Know what it costs before you commit to building it.
Most software estimates are a guess wearing a spreadsheet. We run a paid discovery, write the technical roadmap, and hand you a costed bid you can actually take to a board. Then, if you want us to, we build it.
You own the roadmap whether or not we build any of it.
The expensive way to find out is to start building.
Discovery is cheap compared to the six months you spend building the wrong first phase. We do it as a standalone paid engagement so the answer is honest, including when the answer is that you should not build this at all.
The technical roadmap
Architecture, sequence, and dependencies. What has to exist before the thing you actually want can work.
The bid
Scoped, costed, and staged. Real numbers with the assumptions written down next to them, so you can see what moves them.
The build risks
Where this gets hard, what could push the timeline, and which decisions you should make before anyone writes code.
The honest option
Sometimes the answer is buy, not build. Or wait. We would rather tell you that in week three than take the build money.
Where we work.
We are deliberately narrow. These are the sectors where our team has operating depth, which means discovery does not start with us learning your industry on your money.
Maritime and marine technology
Vessel systems, port and harbor operations, oceanographic sensing, aquaculture at industrial scale.
Industrial IoT
Connected equipment, condition monitoring, edge data collection, and the unglamorous plumbing that makes any of it usable.
Defense and dual use
Autonomy, teaming, and systems built where traceability and provenance are requirements rather than features.
Aerospace and advanced manufacturing
Composites, additive, precision production, and the quality and process data that sits underneath all of it.
If your project sits outside these sectors we will say so on the first call and point you at someone better suited. That is not us being precious. Discovery only works when the people running it already know what normal looks like in your industry.
How the engagement runs.
Frame
We work out what problem this product is actually solving, who for, and what would have to be true for it to be worth building.
Discover
Technical audit of what exists, interviews with the people who will use it, and a hard look at the data you actually have.
Bid
We cost the build, stage it, and write down the assumptions. You can take it to us, to your own team, or to another shop.
We are MTI MERC certified.
We are an approved consultant in the Maine Technology Institute's Maine Entrepreneurial Resource Corps. For eligible Maine companies, MTI covers half the cost of an approved MERC project, which is often exactly the shape of a discovery engagement.
- Projects run three months or less, which discovery comfortably does
- Your business must be Maine based and meet MTI's eligibility criteria
- MTI approves the scope of work before the project starts
- We can help you shape the application, but MTI makes the call
Match amounts and eligibility are set by MTI and change from time to time. Check the current terms with MTI directly before you plan around them.
Worth asking about if you are
- A Maine based business bringing an innovation to market
- Sitting on a product idea you cannot yet cost
- Already working with an MTI investment officer
- Weighing a build against a purchase decision
Who this works for.
A good fit if you are
- Sitting on an idea you cannot get a straight price on
- Willing to pay for discovery to de risk a much bigger spend
- Able to put a decision maker in the room during scoping
- Building something real, not testing whether AI is interesting
Not a fit yet if you are
- Shopping the same brief to five shops for the lowest number
- Expecting a fixed bid before anyone has done discovery
- Unable to name who owns the outcome internally
- Looking for staff augmentation rather than a scoped build
Bring us the thing you cannot cost.
A 30 minute call. Describe what you want to build and we will tell you whether a discovery engagement would actually change your decision.
- What you are trying to build and why now
- Whether it sits in a sector where we are useful
- What discovery would cost, and whether MERC could cover half
Describe the product and where you are stuck. Rough is fine.
We reply within two business days.