The first conversation with us is a Discovery Call. Thirty to sixty minutes, on video or the phone, no slides. We are not there to present. We are there to find out whether there is a real problem, whether software is the right answer to it, and whether we are the right people to build it. About half the time the honest answer to one of those is no, and we say so.
This is what we ask, and why. If you know the questions ahead of time, the call goes faster and you get a better answer.
”What is happening in the business that made you reach out?”
We open here, not with “what do you want to build.” A request for software is almost always a symptom of something else: a process that broke when the company doubled, a customer who left, a report that takes a week, an acquisition that brought a second set of systems.
We want the story. What changed, when, who feels it. The answer tells us whether the problem is a software problem at all. Sometimes it is a staffing problem or a process problem wearing a software costume, and we would rather say that on the first call than after a proposal.
”What would be different a year from now if this worked?”
This is the outcome question, and it is the one most people have not thought about. “We’d have a new system” is not an answer. “Our project managers would stop spending Friday afternoons reconciling three spreadsheets” is. “We could take on the next contract without hiring two more coordinators” is.
If you can name the outcome, we can design toward it and measure against it. If nobody can, the project has no way to know when it is done, and those projects rarely end well. We will push on this one.
”How does it work today?”
Walk us through the current process, however ugly. The spreadsheet, the email chain, the whiteboard, the person who just knows. We are not judging it. Every company we have worked with got where it is on tools it has outgrown, and the workarounds people invent are usually the clearest picture of what the software needs to do.
What we listen for: how many systems are involved, where the data lives, who touches it, and where it breaks. We also listen for whether the person on the call knows the answer. If they do not, we will ask to talk to the people who do before we go much further.
”Who owns this on your side?”
One name. The person who will make decisions, attend design sessions, and answer questions without a committee. If the answer is “the leadership team,” we will ask again.
We ask because we have watched projects with no owner drift for months, and we have learned not to take them. It is not about seniority. It is about someone with the authority to say “do it this way” and the time to say it.
”What have you already tried?”
An internal build that stalled. A SaaS product that almost fit. A contractor who disappeared. A prototype someone made with an AI tool that works until it does not. All of this is useful, and none of it is embarrassing.
It tells us what has been ruled out, what the organization has already learned, and whether the next step is a new build or a System Evaluation of something that already exists. If there is code, we want to see it before we recommend anything.
”What is your budget?”
We ask directly, and we would like a direct answer. Not a number to the dollar, but the range you can defend. A company that can fund a serious first release and a company that has a fraction of that are both fine to work with, but they need different plans, and we cannot design the right one without knowing which you are.
Some people hold this back because they think it weakens their negotiating position. It does the opposite. Our default is a fixed budget with controlled scope, and the budget is an input to the design, not the output of it. Tell us the number and we will tell you what fits inside it. If you genuinely do not know, typical budgets by type of project are on our pricing page.
”What happens if you do nothing?”
The most useful question on the list, and the one that ends the most calls early. If the honest answer is “not much,” you do not have a project. You have a nice-to-have, and we will tell you to keep your money.
If the answer involves lost revenue, a contract you cannot take, a compliance deadline, a key person retiring, or a sponsor who wants the business ready to sell in three years, then the cost of waiting is real and it belongs in the math.
What we tell you about us
We keep this short, because you can read it on our approach page and we would rather use the time on your business. But we will say it plainly:
We are a custom software firm for growing, privately held and PE-backed middle-market companies. The team is in Texas. Nothing is offshored or subcontracted. New builds start with a VDP Sprint, existing systems start with a System Evaluation, and we do not quote a project before one of those is done. Our default commercial model is a fixed budget with controlled scope, and we recommend the model rather than asking you to pick one from a menu. Since 2005, 96.5% of the builds we have taken on have succeeded.
What “not a fit” sounds like
We say no on the first call more often than people expect. It sounds like this:
- “This sounds like an off-the-shelf problem.” If a mature product already does what you need at a price that makes sense, we will name it. Custom software is for the thing nobody sells.
- “This is smaller than what we do well.” Some projects are a few weeks of a freelancer’s time. We are not the cheapest way to get those done, and we will say so.
- “Nobody here can own it.” If there is no decision-maker with time, we will ask you to come back when there is.
- “You need staff, not software.” Sometimes the process is fine and the problem is headcount. Software will not fix that.
- “You are not sure what you want, and you are not ready to find out.” The VDP Sprint exists to answer that question. If you want a fixed quote for an undefined project instead, we are the wrong firm.
None of those are a judgment. They are the fastest way to save you a proposal you would not sign.
What happens after the call
If there is a fit, the next step is a Deep Dive: sixty to ninety minutes, with the people who do the work, going through the process in detail. Then a proposal, and a recommendation on the commercial model. That is pre-project consulting, and it is the same for every engagement.
If you want to run the call well, come with the outcome, the owner, and the budget range. Everything else we can work out together. Book the Discovery Call when you are ready.