Pick up the stalled build. Ship it to production.
When the previous agency burned through your budget without shipping, when the founder-built MVP cracks under real load, when the no-code stack breaks at scale — that's where I come in. I take over partially-built systems and ship them on a modern stack in 6–10 weeks.
- Written audit + recovery plan in 7 days, before you commit to the build
- Ship to production on Next.js · Node · Postgres in 6–10 weeks
- Senior engineer on every commit — no juniors on rescue work
Who I rescue projects for
Operators with revenue and real customers can't afford a second failed attempt. The buyers below have one shot left at getting this right — and that's how I scope the engagement.
Operators at established SMBs
You run a real business — recruitment, manufacturing, professional services. A previous agency took your money. The build doesn't work, or never shipped. You need someone who'll finish it without rewriting from scratch.
Founders hitting a no-code wall
Bubble, Webflow + Make.com, Glide, Phantombuster — you got to product-market fit on a no-code stack and now it's breaking under real load. Time to graduate to a real architecture without losing momentum.
Solo founders 70% done
You built most of it yourself. The last 30% — multi-tenancy, billing, the integration layer, observability — is outside your core competence. You need a senior partner to close it out, not a generalist agency.
CTOs with abandoned codebases
A previous freelancer or contractor disappeared. The repo is undocumented. The deploy script doesn't work. You need to either ship it, or know if it's salvageable. The audit answers that in 7 days.
Why most rescues fail
Three things kill most rescue projects. First, the new dev panics, rewrites everything from scratch, and burns six months of runway re-doing work that wasn't broken. Second, the new dev patches on top of a broken architecture — the system is still cursed, just with a new commit history. Third, the new dev scopes the rescue without reading the codebase, so the budget doubles by month two when reality hits.
The pattern I see again and again in failed rescues: nobody did the work to figure out what was salvageable before committing to a price. Then everyone is locked into a fixed-price engagement against a moving target. The agency loses money, the client loses trust, and the system never ships.
My approach is the opposite. Before I quote a build, I run a 7-day audit: I read the code, the data model, the cloud setup, and any prior contracts or specs. You get a written recovery plan that tells you what's salvageable, what needs to be migrated, what's faster to rewrite, and a fixed price for the full build. Audit is $2,500–$5,000 and refunded against the build if you continue. Worst case, you've got a clean go/no-go for the price of a cheap laptop.
How I take over a stalled build
Every rescue follows the same pattern, refined across half a dozen engagements where the previous build didn't ship — Callan Hawkins, Vulcan Jewellery, and several private ones.
Audit before quoting
I read the codebase, infrastructure, data, and prior contracts before I'll commit to a fixed-price build. The audit deliverable is a 5–10 page written report: what works, what doesn't, what's salvageable, what to migrate, what to rebuild, and a fixed quote for the next 6–10 weeks.
Pragmatic migration, not rewrite
Full rewrites take six months and burn trust. I migrate in slices: keep what works, replace what's broken, ship incrementally. You see real progress every Friday — a demo URL, a status note, a deploy log. The old system stays running until the new one is at parity.
Modern stack, no exotic choices
Next.js, TypeScript, Node, Postgres, Supabase, Vercel, Stripe. Boring, fast, well-documented, hireable. The next engineer who picks this up — yours or mine — can read it instantly. No bespoke frameworks. No clever architecture that needs a 200-page wiki.
Customer-invisible cutover
Your users shouldn't notice the migration. We run the old and new systems in parallel until functional parity is reached, then cut over during a planned maintenance window. Login continuity, data integrity, and rollback paths are all in the plan before code touches production.
Knowledge transfer baked in
Audit doc → migration plan → architecture decision records → handover Loom. Your team can extend, fork, or hire against what we shipped without depending on me. The goal is to leave you owning the system, not renting it.
Senior-only on rescue work
Rescues compound mistakes — wrong call in week 2 costs a month in week 6. I don't put juniors on this work. Every commit gets a senior engineer's eyes.
Engagement shape
Two-phase by default — audit, then build. You commit to the build only after seeing the recovery plan and the fixed price.
Discovery (Day 0)
30-minute call. You explain what's there and what's broken. I ask sharp questions, request repo + cloud access, and we set the audit scope. NDA signed if needed before access is granted.
