Most development shops bolt security on at the end, if at all. Our engineers sit alongside the people who run incident response and wireless penetration testing. Credentials get handled properly, dependencies get watched, and access control is designed in rather than discovered in an audit.
That is not a premium add-on. It is just how the work gets done here.
What you get
- A team sized to the actual work, starting within two weeks
- Senior engineers doing the work, not fronting it
- Working software in increments you can review
- Documentation and code review so your team can take it over
- The ability to scale up or down without severance or a hiring freeze
Frequently asked questions
How fast can a team actually start?
Typically within two weeks of scope agreement. That is the main advantage over hiring: a direct-hire senior developer in Montreal realistically takes three to six months from job posting to productive, and that is if the offer is accepted.
Is this cheaper than hiring employees?
Per hour, no — a contract senior engineer costs more than a salaried one. In total, usually yes, because you pay only for the capacity you use, you carry no recruitment cost, no benefits, no severance, and no idle time between projects. It is also reversible, which a hire is not.
Do we get juniors once the contract is signed?
No. That is the standard agency pattern and we do not run it. The engineers on your first call are the engineers on your project, and we will tell you exactly who is assigned.
Can you work with the developers we already have?
Yes, and that is often the better arrangement. We augment rather than replace — covering the skills you are missing, absorbing overflow, and transferring knowledge so your team ends up more capable, not more dependent.
Who owns the code?
You do, unconditionally, in your repositories from day one. No escrow, no licensing arrangement, no leverage held over you.
Services involved
AI & Automation
AI wired into the work you already do, with the security questions answered first.
Learn moreInfrastructure & Backup
Servers, clusters and backups designed so that failure is survivable and boring.
Learn moreSoftware Engineering
Architecture, subscription platforms and data pipelines — built to be maintained.
Learn moreMobile App Development
iOS, Android and cross-platform apps — with AI on device and the security done properly.
Learn moreTell us what is breaking — or what you are trying to build.
You get a senior engineer on the first call, not a salesperson. If we are not the right fit, we will say so and point you somewhere better.
Active incident? Write “URGENT” in your message and we prioritise it.