[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":687},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-preview-en":3},[4,188,454],{"id":5,"title":6,"alternateSlug":7,"body":8,"date":173,"description":174,"extension":175,"image":176,"locale":177,"meta":178,"navigation":179,"path":180,"seo":181,"status":182,"stem":183,"tags":184,"__hash__":187},"blog/blog/why-startups-need-custom-software.md","Why Invest in Custom Software Early","porque-startups-precisam-de-software-customizado",{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":162},"minimark",[11,15,18,21,26,29,32,35,38,42,45,48,51,54,58,61,64,67,70,79,83,86,89,108,111,115,118,121,124,127,130,134,137,140,143,151,155],[12,13,14],"p",{},"Stripe for payments, Notion for docs, Slack for comms, Zapier to glue it all together. That's how every startup begins, and it makes sense. These tools exist for that.",[12,16,17],{},"The problem is that it scales in a way nobody planned for. The monthly SaaS bill starts competing with a developer's salary, and most of these tools don't even talk to each other.",[12,19,20],{},"This post isn't an argument for building everything from scratch. It's about identifying the moment when certain tools stop helping and start getting in the way, and what to do when that happens.",[22,23,25],"h2",{"id":24},"the-saas-tax-is-getting-worse","The SaaS tax is getting worse",[12,27,28],{},"SaaS prices rose about 12% per year in 2024 and 2025. That's nearly 4x general inflation, which stayed around 4%. Zendesk, Salesforce, and Atlassian all pushed aggressive increases, and among the top 500 SaaS companies, there were more than 1,800 pricing changes in 2025 alone.",[12,30,31],{},"The sticker price is only part of the cost. Vendors are bundling AI features into plans whether you use them or not. Some use credit systems where they can change the multiplier overnight: same subscription price, twice the consumption. 60% of SaaS buyers report unplanned costs when they scale up.",[12,33,34],{},"Over five years, integration, training, and migration add 150% to 200% on top of the license fee. That $500/month tool can cost closer to $15,000 a year when you account for everything around it.",[12,36,37],{},"The problem isn't SaaS itself. It's the pricing model. You're building on another company's terms, and those terms change without warning.",[22,39,41],{"id":40},"too-many-tools-kill-your-speed","Too many tools kill your speed",[12,43,44],{},"When you connect 15 tools with Zapier and webhooks, what you have isn't a stack. It's a chain of dependencies you don't control.",[12,46,47],{},"Your CRM doesn't talk to your billing system. Customer data lives in three places and none of them match. Automations break silently and you only find out when a customer complains, not when the error happens. One API change from a vendor you've never met can take down an entire workflow.",[12,49,50],{},"Most startups waste 30 to 40% of their SaaS budget on redundant tools, unused seats, and features nobody touches. And every tool in the stack is something someone has to manage, update, troubleshoot when it breaks, and explain to new hires.",[12,52,53],{},"The real cost isn't the subscription. It's the features you don't ship because your team is busy maintaining integrations.",[22,55,57],{"id":56},"the-no-code-ceiling","The no-code ceiling",[12,59,60],{},"Bubble, Airtable, Retool: excellent tools for validation. If you used one to get your MVP to market, that was the right call at the time.",[12,62,63],{},"But these platforms have hard limits, and most growing startups hit them fast. Airtable caps at 50,000 to 100,000 rows. Bubble apps that run fine with 100 records crawl at 10,000. And complex business logic in visual builders turns into spaghetti with no version control, no tests, no way to debug when something breaks at 2 AM.",[12,65,66],{},"When you hit that wall, migration can cost between $50,000 and $250,000, and you're rebuilding under pressure because the platform is already the bottleneck. That's the worst time to make architecture decisions.",[12,68,69],{},"At some point, the platform that helped you start becomes what keeps you from growing.",[12,71,72,73,78],{},"We wrote about ",[74,75,77],"a",{"href":76},"/blog/signs-your-mvp-needs-a-rebuild","how to recognize that moment"," in detail. If you're on the fence, start there.",[22,80,82],{"id":81},"the-crossover-point","The crossover point",[12,84,85],{},"There's a moment for every startup where the cost of not building exceeds the cost of building. Most founders take too long to see it.",[12,87,88],{},"Some signs you've already passed that point:",[90,91,92,96,99,102,105],"ul",{},[93,94,95],"li",{},"You're paying