Series A means you've proved the hypothesis. Now you need to scale the product.
Series A founders are building for 10x customer growth, hiring the first engineering team, and making the architectural investments that will hold the product together through Series B. A senior developer who has built from seed to scale understands which architectural decisions matter at this stage and which ones can wait. Fixed scope, fixed price.
You're at Series A and need to ship a specific set of product improvements before you can close the next round or hit your growth targets — without waiting 6 months for an in-house hire to ramp.
Series A founders are in a hiring sprint — building the engineering team while simultaneously needing to ship product improvements that support the growth targets they've committed to investors. The time-to-productivity for a senior in-house engineering hire is 2–4 months (hiring process, onboarding, codebase ramp-up, first feature ship). For the specific milestone that needs to ship in the next 12 weeks, waiting for the hire doesn't work.
The Series A-specific product development challenges: multi-tenant infrastructure scaling (the early-stage multi-tenancy that worked for 50 customers starts to show performance issues at 500 — query patterns need index analysis, row-level security policies need performance review, and the database schema might need denormalisation to support new query patterns); enterprise integration requirements (Series A customers often want SSO, API access for integrations, and audit logs — features that weren't needed at seed stage); and the mobile companion app that was deferred until post-PMF (at Series A, the mobile app is often on the roadmap but the engineering capacity to build it isn't yet assembled).
The fixed-price engagement at Series A solves a specific problem: a defined scope that needs to ship in 12 weeks, delivered by a senior developer who doesn't need the 2–4 month ramp-up time of a new hire. The engagement is complete when the scope ships; the in-house team takes over ongoing development.
A defined set of Series A-stage product improvements — multi-tenant scaling, API for enterprise integrations, advanced feature set, or a mobile companion app — delivered fixed-price while you build the in-house team.
Enterprise feature set
SSO via SAML (Clerk Enterprise Connections for SAML SSO). Audit logging (all user actions logged with timestamp, user ID, organisation ID, and action details). API access for enterprise integrations (REST API with API key authentication and rate limiting). Advanced role-based access control (custom roles beyond admin/member). The features that enterprise procurement requires.
Mobile companion app
React Native application for the core workflows in the existing web application. Both stores. Native auth, push notifications, and the mobile UX for the use cases where mobile access matters to customers.
Performance and scale improvements
Query optimisation (index analysis, N+1 query elimination, query result caching). Row-level security policy performance review. Database connection pooling configuration for the user volume at Series A scale. Core Web Vitals improvements for the web application.
Developer API
REST or GraphQL API for customer integrations and partner ecosystem development. OpenAPI documentation. API key management. Rate limiting. Webhook delivery for customer-side event processing.
Product feature additions
Specific feature additions requested by enterprise customers or required by the growth roadmap — scoped, priced, and delivered in the same fixed-price model.
One honest number to start.
Fixed-scope, fixed-price. The number below is the starting point — final scope is built from your brief.
A defined set of Series A-stage product improvements — multi-tenant scaling, API for enterprise integrations, advanced feature set, or a mobile companion app — delivered fixed-price while you build the in-house team.
Three steps, every time.
The same repeatable engagement on every project. No surprises, no mystery, no billable ambiguity.
Brief & discovery.
We send you questions, then get on a call. Output: a written scope with every step, feature, and integration listed.
Build & ship.
Fixed schedule, weekly reviews. No scope creep unless you change the scope — and if you do, we reprice it transparently.
Warranty & retainer.
30-day warranty on every launch. Most clients stay on a monthly retainer for ongoing features and maintenance.
Why Fixed-Price Matters Here
Series A founders have investor commitments tied to specific milestones. Fixed scope, fixed price means the milestone is deliverable in a defined timeframe at a defined cost.
Related engagements.
Questions, answered.
Parallel track delivery: the engagement has a defined scope that doesn't overlap with the in-house team's current sprints. GitHub access to the shared repository, code review process integrated with the team's review standards, and branch/PR workflow consistent with the team's practices. The handoff at engagement completion is a normal PR review, not an architectural transition.
Technical interview screening (reviewing take-home projects, advising on the technical evaluation) for the first engineering hire is a common addition. The in-house hire's skills should complement the codebase they'll inherit — advising on what to look for is useful context from the developer who built the codebase.
A codebase architecture review before starting new development is common for Series A engagements where the seed-stage codebase was built by a previous developer or team. The review identifies technical debt that should be addressed before adding new features on top of it, and architecture decisions that should be made deliberately before the team scales.
Series A product milestones typically run $35k–$75k depending on the scope. Enterprise feature additions (SSO, audit logging, API) run $25k–$45k. Mobile companion apps from $45k. Fixed-price.
Defined by the scope. Most Series A milestone engagements fit within 10–16 weeks.
Tell Ryel about your project.
Describe what you’re building and what outcome you need. You’ll have a written, fixed-price scope within the week.