The Rules of the Game: How I Work
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Every piece of work I take on runs on the same four steps, Discuss, Plan, Build and Profit. It ends on Profit because the build is a step on the way, not the point. Before any of it, a mutual NDA covers your idea, and if you'd rather sign yours first, I'll sign that too.
Discuss#
The first call is about your business before it's about the build. You tell me what you're trying to do, I ask the questions nobody has asked yet, and you leave knowing what to build first, whether or not you hire me.
Plan#
Before anything is built, the priorities, the tools and the risks go on paper, along with the result the work should move, in revenue or in hours saved. Every update after that reports against it.
Build#
My team builds it with me making the calls, and you watch it take shape in clear updates until it's live. For Permuto Capital, a flow that used to take months to draw went from idea to production in about a week.
Profit#
The work is judged by how it does once real people use it. AI Toolbar was rebuilt while 40,000 people kept using it, then grew past 100,000.
Who I work best with#
People who hand me the hard calls and let me make them, on work I'd put my name on. Most of them aren't developers. They know their business, and they want someone who owns whether the product works.
Who I'm not the right fit for#
If you want a pair of hands that follows instructions to the letter, plenty of good people do that, and you'll be happier with one of them. And if the target is going to move every week, I've lived that one already. Pouring more water doesn't make a tree grow faster. The seed dies.
If you've read this far and you're still nodding, the first step is the easy one.