We take over your AI-generated or no-code MVP, fix what's broken, and deliver it to production as a real, maintainable product. Not a rewrite. Not a patch job. The engineering work that gets your app actually ready for paying customers.
Your MVP worked on day one. Then it started getting weirder.
Sound familiar? That's the engagement shape.
In a rescue engagement, I take over ownership of the technical work. I read your code the way I'd read a codebase I was newly hired onto — fast, but thoroughly. I prioritize by business risk. Then I fix.
Work happens in risk-sorted passes, not as a single big-bang rewrite. You see working progress every few days; nothing is "go dark for three months and come back with a new app." Each pass ships independently, tested, in a real environment. Most rescues unfold in this order:
The scope isn't rigid — if your situation needs a variant of the default, we scope accordingly. But the default is where 80% of rescue engagements land.
Always. If you haven't already had one with me, we do an audit first. A rescue without an audit is flying blind — we'd either over-scope (expensive for you) or miss something critical (bad for both of us). The audit also makes the rescue scope concrete.
Built from the audit's findings log. You approve the scope, priority order, and timeline before any work starts. Fixed price, fixed scope.
Work happens in 3–5 distinct passes, each shipping independently in 1–2 weeks. You get progress you can verify every few days — no long dark periods.
The app is running. Monitoring is on. Backups are tested. Docs are written. I demonstrate each of those things working before we close out.
Two options: either to your team (with documentation + 2 weeks of Slack-based support included), or I stay on as a fractional part-time engineer for 3–6 months while you hire. Your call.
Timeline: 4 to 12 weeks. Most rescues land in 6–8 weeks. You'll have a commitment on timeline before work starts.
Priced per engagement, not per hour. The audit produces a concrete findings list; we scope the rescue against that list. You'll have a fixed number and a fixed timeline before work starts. If the engagement needs to expand, we re-scope together — no surprise invoices mid-project.
What drives the number: codebase size, how much of the stack needs remediation, urgency, and whether the engagement ends with a clean handoff or transitions into an interim fractional arrangement. We settle all of it on the discovery call.
It's yours. The rescue delivers a codebase your next engineer can maintain without me. A written handoff document goes with it. If you want me around after delivery for an interim period while you hire, that's a separate engagement — not a dependency.
No. Rewrites are usually the wrong answer — they're expensive, take longer than planned, and often don't fix the underlying issue. Rescue fixes the broken parts and leaves the working ones alone. If a specific module genuinely needs replacing, we'll scope that as a named piece of work rather than a blanket rewrite.
The audit alone delivers real value even if you never rescue. You can also hire me for individual findings from the audit — just the CORS fix, just the auth rewrite, just the CI/CD setup. This is especially useful when the audit surfaces one or two big issues you can tackle independently.
Fractional technical co-founder engagements are available after a successful rescue. This is typically a 3–6 month interim arrangement where I stay on part-time while you recruit a full-time senior engineer or CTO. Not a permanent commitment on either side.
Strong expertise in PHP (Symfony, Doctrine), Node.js, TypeScript, React, AWS (ECS, Lambda, RDS, SQS, SNS), Docker, Terraform. I've rescued apps built with Supabase, Firebase, Vercel, and most no-code tools. If your stack is outside those areas, I'll tell you honestly on the discovery call whether I'm the right rescuer for the situation.
4 to 12 weeks. Most rescues land in the 6–8 week range. Exact timeline depends on what the audit finds and how large your MVP is. You get a fixed timeline commitment before work starts, not an open-ended hourly engagement.
Yes, but it's scoped separately from a standard rescue. Migrating off no-code to a new codebase is a different engagement shape — it includes designing the new architecture, data migration, and a cutover plan. Same audit-first approach though: we start with a scoping call and an audit of what you're moving away from.
Want to see what an engagement like this looks like in practice? Read a real case study →
Free. 30 minutes. Tell me what's broken, what's on the line, and when. I'll tell you whether a rescue is the right move — or whether an audit first makes more sense for your situation.
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