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Azzer Tech Contact

An idea to get started

From an idea to the first product somebody actually uses.

You do not need a technical partner on day one. You need to know whether the idea stands up, what the hard piece costs, and which is the smallest version that can already be put in somebody's hands.

Tell me the idea

Before anything else

What you tell me does not leave this room. If you want a non-disclosure agreement I sign it before hearing the idea, and it is not a courtesy: it is the normal way to work.

On this site there is no customer's name, and it is for the same reason: what a company tells me about how it works does not end up on my pages.

How you get going

Three steps, and each one decides whether there is a next. You do not sign for all three at the start: you sign for the first.

  1. Feasibility review

    What happensI look at whether the idea stands up. In practice:

    • Which is the genuinely hard piece, and what it costs.
    • What already exists ready-made for all the rest.
    • What constraints you have: payments, personal data, accounting obligations.
    • Which is the smallest version worth putting in somebody's hands.

    How it involves youA couple of hours in all: a conversation with whoever will do the work every day, and the documents you already have. The rest is on me.

    How long and how muchYou pay for it, and it is not by the hour: fixed price and a delivery date, both told to you on the first call — before you decide, not after.

    If we then build together, what you paid comes off the quote. And if on delivery you think it was of no use to you, tell me and you do not pay for it.

    If you arrive with a document already written the review gets shorter: I tell you so after reading it, before starting.

    What you end up holdingThe project document: what it costs to build the first version and in how long, what it costs to keep it running each month, and what is better not done. It is yours even if we do not go on from there — and it is the document you need when you have to talk it through with a partner, a bank, or for a grant application.

  2. The first real product

    What happensWhat the document says gets built, and not one piece more. Scope and price are fixed beforehand: if the scope changes, you see straight away what it weighs. One thing done well beats ten sketched — this product is there to find out whether anybody uses it, not to show everything.

    What you end up holdingA product in the hands of real users, the source code yours from day one, and the monthly costs of keeping it running, written down beforehand.

  3. The technical role, afterwards

    What happensOnly if the product lives: somebody is using it and there are technical decisions to take every week. It is not a stage of the project, it is a different relationship, and it gets decided once the first product has already given an answer.

    What you end up holdingSomebody answerable for the technical choices while the thing grows, instead of a supplier to chase.

Three questions that always come up

  • “We are already clear on the ideas. Can we start from the second step?”

    The fixed price of the second step exists because I looked first. On a document that arrives from outside, the price is set blind: it is almost always a wish list missing exactly the hard piece. So skipping the first step, no; shortening it, yes — if you already have something written, your own or from whoever worked on it before, I do not rewrite it: I read it, and the review takes less and costs less.

  • “Is the first call free for us too?”

    Yes, as it is for everybody. The review is another matter: it is work, and it is the part you need most. If it were free I would do it in a hurry, and a review done in a hurry is worth less than nothing — because its most useful answer is the uncomfortable one.

  • “Can we talk about equity?”

    If it makes sense it can be discussed — after the first product exists, never before, and never instead of payment. Somebody working only for a share works when they can, and that is not what you need in the first months.

When it is not the right fit

  • If what you need is a shop window or a shop.

    It is done with ready-made tools, and I say so straight away. If instead the value is in the mechanism — who books what, how a payment is split, what happens when something fails — then it is software, and then it is my trade.

  • If there is nobody behind the idea putting their days into it.

    The technical half can be bought, the drive cannot. Without somebody working on it, what we build stays a product nobody carries forward — and the money spent does not come back.

Neither of the two is a judgement on the idea: they are two ways of keeping you from spending badly.

Tell me what you have in hand already — customers, an agreement, a deadline — and who is working on it.

The first contact is free, and it is there to work out whether the problem can be addressed. It is not a sales pitch: if this is not the right fit, I say so straight away.

If you would rather sign a non-disclosure agreement before telling me the idea, write that in your first message: I sign it before hearing it.

What to write in your first message