for three tools that could be one internal system",[93,97,98],{},"Your team spends more time working around limitations than working on the product",[93,100,101],{},"A key feature is blocked because the vendor's API doesn't support it",[93,103,104],{},"A vendor changes pricing and you have nowhere to go",[93,106,107],{},"Nobody on the team knows which platform has the correct version of the customer data",[12,109,110],{},"Companies with high technical debt spend up to 40% more on IT just to maintain what already exists. Every month patching a third-party stack is a month where your competitors, the ones who invested in their own systems early, are shipping faster.",[22,112,114],{"id":113},"invest-in-the-product-not-in-distractions","Invest in the product, not in distractions",[12,116,117],{},"Don't build everything. Build only what matters.",[12,119,120],{},"Authentication, payment processing, email delivery: these are solved problems. Use what already exists.",[12,122,123],{},"What deserves to be yours is the core workflow that makes your product different. The thing that, if a competitor copied it, would actually hurt. That shouldn't depend on a vendor who can change the terms next quarter.",[12,125,126],{},"In practice, almost nobody builds everything or outsources everything. What works is using SaaS where the tool is good enough and building where your business needs something that doesn't exist off the shelf. APIs connect the two sides.",[12,128,129],{},"And building before the pressure makes a difference. You choose the architecture with time to think, migrate data at your own pace, and make technical decisions without a vendor dictating the deadline.",[22,131,133],{"id":132},"how-to-start-without-over-committing","How to start without over-committing",[12,135,136],{},"Start with one piece. The process that creates the most value for your customers, the one that's currently held together with duct tape and three Zapier automations. Build that first.",[12,138,139],{},"One system, one workflow, one integration that replaces the tools causing the most friction. Use the savings from eliminated subscriptions to fund the build.",[12,141,142],{},"Run the new system alongside the old one. Migrate users and data gradually. Set a date to retire the old system. Switching everything at once is where rebuilds fail.",[12,144,145,146,150],{},"If you've never worked with an external team, ",[74,147,149],{"href":148},"/blog/what-to-expect-when-you-hire-a-software-development-studio","here's what the process actually looks like",".",[22,152,154],{"id":153},"want-to-figure-out-what-to-build-first","Want to figure out what to build first?",[12,156,157,158,150],{},"If you spend more time managing tools than building product, that's the signal. We help startups figure out which parts of their stack should be custom, and we build them. ",[74,159,161],{"href":160},"/contact","Let's talk",{"title":163,"searchDepth":164,"depth":164,"links":165},"",2,[166,167,168,169,170,171,172],{"id":24,"depth":164,"text":25},{"id":40,"depth":164,"text":41},{"id":56,"depth":164,"text":57},{"id":81,"depth":164,"text":82},{"id":113,"depth":164,"text":114},{"id":132,"depth":164,"text":133},{"id":153,"depth":164,"text":154},"2026-04-05","SaaS prices are up 12% per year and no-code tools have an expiration date. Here's when it makes sense to build your own.","md","https://assets.olorinlabs.com/assets/og-image.png","en",{},true,"/blog/why-startups-need-custom-software",{"title":6,"description":174},"published","blog/why-startups-need-custom-software",[185,186],"startups","custom-software","fGEYTpn8ndxNx-hAkR7VKfiV4_v_mAD2IH-F6bn77ow",{"id":189,"title":190,"alternateSlug":191,"body":192,"date":444,"description":445,"extension":175,"image":446,"locale":177,"meta":447,"navigation":179,"path":76,"seo":448,"status":182,"stem":449,"tags":450,"__hash__":453},"blog/blog/signs-your-mvp-needs-a-rebuild.md","Signs Your MVP Needs a Rebuild — A Practical Guide","sinais-mvp-precisa-rebuild",{"type":9,"value":193,"toc":417},[194,197,200,203,207,210,215,218,221,225,228,232,235,239,242,248,252,255,259,262,266,269,272,275,278,281,285,288,292,295,298,302,305,308,311,315,318,321,324,328,331,335,338,341,344,348,351,354,358,361,365,368,372,375,378,382,385,388,392,395,398,401,405,412],[12,195,196],{},"Your MVP did its job. It proved the idea, got early users, maybe helped you raise a round. But now things are breaking. Features take forever. Your developers fix bugs more than they ship. Every change causes two new problems.",[12,198,199],{},"You're trying to figure out if you need a few fixes or a full rebuild. Get it wrong in either direction and you pay: a premature rebuild wastes months