How it works
Pay for one stage at a time.
Each stage has a clear finish. At the end of each one, you decide what happens next.
Four promises
Three options when a build makes sense
You pick the size of problem worth solving.
Milestones you can test
If you can't check it at your desk, it isn't a milestone.
Payment in steps
You're never far ahead of the work.
You own the running costs
The AI and hosting bills sit in your own accounts.
The three stages
Stage 1: Diagnose
An hour or two with the people who do the work, a look at the tools they use, and your best rough numbers. Rough is fine.
- A map of the process as it runs today: what starts it, every step, who touches it, which tools, where the exceptions happen and what "done" looks like.
- Where work backs up and where time or money leaks out.
- A value model in your numbers and your words: what the problem costs each time and each year, with every line rated for how sure we are of it.
- A clear recommendation. Sometimes that's "don't build this" or "buy software that already exists," and we'll name which one.
- If a build makes sense, three options, each solving a differently sized problem.
Who it's for
You have a process that costs you time or money, and you want to know what's really causing it before you spend money fixing it.
What it isn't
It isn't a sales call dressed up as a study. The recommendation is the same whether or not you hire us for the next step.
How it's priced
A fixed fee, agreed before we start, over about two weeks from the mapping session to the written readout. Start a build within 30 days of the readout and the full fee counts toward it.
How it ends
You decide whether to go ahead, reshape the scope or stop. You keep everything either way.
See an example
A sample of what you get, for a made-up business with made-up numbers.
Open the sample diagnosticStage 2: Build
Someone who can answer questions within a day or two, access to the tools involved, and time to test each milestone.
- Three options every time. The smallest one is useful on its own. Each step up adds value or removes a real risk, not extra features for their own sake.
- For each option, in writing: the result, what's included, what isn't, what you're responsible for and how we'll measure success.
- Milestones you can check yourself. For example: "You send a question and get an answer pulled from your own records within one minute." Never "the system is working as expected."
- Testing built into the price. The more the system does on its own, the more testing it gets.
- A record of how the work runs today (time, people, how often, how many errors) taken before launch, because a few weeks later nobody remembers the old pain.
Who it's for
You've finished a diagnostic and one of the options is worth more to you than it costs.
What it isn't
It isn't hourly, and the scope doesn't quietly grow. New ideas are welcome. They get written down and priced as an addition or the next phase.
How it's priced
A fixed price, set after the diagnostic, based on what the solved problem is worth to you. You pay a first payment at signing, then the rest as each milestone lands, about every 30 days.
How it ends
Before and after numbers at launch, at 30 days and at 60 to 90 days. You see what changed, measured the same way as before.
See examples
Working examples you can try, each with made-up data and the same rule: nothing goes out without your OK. Yours is shaped by the diagnostic.
See the examplesStage 3: Run
Konsul builds it. Kustos keeps it running and right. The two are kept separate on purpose, so you always know what you're paying for.
Kustos is the custodian for the systems your team built, and for the ones we build for you. It checks them on a schedule, catches what breaks or drifts, and drafts the fix. Isaiah reviews flags on business days and approves every fix. The plan includes a few hours a month for small improvements, not a budget for new features.
Roadmap
For owners who want steady improvement. Each month we ship the next improvement you've approved and look for the next place work backs up or money leaks.
How it's priced
A fixed monthly fee for each plan, set once we know what the system does and how much it needs watching.
How it ends
Either plan runs month to month. Cancel with the notice in your order. If you stop, you keep the system and everything needed to run it.
Before any proposal
three questions
Why this?
Will the thing you're asking for produce the result you want?
Why now?
What makes it urgent this quarter instead of next year?
Why us?
Why not an intern, your IT person or software that already exists?
A weak answer means the project isn't ready yet. Better to learn that before you spend.
The timeline
From first call to 90 days
We map how the work runs and price the problem in your numbers. Every cost line gets a confidence rating.
Each one solves a differently sized problem at a fixed price. You can pick one, or none.
You check each milestone at your desk and pay as it lands. New ideas get written down and priced, never absorbed.
If the system drafts emails, it can't send them until you say so. The limit lives in what it can touch.
The same measures we recorded before launch, next to the new ones.
Measured again. Then Kustos keeps it running and right, we keep improving it, or you run it yourself.
Not ready to define the work yet
A smaller option, billed monthly in advance.
Sometimes the right first step isn't clear enough to scope. For that, we offer a small block of advisory hours with a cap and a named outcome: a decision you can make when the hours run out.
Next step
Start with the process that costs you the most.
Rough numbers are fine. Describing it takes about three minutes.
Tell us what's breaking