If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already talked to us. Maybe there’s a proposal sitting in your inbox. Maybe you got off a call, liked most of it, and now you’re going back through looking for the catch. Or maybe somebody sent you this link because you asked a simple question about getting one thing built.
The question usually arrives in one of a few shapes. Someone wants an internal tool so their team stops doing the same task by hand forty times a week. Someone wants two systems that have never spoken to finally talk to each other. Someone wants an automation that runs while they sleep. Someone wants a small piece of custom software, and they got a quote from an agency that made them sit down.
None of that sounds like “engineering” when you’re the one saying it. That’s fine. The label doesn’t matter. What matters is that you need one specific thing to work, and right now it doesn’t.
What everyone asks
Here’s the list. Do I need to hire a developer, or will you? Who owns what you build when we’re done? Can it live inside the systems I already pay for, or does it mean one more login? What happens when it breaks — do I call you, or do I have to go find somebody? How long until it’s actually working? Do you need access to everything? What if my situation is weird and doesn’t fit the template?
That’s a fair thing to worry about. It’s also the thing we can answer most directly, so let’s get there.
What we won’t tell you
Anybody who says “yes, we can build exactly that” before they’ve looked at your setup is guessing. Building is the easiest thing to promise and the easiest thing to get wrong. The impressive answer is the unreliable one.
So the first thing a good engineer does isn’t build. It’s ask a dull question: what does this actually need to do, and what’s the smallest thing that gets you there. Not the version with the dashboard nobody asked for. The version that still works on a Tuesday when you’re short-staffed.
If that sounds underwhelming, that’s the point. Almost every expensive software project that failed wasn’t badly built. It was built to be admired.
Why this stopped being a six-figure job
Five years ago, wanting software built for your business meant a scoped brief, an agency, a project manager, a retainer, and six months before you found out whether it worked. Which is why most businesses simply didn’t. You made do. You bought another subscription instead, or you kept doing it by hand and called it a process.
The constraint was never the idea. It was the hours — the hours to type it out, wire it up, test it, and fix what broke. Those hours are now cheap. One person who knows what they’re doing, working with AI, can build the internal tool, connect the two systems, and set up the automation in about the time the old team spent on the kickoff call.
A brief, an agency, a project manager, a retainer, and six months before you found out whether it worked.
One person, one conversation about what it needs to do, and a working thing you can use while it is still being improved.
The math on the cheaper route
Somebody will offer to build it for a few hundred dollars. It happens on every call. So let’s do the arithmetic, because it’s the same arithmetic every time.
If a freelancer charges a few hundred dollars for a build, how many builds do they need running at once just to pay their own bills? Dozens. Which means yours is one of dozens. Your questions are one set of dozens. Your urgent thing is queued behind other people’s urgent things.
There’s a second problem, and it has nothing to do with effort. A cheap build is usually a build nobody can change later, including you. The point of having someone build the thing is that you can come back in three months and say “actually, add this” and it happens.
With us, the person assigned to you caps out at four clients. Ever. Not forty — four. And they aren’t working alone. Stuck on something hard, they walk over and ask our CTO. Stuck on how the thing should be used, they ask the people who built the product. And because we own the software, a problem that needs a real fix gets escalated to the engineering team that wrote it.
Why we lose money on the staffing
Here’s the part we don’t hide. A specialist deployed into your business for $997 a month does not cover what that specialist costs us. On the staffing, we lose money. On purpose.
Our goal is ten thousand businesses running on SuperCool, the software we own, and we’re willing to put staff into businesses at a loss to get them there. The software is where the relationship actually lives. You’ve seen this model before. Google Docs is free. Why would Google Docs be free? Because Google wants you using Google for everything.
Which means you aren’t getting a discount. You’re on the right side of a business model that only works if you stay.
Do you think we’ll give your money back?
Back to the real question, the one under the list. The sentence people are too polite to say out loud is usually this one. I’ll pay them, they’ll work on my thing for two weeks, I won’t be happy, I’ll ask for my money back, and they’ll find a reason not to give it to me.
If that is genuinely what you believe we are, then don’t hire us. Not because you’re being difficult — because you should never do business with someone you believe will take your money.
Notice what that means. The whole decision comes down to one judgment, and it isn’t about talent or speed or price. Do you think we’re honest?
A retainer is owed whether it works or not. A hire is paid whether they are any good or not. Neither contract hands your money back.
Fourteen days, full refund, in writing, no justification needed. The worst case is that you get your money back.