and money, but waiting too long makes everything harder.",[12,201,202],{},"We help founders think through this decision regularly. This is how we approach it.",[22,204,206],{"id":205},"signs-your-mvp-needs-a-rebuild","Signs your MVP needs a rebuild",[12,208,209],{},"Not every frustration means you need a rebuild. Some problems are normal growing pains. Others are structural. The difference is whether the issue lives in a specific feature or in the foundation itself.",[211,212,214],"h3",{"id":213},"deploys-are-scary","Deploys are scary",[12,216,217],{},"When pushing a change to production feels like gambling, pay attention. If your team avoids deploying on Fridays (or any day, really) because something might break, the codebase has a trust problem.",[12,219,220],{},"This usually means no automated tests, no staging environment, or so much tangled code that changes in one area break something unrelated. A few missing tests can be added. But if the architecture makes testing difficult in the first place, patching won't help.",[211,222,224],{"id":223},"new-features-take-5x-longer-than-they-should","New features take 5x longer than they should",[12,226,227],{},"You built the first version in two months. Now adding a simple form takes three weeks. Early MVPs often skip structure for speed, and that's the right call at that stage. Those shortcuts compound, though. If your team keeps saying \"it's complicated because of how X was built,\" the shortcuts have become the architecture.",[211,229,231],{"id":230},"you-cant-hire-for-the-stack","You can't hire for the stack",[12,233,234],{},"Your MVP was built in a framework nobody uses anymore. Or in a language your founder picked because they knew it, not because it was the right tool. Struggling to find developers who want to work on your codebase is a real business problem, not a technical preference.",[211,236,238],{"id":237},"the-no-code-wall","The no-code wall",[12,240,241],{},"You built on Bubble, Webflow, Retool, or something similar. It got you to market fast, and that was smart. But now you need custom logic, complex integrations, or performance that the platform can't deliver. You're hacking workarounds on top of workarounds, and each one makes the next change harder.",[12,243,244,245,150],{},"This isn't a failure. No-code tools are built for validation, not scale. The wall is expected. We wrote more about ",[74,246,247],{"href":180},"why and when to invest in custom software",[211,249,251],{"id":250},"your-team-is-afraid-to-touch-certain-parts-of-the-code","Your team is afraid to touch certain parts of the code",[12,253,254],{},"Every codebase has a few dark corners. But if there are entire modules that developers refuse to modify because \"nobody knows how that works,\" that's structural rot. Knowledge left with whoever wrote it, and the code wasn't written to be understood by anyone else.",[211,256,258],{"id":257},"performance-is-degrading-and-you-cant-fix-it","Performance is degrading and you can't fix it",[12,260,261],{},"Pages load slower every month. The database queries that worked with 100 users choke at 10,000. You've tried caching, indexing, optimizing queries. The improvements are temporary. When performance problems resist targeted fixes, they're usually architectural.",[22,263,265],{"id":264},"the-signs-that-you-dont-need-a-rebuild","The signs that you DON'T need a rebuild",[12,267,268],{},"Before you commit to a rebuild, make sure you're not solving the wrong problem.",[12,270,271],{},"You're frustrated with the pace of development, but you only have one developer. Adding a second experienced developer might fix the speed problem without touching the code.",[12,273,274],{},"The product works fine, but it looks bad. A frontend redesign is not a rebuild. You can update the UI without rewriting business logic.",[12,276,277],{},"You want to switch frameworks because something newer came out. \"Vue 2 is old\" is not the same as \"Vue 2 is preventing us from shipping.\" Rebuild when the current tech blocks business goals, not because of hype.",[12,279,280],{},"You have a few bad modules, not a bad codebase. Sometimes the right move is to rewrite the payment system while leaving the rest alone. Surgically replacing components is cheaper and less risky than starting from scratch.",[22,282,284],{"id":283},"rebuild-vs-refactor-pick-the-right-approach","Rebuild vs. refactor: pick the right approach",[12,286,287],{},"There are three paths. The right one depends on how deep the problems go.",[211,289,291],{"id":290},"path-1-targeted-refactoring","Path 1: Targeted refactoring",[12,293,294],{},"This fits when the core architecture is sound but specific areas are messy. Maybe the