Forward-deployed engineering — Manchester, UK

Most agencies will build anything you ask them to. We'd rather sayno.

— when no is the right answer. The rest of the time we assess what you actually need, put a plan in writing, and build it with your team.

What’s the problem?

Start a projectSee the work

More than half of AI projects never make it out of pilot and into production.

Gartner — the gap this practice exists to close

A normal developer builds one capability for many customers. A forward-deployed engineer builds many capabilities for one. That customer is you.

The model Palantir invented — run here at one-client scale

01 — When the answer is no

Four arguments we have often

  • An AI pilot with no route to productionOver half never get there
  • Replatforming to fix a process problemFix the process first
  • A rebuild the numbers do not justifyThe platform was not the problem
  • Custom software where the real constraint is organisationalCode will not settle that argument

We are an independent practice with no utilisation target and no bench to keep busy. A no costs us one project and saves you a year — a trade we can afford and an agency structurally cannot. When the answer is yes, we do the whole job: the plan, the build, the integrations, and the unglamorous parts that keep it running afterwards.

02 — What we say yes to

First store to full stack

  • Systems that don't talk

    Carrier APIs, ERPs, POS, warehouse systems. The integration work nobody wants to own.

  • Operations held together by memory

    The process that works because one person remembers it. Turned into software before they leave.

  • AI that has to survive production

    Putting AI into a business that already works. Different problem from building an AI product, and a harder one.

  • Marketplace and channel integration

    Mirakl, Linnworks, ShipStation. Getting your own site and the channels you sell through to agree on stock.

  • Custom platforms

    When nothing off the shelf fits the way you actually work, and bending your business to the software costs more.

  • E-commerce and storefronts

    Shopify through to fully custom. A first store, or a fifth replatform that has to go right.

03 — Work that got a yes

Client names under NDA

Two more, plus multiple Shopify builds See all work

04 — How it starts

Discovery is free

  1. Tell us where it hurts

    Email or the form. A real conversation, not a sales call.

  2. Discovery — free

    We get into your systems, your data and your people. No fee, no obligation.

  3. A proposal, in writing

    Scope, price and timeline — or a reasoned "don't build it". Yours to keep either way.

Ask us. We might say no. That's the point.

Discovery is free — you get a written proposal either way

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