How to actually make this decision
You have four realistic options when you need something built. Here they are with the real numbers attached.
| Option | What it costs | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| A full-time developer | $8,000–$15,000 a month, plus benefits and the search | Four to eight weeks before they start, and the person you can afford may not know how to use AI yet. |
| A development agency | $10,000–$30,000 a project, usually with a minimum | A scoped build you cannot change without a new statement of work. |
| A cheap freelancer | A few hundred dollars | Your build is one of dozens. It works until you need something changed. |
| Us | From $997 a month | Something working in about two weeks, month to month, with a 14-day money-back guarantee. |
Find the row where you lose money if it doesn’t work. There’s only one row without one.
- Name the thing
What does it actually need to do, and what is the smallest version that gets you there — not the version with the dashboard nobody asked for.
- Find the row where you lose money if it doesn’t work
A salary, an agency project, a cheap build: each one takes your money whether it works or not. One row doesn’t.
- Decide whether you believe us
Fourteen days, full refund, in writing. The rest of the decision isn’t about talent, speed or price. It’s about the people making that promise.
What happens if you say yes
Within about two weeks you have the thing you actually needed — the tool, the connection, the automation — working, owned by you, and someone who can change it the next time your situation changes. And because it’s the same specialist running the rest of your marketing and content, it doesn’t sit in a silo somewhere.
What happens if you keep deciding
Another month of doing it by hand. Another month of two systems that don’t talk. Another month of a task nobody wants to own. The cost on the table isn’t the fee — it’s the hours you keep paying in the meantime.
You’ve been carrying this for a while. The only thing that hasn’t happened yet is a decision.
The one question left
You will not find anything lower-risk than fourteen days and a full refund. And you will not find anyone cheaper who will still be there in three months when you want something changed. The rest comes down to whether you think we’ll keep a promise we put in writing. If you don’t, don’t hire us. If you do, stop deciding and start building.
How many hours will I get with the specialist?
We don’t work in hours, we work in tasks. On the base plan you get two working sessions a week, on days you both choose, and your specialist also builds systems so things keep happening every day without you. If you want more human time, the higher plan gives you five days a week, and a specialist can be hired full time if you want them on nothing but you. Hours is an old unit of measurement — a person using AI does several things at once, and a website can be rebuilt in about half an hour.
Will we be on Zoom?
If you want to be, yes — at least once a week, on Zoom, Google Meet, whichever you prefer. You can also message any time and get an answer when your specialist is on. Most of the time a call is the least productive hour of the week; the work itself is where things move.
Can I get feedback from them directly?
Yes. You work with your specialist directly. They also have a senior person reviewing the work, so you get a second set of eyes you didn’t pay extra for, and the owners of the company get involved when something needs it.
How much is this going to cost me in credits?
Images are pennies. Video is dollars. Building software is more. And a professional using credits spends less than you would learning it yourself, because they know what they’re doing — so this is usually a saving rather than a cost.
Who owns what gets built?
You do. That’s the entire point of having it built for you rather than buying another subscription.
What’s the actual guarantee?
Fourteen days, full refund, in writing, no justification needed. It costs us money every time someone uses it, which is why we’d rather you didn’t have to. We’re the company behind SuperCool — 300,000 paying members — covered by Yahoo Finance, USA Today, TechCrunch, and Business Insider. We also lose money on the $997 on purpose, because we’re moving from the consumer space into the business space and we want the business to be yours.
Do you have case studies in my industry?
Every agency, freelancer and marketplace contractor has case studies — the successful ones, anyway. And most are out of date, because something that worked two years ago may do nothing today. You know that as an owner already. What you’re really asking for is a guarantee of a result, and nobody honest can give you one. We spend $50,000 to $100,000 a day on Meta and have driven over a billion dollars in digital marketing sales. The proof is your market and your data.
Who am I talking to, and what happens if that person leaves?
Someone who works for DoubleUp, trained on SuperCool — the software we own — and good at this. They have a senior person above them who reviews the work and steps in when needed, the owners above that, and the engineering team if something needs a real fix — because we own the software. Nothing gets dropped if one person is away.
Can I talk to the person before I start?
No, and here’s the honest reason. You get a 14-day money-back window, and we already know the person is good — we don’t hire people who aren’t capable and professional. We’re in the business of outcomes, not in matching you with whoever you like most on a first call, because that’s where people get into trouble. You like people who make you money and move fast, and that’s who we hire. You’ll also meet the senior person at onboarding. This is a fractional commitment at a fraction of a salary, not a $120,000 hire — a business-to-business contract with a guarantee attached.