Audit + Recovery Plan (Days 1–7)
I read everything. Codebase, infra, data model, prior contracts, deploy scripts. You get a written 5–10 page audit: salvageability assessment, migration roadmap, what to rebuild, what to keep, fixed quote for the full build, honest go/no-go. Flat fee $2,500–$5,000, refunded against the build.
Recovery Build (Weeks 2–10)
Fixed-price, milestone-based. Each Friday: a demo URL, a status note, a deploy log. No surprises. The old system keeps running. By the end, the new system is in production on a modern stack, and your team has handover docs.
Production handoff (Week 10+)
30 days of post-launch support included — bug fixes, small adjustments, monitoring. Optional retainer if you want continued iteration without going back to a freelancer auction. Code, cloud accounts, and docs are all yours.
What you get
Investment
Audit-first pricing. You only commit to the build after seeing the written recovery plan and a fixed quote — no open-ended hourly billing, no scope creep surprises.
Audit Only
$2,500 – $5,000
7-day rescue audit. Written 5–10 page report covering salvageability, migration plan, cost projection, honest go/no-go. Refunded against the build if you continue.
- Codebase + infra audit
- Data model review
- Salvageability assessment
- Migration roadmap
- Fixed-price quote for the full build
- Go/no-go recommendation
Recovery Build
$15,000 – $50,000
6–10 weeks. Migrate what's salvageable, rebuild what's broken, ship to production on a modern stack. Audit cost refunded into this tier.
- Migration of salvageable code
- Rebuild of broken modules
- Modern infrastructure (Next.js, Postgres, Vercel, Supabase)
- Architecture decision records
- Handover docs + Loom walkthrough
- Customer-invisible cutover
- 30 days post-launch support
Post-Rescue Retainer
From $6,000/month
Monthly engagement after the rescue ships. Common for clients who want continued iteration without going back to a freelancer auction.
- Dedicated weekly capacity
- Priority response
- Ongoing roadmap + architecture reviews
- Production monitoring
Every rescue starts with the audit. I won't quote a fixed-price build without reading the code first — that protects both of us.
Tech Stack
Working With Clients Across
Recent Work
Related case studies
Frequently asked
We've already paid an agency for 6 months. Can you finish it without rewriting everything?
Usually yes. The 7-day audit decides this. About 60% of the time I can migrate enough of the existing codebase to save 4–8 weeks of rebuild. About 40% of the time the architecture is broken enough that a fresh build on the existing data model is faster. The audit tells us which path applies before you commit to the build cost.
What if our previous developer ghosted and we don't have the repo?
Not as common as you'd think, but I've handled it. If the live system is accessible, I can reverse-engineer the spec from the running app — especially for CRUD or workflow tools — and rebuild faster than you might expect. The audit covers this case explicitly with a clear scope and price.
Our stack is Bubble / Webflow / Make.com at scale. Will you migrate us off?
Yes — this is one of the most common rescue patterns. The migration plan is usually: keep the no-code surface running while we rebuild on Next.js + Postgres in parallel, then cut over with zero downtime once the new system is at parity. Vulcan Jewellery and several private rescues have followed this exact pattern.
How do you handle our customers during the migration?
Migrations are designed to be invisible to your customers. The old system stays live until the new one matches functionality, then we cut over during a planned maintenance window. Login continuity, data integrity, rollback paths, and customer communication are all covered in the migration plan before any production code ships.
Will you sign an NDA before the audit?
Yes. Mutual NDAs are standard before I get repo or cloud access — most rescue engagements require it. Standard MSA + SOW available if your procurement process needs it.
What if the audit says the project is dead?
Then you know that for $2,500–$5,000 instead of $50,000. I've delivered go/no-go calls before — usually because the data model is broken enough that no migration is faster than a clean rebuild. In that case the audit doubles as a fresh-build spec you can take elsewhere if you don't want to continue with me.
Do you work with our existing CTO or engineering lead?
Yes, regularly. The rescue is often a temporary bandwidth boost — I deliver the migration, your CTO reviews architecture along the way, and your team owns it forward. The engagement is collaborative, not siloed. Your team is in the Slack, the repo, the demos.
How fast can the audit start?
Audits typically start within 5–7 days of contract signing. For urgent situations — payments broken, production down, demos imminent — I occasionally fast-track to same-week starts. Build engagements usually start 2–3 weeks after audit completion.
Ready to start?
Every engagement starts with a 30-minute discovery call. I'll listen, ask sharp questions, and send a written proposal within 48 hours.
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