authentication system is tangled, or the API layer mixes business logic with data access.",[12,296,297],{},"You identify the worst modules, write tests around them, and rewrite them one at a time. The rest of the application keeps running. Users don't notice. You're looking at weeks, not months, and each refactored module ships independently. Low risk because you're changing small pieces with the safety net of existing functionality.",[211,299,301],{"id":300},"path-2-incremental-rebuild-the-strangler-pattern","Path 2: Incremental rebuild (the strangler pattern)",[12,303,304],{},"This is for when the architecture itself is the problem, but the product is live and you can't afford downtime. We use this approach often when moving companies off no-code platforms or breaking apart a monolith.",[12,306,307],{},"You build new components alongside the old system. New features go into the new codebase. Old features get migrated one at a time. A routing layer sends traffic to the right place. Over months, the old system shrinks until it's gone.",[12,309,310],{},"Full migration typically takes three to six months, but you start shipping improvements within the first month. The tradeoff is running two systems at once, which adds complexity. But you never have a \"big bang\" moment where everything changes at once.",[211,312,314],{"id":313},"path-3-full-rebuild","Path 3: Full rebuild",[12,316,317],{},"Sometimes the existing code provides almost no value. This is rarer than people think, but it happens. If the codebase was built by someone learning to code, or cobbled together from copy-pasted Stack Overflow answers with no structure, there might be nothing worth saving.",[12,319,320],{},"You start fresh with a new repository, new architecture, and a clear plan. You don't try to replicate every feature. You rebuild the core product first and add features based on what users actually need, not what the old version happened to have.",[12,322,323],{},"Expect two to four months for the core product, then ongoing iteration. The risk is real: you lose velocity on the existing product during the transition, users might notice gaps, and the \"second system effect\" kicks in. There's always a tendency to over-engineer the rebuild because \"this time we'll do it right.\"",[22,325,327],{"id":326},"how-to-rebuild-your-mvp-without-starting-over","How to rebuild your MVP without starting over",[12,329,330],{},"Once the decision is made, execution is everything.",[211,332,334],{"id":333},"start-with-what-you-know-now-not-what-you-built-then","Start with what you know now, not what you built then",[12,336,337],{},"Your first MVP was based on assumptions. Now you have real users and real data. The rebuild should reflect what you've learned, not replicate the original feature list.",[12,339,340],{},"Go through your analytics. Which features do users actually use? Build those first. Which features exist but nobody touches? Leave them out. What do users keep asking for that the current system can't support? Prioritize those.",[12,342,343],{},"Most teams find that 30-40% of their MVP's features can be dropped entirely. They were built on guesses that turned out wrong.",[211,345,347],{"id":346},"define-done-before-you-start","Define \"done\" before you start",[12,349,350],{},"A rebuild without a clear scope is a project that never ends. Before writing any code, decide: what's the minimum feature set for the new version to replace the old one? What's the migration plan for existing users and data? What's the cutover strategy? When do you stop adding \"just one more thing\" and ship?",[12,352,353],{},"Write these answers down. Review them every sprint. Scope creep kills rebuilds more often than technical problems do.",[211,355,357],{"id":356},"keep-the-old-system-running","Keep the old system running",[12,359,360],{},"Don't turn off the old product until the new one is proven. Run them in parallel. Let early users test the new version while the old one handles production traffic. This gives you a safety net and real feedback before you commit.",[211,362,364],{"id":363},"preserve-your-data","Preserve your data",[12,366,367],{},"The code might be disposable, but the data almost never is. User accounts, transactions, content, configuration: plan the data migration early. It's usually the most underestimated part of a rebuild, and the most painful if you leave it for the end.",[211,369,371],{"id":370},"set-a-timebox","Set a timebox",[12,373,374],{},"Rebuilds expand. \"We'll just add this one feature since we're already rewriting.