Prototype Projects
A working MVP your users can actually pilot — designed, built, and handed off in 8–12 weeks. Deployable, authenticated, CI-backed, and documented. Built by a senior engineer who has shipped systems across healthcare, finance, payments, and entertainment.
Fixed-bid MVP engagements from $30,000, scoped to your goals and timeline · 8–12 weeks.
Who it’s for
- Non-technical founders at SMBs who need a credible first version to show customers, investors, or partners — and who don’t want to hire or manage a development team to get there.
- Operators spinning up a new product line inside an existing business and needing a working pilot to validate the idea before committing internal engineering capacity.
- Technical leaders who are stretched thin and want an experienced builder to take a well-scoped slice off their plate without an agency’s overhead.
What you get
- A deployable MVP on production infrastructure — not a demo, a real pilot your users can sign in to.
- Authentication, basic authorization, and data persistence wired up correctly from day one.
- A CI/CD pipeline so changes can be shipped safely after handoff.
- Written documentation covering the architecture, deploy process, and the two or three judgment calls that will matter most in the next six months.
- A handoff session with whoever takes ownership next — a hire, a cofounder, or the next vendor.
How it works
A typical prototype engagement runs 8–12 weeks on a weekly cadence. You always know what’s in flight and what’s next.
Week 0 — Scoping
A free 60-minute call to confirm the problem, the users, and the smallest thing we can build that would be worth piloting. You leave the call with a written scope of work, a fixed bid, a timeline, and a go/no-go.
Weeks 1–2 — Discovery and architecture
Working sessions to map the user flow, choose the stack, and stand up the skeleton of the application. You see something running end-to-end in week 2.
Weeks 3–10 — Build with weekly demos
A weekly 30-minute demo of what shipped that week. You’re never more than seven days from the last time you saw the product change.
Weeks 11–12 — Hardening and handoff
Rough edges cleaned up, documentation finalised, CI hardened, and a handoff session with whoever owns the product next.
Pricing
Fixed-bid MVP engagements from $30,000, scoped to your goals and timeline. The bid is agreed in writing after Week 0, with milestones tied to delivery and demos.
- Typical engagement: fixed-bid MVP pilot, 8–12 weeks calendar time.
- Week 0 is free — we scope together before either side commits.
- Scope changes: if priorities shift materially, we pause, re-scope, and agree on an updated bid together.
- You own the code and the infrastructure from day one.
What it’s not
- Not open-ended time-and-materials work. The engagement is a fixed bid for an agreed MVP pilot scope; if scope changes, we re-scope and update the bid together.
- Not a design-only engagement. You leave with working software on production infrastructure, not a clickable mock.
- Not a production replacement for a full engineering team. A prototype gets you to a pilot. Going to scale usually needs a next step — a hire, a team, or an ongoing engagement.
What clients say
Starting as a senior IT professional at a small company, I was navigating major skill gaps across our existing portfolio. Bas at SSA showed me a practical path to integrating AI into my daily workflows. Building a solid foundation in context and artifact best practices early made everything that followed easier. Today, I use these approaches every day and no longer feel overwhelmed by the scale of work in front of our team.
Rob Brock · Senior IT Professional
Systems Sense Advisory 