Pricing and Rates
Everything I do is billed at one rate, $30 an hour. Monthly plans run from $600 to $2,400 depending on how many hours you need. A first version of your product (an MVP) starts at $1,500, and if you only need one decision made well, a single 90-minute strategy session is $150.
Month-to-month. Cancel with 2 weeks' notice.
Every plan gets the same way of working. AI agents handle most of the typing, I make the decisions and review every change before it ships, and you own all of the code.
Monthly plans
Advisor
$600 / month
About 20 hours, roughly 5 a week
A senior engineer on call, checking decisions and fixing the small stuff.
- A 30-minute call every week
- Message me questions anytime between calls
- Review of your developers' code and agency quotes
- Small fixes and improvements, done by me
Best for: Founders who already have a developer or agency and want someone senior checking the work.
Tech Lead
$1,200 / month
About 40 hours, roughly 10 a week
I take charge of the technical side of your company, part time.
- Everything in Advisor
- Decide what to build first and which technology to use
- Plan the work with your developers every week or two
- Build features myself when the team needs more hands
Best for: Early-stage startups without a technical leader.
Embedded Engineer
$2,400 / month
About 80 hours, roughly 20 a week
About 20 hours a week building your product with you. I take one Embedded client at a time.
- Everything in Tech Lead
- I build the product with you, every week
- First call on my time over every other plan
Best for: Founders who need one person to lead and build the product.
Not ready for a monthly plan? Strategy Session, $150 one-off
- A 90-minute call about your biggest technical question
- A written recommendation within 48 hours
- A second opinion on a developer or agency quote
- Advice on building custom software vs using an existing tool
- Fully credited if you book a plan or build within 30 days
Hourly rate
$30 an hour, on every plan and every build. You choose how much of my time you need, and I bill by the month so you can message me when something comes up without watching a meter.
| Plan | Per month | Hours a month | About per week |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advisor | $600 | ~20 | ~5 hours |
| Tech Lead | $1,200 | ~40 | ~10 hours |
| Embedded Engineer | $2,400 | ~80 | ~20 hours |
I keep about 20 hours a week for client work, so the Embedded Engineer plan goes to one client at a time. If it is taken, the smaller plans usually still have room.
Is a monthly plan cheaper than hiring?
A full-time senior engineer in the US is a $150,000+ salary commitment. That is about $12,500 a month before equity, benefits, and recruiting. The Tech Lead plan is $1,200 a month, roughly 10% of the salary alone, and you can stop it with 2 weeks' notice instead of running a hiring and firing process.
It stops being the right fit when you need someone full time for months on end. The Embedded Engineer plan tops out at about 20 hours a week, and past that a full-time hire who owns the role long term is often the better investment. I'll tell you when you've reached that point, and I can help you hire that person.
What changes the cost
How much of my time you need
This matters most, which is why the plans are sized by hours. A bigger plan means I'm more involved in planning the work, checking it, and hiring.
Whether I'm advising or building
The Advisor plan covers advice, code review, and small fixes. Tech Lead adds leading your developers and building features when they need more hands. If you want me building every week, that's the Embedded Engineer plan, or a one-time build of your first version (an MVP) starting from $1,500. To see what your product would cost to build, try the app and software development cost calculator.
Whether you already have something built
If you built a prototype with Lovable, Bolt, Cursor, or an earlier developer and it is starting to break, start with a $300 Rescue Audit. Within 5 business days you get a plain-English report and one fixed price for the fixes, with the audit fee taken off. You know the full cost before any work starts.
Not sure which plan fits?
Book a free 30-minute intro call. No pitch, no pressure, just a real conversation about what you're building.
Book a free intro call