\" Six months later, you still haven't shipped.",[12,376,377],{},"Set a hard deadline. Three months is reasonable for most MVPs. If you can't ship the core product in that window, your scope is too big.",[22,379,381],{"id":380},"the-cost-of-waiting-too-long","The cost of waiting too long",[12,383,384],{},"Every month you spend patching a broken foundation is a month where your developers are slower, new hires take longer to onboard, and you can't pursue the features or integrations that require a solid technical base. Meanwhile, competitors who invested in good architecture early keep shipping faster than you.",[12,386,387],{},"The right time to rebuild is when the current system is actively holding back the business. Not when it's merely imperfect (every codebase is), but when it's the bottleneck between you and the next stage of growth.",[22,389,391],{"id":390},"what-to-look-for-in-a-rebuild-partner","What to look for in a rebuild partner",[12,393,394],{},"If you don't have the in-house team to handle a rebuild, be selective about who you bring in.",[12,396,397],{},"A good studio asks about your business before they talk about technology. They want to see the existing code, because a team that scopes a rebuild without reviewing what exists is guessing. They default to an incremental approach. If someone's first suggestion is \"start from scratch,\" they might be optimizing for billable hours, not your outcome.",[12,399,400],{},"Pay attention to how they talk about the transition period. How do users migrate? How do you handle data? What happens if the new system has problems at launch? And be skeptical of aggressive timelines. If someone promises a full rebuild in four weeks, they're either underscoping or overpromising.",[22,402,404],{"id":403},"ready-to-talk-about-your-codebase","Ready to talk about your codebase?",[12,406,407,408,411],{},"If your MVP got you here but can't take you further, ",[74,409,410],{"href":160},"let's talk",". We'll look at what you have, tell you honestly whether you need a rebuild or just some targeted fixes, and figure out the fastest path forward.",[12,413,414,415,150],{},"If you haven't worked with a studio before, ",[74,416,149],{"href":148},{"title":163,"searchDepth":164,"depth":164,"links":418},[419,428,429,434,441,442,443],{"id":205,"depth":164,"text":206,"children":420},[421,423,424,425,426,427],{"id":213,"depth":422,"text":214},3,{"id":223,"depth":422,"text":224},{"id":230,"depth":422,"text":231},{"id":237,"depth":422,"text":238},{"id":250,"depth":422,"text":251},{"id":257,"depth":422,"text":258},{"id":264,"depth":164,"text":265},{"id":283,"depth":164,"text":284,"children":430},[431,432,433],{"id":290,"depth":422,"text":291},{"id":300,"depth":422,"text":301},{"id":313,"depth":422,"text":314},{"id":326,"depth":164,"text":327,"children":435},[436,437,438,439,440],{"id":333,"depth":422,"text":334},{"id":346,"depth":422,"text":347},{"id":356,"depth":422,"text":357},{"id":363,"depth":422,"text":364},{"id":370,"depth":422,"text":371},{"id":380,"depth":164,"text":381},{"id":390,"depth":164,"text":391},{"id":403,"depth":164,"text":404},"2026-03-30","Slow deploys, features taking 5x longer, devs afraid to touch the code. How to tell if your MVP needs a rebuild and the fastest path forward.",null,{},{"title":190,"description":445},"blog/signs-your-mvp-needs-a-rebuild",[451,185,452],"mvp","technical-debt","xcGkqYGtM1r0UfwpUhhlK94lxlf1ZQUGXaowNMX_aXU",{"id":455,"title":456,"alternateSlug":457,"body":458,"date":678,"description":679,"extension":175,"image":446,"locale":177,"meta":680,"navigation":179,"path":148,"seo":681,"status":182,"stem":682,"tags":683,"__hash__":686},"blog/blog/what-to-expect-when-you-hire-a-software-development-studio.md","What to Expect When You Hire a Software Development Studio","o-que-esperar-ao-contratar-um-estudio-de-desenvolvimento",{"type":9,"value":459,"toc":666},[460,463,466,469,473,476,479,482,485,489,492,509,512,516,519,522,525,528,532,535,538,541,544,547,551,554,568,571,574,578,581,584,587,590,593,596,600,603,606,609,612,616,619,636,639,643,646,649,653,660],[12,461,462],{},"You have a product to build and no engineering team. Or your team is underwater and you need experienced developers yesterday. Either way, hiring a studio is on the table.",[12,464,465],{},"And you've probably heard the horror stories. Or lived one. Missed deadlines, code nobody can maintain, developers who nod along on calls and then build something else entirely. Fair enough.",[12,467,468],{},"I work at a studio. Here's how a well-run project actually works, step by step, so you know what to expect and what to push back on.",[22,470,472],{"id":471},"the-discovery-call","The discovery call",[12,474,475],{},"The first conversation isn't a sales pitch. Or shouldn't be. It's where both sides figure out whether the project makes sense.",[12,477,478],{},"You'll talk about what you're building and why — not just features, but the business problem behind them. Where things stand today: is there existing code, a prototype, a Figma file, or just an idea in a doc? What the real constraints are: budget, timeline, regulation, systems that need to integrate. And who's involved: do you have devs who'll work alongside the studio, or are you handing off the whole thing?",[12,480,481],{},"A studio worth hiring will ask uncomfortable questions here. \"What does success look like in three months?