Project
$15k+fixed scope
Fixed-scope build with a senior engineer leading. The most common engagement.
- Senior engineer on code
- Fixed scope + quote
- 4–8 weeks to ship
- 30-day support
Hire AI Developer
AI developer for hire — full-stack, senior, shipping.
When you need someone who can take an AI product from idea to live deployment — UI, backend, model integration, evals, observability — we're that team. We've shipped six AI-touching products of our own.
The problem
Hiring an AI developer usually means hiring three people.
The frontend person who can’t handle model integration. The ML engineer who can’t ship a frontend. The infra person who can’t reason about prompts. You end up coordinating three contractors and shipping nothing.
What you actually need is a senior generalist who can do the full stack — that’s a small population, and they’re not on freelance marketplaces.
What we do
Full-stack AI developers as one engagement.
We’re a small senior team — every engineer here ships across the stack. Next.js frontend, TypeScript backend, model integration, eval suites, deployment. Same person from discovery through ship.
We’ve done this for our own products (Arlo, Annatype, Stridecoach) and for clients. AI developer for hire as one engagement, not three contractors.
Capabilities
AI-native product builds
Greenfield AI products from blank repo to production. Auth, billing, UI, model integration, the lot.
Frontend (Next.js, React)
Modern, fast, accessible UI for AI products. Streaming responses, chat interfaces, structured outputs displayed cleanly.
Backend + APIs
Next.js API routes, tRPC, Hono, FastAPI. Whatever fits the project. Streaming, queues, background jobs.
Model integration
Claude, GPT, open models. Direct SDKs or via Vercel AI SDK. With proper error handling and fallbacks.
RAG + vector search
pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate. Tuned for your retrieval shape — semantic, hybrid, or filtered.
Evals + observability
Test suites against real data. Tracing every call. We don't ship AI without evals.
Auth + billing
Clerk, WorkOS, Auth0, Stripe. Wired into AI product flows with proper user context.
Deployment + scaling
Vercel-first, with AWS / Cloudflare / Modal when the workload needs it. Monitoring + cost alerts.
Performance + cost tuning
Right model per step. Caching. Streaming. Batching. Production AI without runaway model bills.
How we work
How an engagement starts.
- 01
Discovery call
30 minutes. What you're trying to ship, the constraints, the timeline.
- 02
Written proposal
We come back with scope, fixed quote, and timeline. No deck.
- 03
Kickoff
Week 1 we're embedded. Slack, weekly cadence, continuous deployment.
- 04
Ship
Working build in 4–8 weeks for most engagements.
- 05
Run
Optional retainer after launch. Same team. Same Slack channel.
Engagement
Engagement options.
We don't sell hours. We sell shipped work. The two shapes we offer:
Embedded
$12k/mo16 hrs/week
Embedded part-time in your team. For ongoing work or longer roadmaps.
- Senior engineer 16 hrs/week
- Same person every week
- Slack access
- Month-to-month after 90 days
Fractional CTO
$12k+/mo
If you need senior tech leadership across the whole engineering function — not just one role.
- Strategy + hands-on
- Hiring + leadership
- Architecture decisions
- Board support
If a marketplace developer at $80/hour fits your need better than us, we'll honestly tell you.
Built by us
The level of work you'd be getting.
AI Platform — Live
Arlo
Built end-to-end: UI, MCP server architecture, OAuth flow, encrypted token storage, agency dashboards. Our own product.
AI Product — LiveAnnatype
Production AI product, built end-to-end by us. Full ownership of strategy, design, build, deployment.
Consumer AI AppStridecoach
Personalized running coach app. Consumer UX + AI generation + data integration.
FAQ
Yes — that's a common engagement. Greenfield AI product from blank repo to live, paying-users-ready in 8–12 weeks.
We can take it over. We do a brief audit first — if the code is salvageable, we extend it. If a rewrite is faster, we'll say so.
Yes. AI products are usually 30% AI and 70% regular software (auth, billing, UI, ops). We do both — that's the point of hiring a full-stack AI developer.
Around $15k for a focused build. We won't do $3k 'just throw something together' projects — there's no path to ship something we'd put our name on.
Optionally, yes. Monthly retainer for ongoing development, model upgrades, ops. Same person you worked with through the build.
Yes. Standard frameworks (Next.js, TypeScript, Postgres), full documentation, no proprietary platforms. You can hire a full-time engineer and hand it over cleanly.
Want to talk about your project?
Tell us what you're building or trying to figure out. We'll come back with what we'd do, how long it takes, and what it costs. No deck, no sales call.