Software & AI
Web apps, client portals, dashboards, and internal tools built to open a new income stream or retire a manual cost center. The same Next.js + Supabase stack we run our own platform on, shipped against a named business outcome, not a feature list.
Sprint zero · Free · No card
Sprint zero scopes the audience and the system — you see what we’d build before you sign for the build.
Census-grounded
ACS, CBP & LEHD pulls
60+ ICP cards
Shipped, signed off
Outcome-locked
One named outcome per sprint
No retainer trap
Sprints, not rent
Before & after
Status quo
The work that makes you money runs on a spreadsheet three people email back and forth. You pay for five SaaS tools that almost fit and none of them talk to each other. The thing your customers keep asking for would be a product, but building it means hiring a dev team you can't justify yet.
After the sprint
Software that does one job your business actually needs, owned by you, shipped in weeks. A portal customers pay to use. A dashboard that replaces the spreadsheet. An internal tool that turns a five-person job into a one-click one. Built on a stack your team can run after we leave.
Deliverables
Named artifacts that ship, not verbs. If it’s on this list, the sprint isn’t done until it’s in your hands.
5-phase fit
Every FH engagement maps to one or more phases of the 5-phase process. Lit chips are the phases this service ships against.
New to the 5-phase process? See all five phases →
Timeline & cadence
Sprint 0
Product discovery + scope + data model
Sprint 1
Core flow on staging, weekly demo Friday
Sprint 2-4
Build out, integrations, roles + auth
Sprint 5
Launch, handoff, documentation
Engagement details
No mystery line items. These are the specific inputs that decide how the engagement is sized and what ships at the end of it.
Internal tool vs. customer-facing product
Number of integrations with existing systems
Roles, permissions, and auth complexity
Whether AI is part of the product surface
Post-launch iteration cadence
Your price
Inputs
Get these together and sprint zero starts the same week.
Anti-patterns
Hard rules. If your last agency promised one of these and the engagement broke, that’s why.
Fit check
Right fit
Wrong fit
Stack
No surprises. You see the stack before sprint zero so you can flag anything you already own a license for or want swapped.
Next.js 16 + React 19
The same stack we run our own platform on
Supabase (Postgres + Auth + Storage)
Data, roles, and RLS-scoped multi-tenant by default
Claude (Anthropic)
AI built into the product where it earns its place, not bolted on
Coolify on Hetzner
Predictable hosting, no surprise platform bills
Be the proof point
This engagement’s portfolio is still in build. Run sprint zero free and become the case study we point the next operator at.
Run sprint zero →Isn't custom software always over budget and late?
When it's scoped as discovery-in-real-time, yes. We lock the data model and the one outcome before sprint one, demo every Friday, and ship the core flow first. You see it working in week two.
Do I own it, or am I locked to you?
You own it outright — code, data, hosting, documentation. We build on a stack your team can run, then hand over the keys. No hostage-holding.
When should I buy SaaS instead of building?
Most of the time. If an off-the-shelf tool fits, we'll tell you to buy it. Custom earns its cost only when the software is a differentiator or the per-seat SaaS tax outweighs the build. We do that math with you first.
Can the software make money on its own?
That's often the point. A customer portal you charge for, a tool you license to your industry, a paid tier on top of your service. We scope for the income stream, not just the feature.
Related solutions
3 sprint kickoff slots open this quarter
Eight minutes of discovery, audience map and ICP draft back in your inbox. No card. No retainer. No obligation to continue.