\" is a lot more useful than \"What features do you want?\" If the conversation is all about tech stacks and hourly rates, be skeptical.",[12,483,484],{},"Pay attention to communication style too. People who listen more than they talk usually understand more than they talk.",[22,486,488],{"id":487},"scoping","Scoping",[12,490,491],{},"After the call, the studio puts together a scope document. Not a 50-page spec. A focused document that covers:",[90,493,494,497,500,503,506],{},[93,495,496],{},"What's being built, in plain language. User flows, not database schemas.",[93,498,499],{},"What's out of scope. This matters more than what's in scope. Ambiguity here is where projects go off the rails.",[93,501,502],{},"The technical approach, with real reasoning. \"We'll use Vue.js because your team already knows JavaScript and you need to iterate fast\" is useful. \"We use cutting-edge technology\" tells you nothing.",[93,504,505],{},"Timeline broken into phases, with clear deliverables at each checkpoint.",[93,507,508],{},"Cost structure: fixed price, time-and-materials, or hybrid. Each has trade-offs, and the studio should explain which fits your situation.",[12,510,511],{},"You should be able to read this document and understand it without an engineering background. If you can't, ask them to rewrite it. If they can't explain the plan simply, they probably don't understand it well enough.",[22,513,515],{"id":514},"the-first-week-sets-the-tone","The first week sets the tone",[12,517,518],{},"Contract signed. The first week matters more than any other.",[12,520,521],{},"Day one, the studio gets access to repos, design files, staging, communication channels. You introduce the key people and explain who decides what.",[12,523,524],{},"Days two through five, the team orients. They read existing code, map the architecture, identify risks, and come back with questions. Expect a lot of questions. That's good. A quiet team in week one is a team building on assumptions.",[12,526,527],{},"By Friday you should have a shared project board (Linear, Jira, GitHub Issues), an agreed communication rhythm (daily standup, weekly demo, Slack channel), and the first sprint planned.",[22,529,531],{"id":530},"sprints-in-practice","Sprints in practice",[12,533,534],{},"Most studios work in one or two-week cycles.",[12,536,537],{},"At the start of each sprint, the team picks the highest-priority work from the backlog. You should be in that planning meeting. You decide what matters most, they decide how to build it.",[12,539,540],{},"During the sprint, the team works heads-down. You get daily async updates: what's done, what's next, what's blocked. No need to micromanage. But stay available for questions, because two days waiting on a product decision can stall an entire week of dev work.",[12,542,543],{},"At the end, the demo. The team shows what they built running on staging. Not slides. Working software. You click through it, give feedback, and that feedback feeds the next sprint.",[12,545,546],{},"After the demo, a retrospective. What worked, what didn't. It's where process problems get caught early, before they become project problems.",[22,548,550],{"id":549},"communication-for-real","Communication, for real",[12,552,553],{},"You should never have to guess what's happening with your project. A reasonable baseline:",[90,555,556,559,562,565],{},[93,557,558],{},"Daily async updates in Slack or wherever you prefer",[93,560,561],{},"Weekly demo with working software",[93,563,564],{},"A project board you can check anytime",[93,566,567],{},"Responses within a few hours during business hours, not days of silence",[12,569,570],{},"When something goes wrong, like a technical issue that shifts the timeline, you should hear about it the moment the team identifies it. Not at the next meeting, not in a report. Right then.",[12,572,573],{},"That's the biggest difference between a good studio and a bad one. Bad ones hide problems. Good ones bring the problem to the table and present options.",[22,575,577],{"id":576},"code-quality-even-if-youre-not-technical","Code quality (even if you're not technical)",[12,579,580],{},"These things determine whether you can maintain the product after the contract ends. Ask about them.",[12,582,583],{},"All code should be in Git, with pull requests and code review before anything merges. If a studio commits directly to main, walk away.",[12,585,586],{},"Automated tests should cover critical paths. Not 100% coverage (that's often a waste), but enough that the team can ship without fear of breaking what already works.",[12,588,589],{},"Documentation doesn't need to be a manual. A README that explains how to run the project, an architecture overview, and comments where the code isn't obvious. Someone joining after the engagement should be able to get up to speed.",[12,591,592],{},"The code should have clear separation of concerns. The question worth asking: \"If I hire another team to maintain this in a year, can they work with it?\" The answer has to be yes.",[12,594,595],{},"Pushing to production shouldn't require manual steps or knowledge that only lives in someone's head. CI/CD that runs tests and deploys is standard practice.",[22,597,599],{"id":598},"will-they-actually-understand-my-business","\"Will they actually understand my business?\"",[12,601,602],{},"Fair concern. A studio works across multiple clients and industries. How will they understand your domain?",[12,604,605],{},"Short answer: they won't on day one. But good engineers learn fast, and the whole discovery and kickoff process exists for that reason.",[12,607,608],{},"You bring domain knowledge, they bring engineering. Don't expect them to become experts in your industry. Expect them to ask the right questions and translate your business logic into well-built software.",[12,610,611],{},"Weekly demos help a lot here. The team corrects course fast instead of spending a month building on a misunderstanding. And a good sign: by the second or third sprint, the team starts using your business terminology naturally. If they're still confused about your core concepts after a month, something's wrong.",[22,613,615],{"id":614},"signs-you-need-to-step-in","Signs you need to step in",[12,617,618],{},"Not every project works out. Watch for these:",[90,620,621,624,627,630,633],{},[93,622,623],{},"Sprint commitments missed more than twice in a row. Once happens. Three times is a pattern.",[93,625,626],{},"You're chasing updates. If you're asking \"what's going on?\" more than once a week, communication already broke down.",[93,628,629],{},"Scope growing without anyone flagging it. Budget or timeline expanded and you didn't know? Project's out of control.",[93,631,632],{},"No access to the code. You should have full repo access from day one. The code is yours.",[93,634,635],{},"Team changing constantly. Some rotation is normal, but a new dev every month kills continuity.",[12,637,638],{},"The contract should have clear exit terms. A studio that makes it hard to leave is a studio that knows you'd want to.",[22,640,642],{"id":641},"what-you-walk-away-with","What you walk away with",[12,644,645],{},"In a well-run project, you end up with a working product in production. Clean code in a repo you own. A deploy pipeline that runs without the studio. Enough documentation for the next team to pick up where things left off. And a clear list of what was built, what was deferred, and what makes sense to tackle next.",[12,647,648],{},"The best sign of a good studio? It makes itself unnecessary. If they've built something that keeps you dependent on them, they didn't do the job right.",[22,650,652],{"id":651},"want-to-talk","Want to talk?",[12,654,655,656,659],{},"If you're evaluating studios and want a straight conversation about your project, ",[74,657,658],{"href":160},"get in touch",". A call to see if it makes sense.",[12,661,662,663,150],{},"And if you're wondering whether your current codebase needs a full rebuild or just some targeted work, ",[74,664,665],{"href":76},"here's how to tell",{"title":163,"searchDepth":164,"depth":164,"links":667},[668,669,670,671,672,673,674,675,676,677],{"id":471,"depth":164,"text":472},{"id":487,"depth":164,"text":488},{"id":514,"depth":164,"text":515},{"id":530,"depth":164,"text":531},{"id":549,"depth":164,"text":550},{"id":576,"depth":164,"text":577},{"id":598,"depth":164,"text":599},{"id":614,"depth":164,"text":615},{"id":641,"depth":164,"text":642},{"id":651,"depth":164,"text":652},"2026-03-29","Hiring a dev studio for the first time? Here's what the process actually looks like, from discovery call to production, so you know what to expect and ask.",{},{"title":456,"description":679},"blog/what-to-expect-when-you-hire-a-software-development-studio",[684,685,185],"process","hiring","aGvtrCLoUb7lP-KAT2L4W5ST1f_-9JQqnF75NaGFDe4",1775699559435]