a fixed-scope build of the data layer, the warehouse, the api, the audit trail. priced sow, sovereign hosting where it matters, paired hand-over on the way out.
the data layer, written down, signed
cadencebuild team 2–4 engineers
term8–16 weeks fixed scope
hostingsovereign where it matters
leaves withplatform + runbook documented
the work, named.
the data is on someone's laptop. the warehouse is "we are getting to it." the api is three undocumented endpoints and a postman collection. we build the platform from the data layer up — fixed scope, paired hand-over, runbook on the way out.
what we build.
the data layer — ingestion, validation, lineage. nothing enters without a contract.
the warehouse — modelled, documented, versioned. dbt or sqlmesh, your call.
the api — versioned, documented, audit-logged. every request has a trail.
the audit trail — append-only, signed, queryable. the auditor reads it without us.
the runbook — what to do when ingest fails, when latency drifts, when the warehouse is behind.
sovereign-hosting setup — afrihost, hetzner, your tenancy. data stays in the jurisdiction.
what we do not build.
the frontend. that is your product team. we build to a clean api.
the brand. we ship a working platform; we do not ship the marketing site.
a closed-source platform. the build leaves with you, in your repo, on your tenancy.
an over-architected platform. we ship the smallest thing that survives the next two years of growth.
§ posturea platform survives hand-over if the next engineer can ship a feature on their first friday, without us in the room. that is the test.
how it runs.
four phases. fixed sow. the runbook is written as we build, not after.
cadence
contractw. 01–02
buildw. 03–12
pairw. 13–15
closew. 16
P.01 · contract
two weeks. one sow.
we read the existing data, the existing api, the existing audit posture. we draft the scope on paper. you sign it; we start.
P.02 · build
ten weeks of pair-coding.
two-engineer pair, three days a week on-site. the data layer first, then warehouse, then api, then audit. every primitive a working paper.
P.03 · pair
three weeks of shadow-then-lead.
your engineers shadow ours for two weeks. they lead for one. drift-alerts go to their slack, not ours, by the end of week fifteen.
P.04 · close
one week. then we leave.
closing working paper signed. runbook handed over. quarterly office hours for twelve months.
this is for you if…
signals.
your data is on someone's laptop and you can name the person.
an auditor or regulator will read your warehouse within twelve months.
you have product-market fit and the data layer is now the bottleneck.
sovereign hosting matters — popia, regulated sector, public-sector buyer.
you tried hiring a head of data. the candidates wanted to architect; you needed someone to build.
not for you if…
you want a vendor-hosted black-box platform. that is not what we build.
you want a pre-seed mvp. hire a generalist engineer; ship the mvp; come back.
you want a five-engineer team forever. our team leaves in sixteen weeks.
you do not have anyone to hand over to. hire first. then we build.
commercial shape.
fixed sow. milestones at contract, mid-build, hand-over. priced in zar; halal-compatible structure available.
data layer · 8 wkingestion, validation, lineage. warehouse model drafted. no api.from r 720kfixed scope
platform · 12 wkdata layer + warehouse + versioned api + audit trail. runbook signed.from r 1.4mfixed scope
platform + popia · 16 wkas above, plus popia posture, sovereign hosting, audit-ready data room.from r 1.9mfixed scope
example · a retail-sme platform, sixteen-week build.
a sandton retail-sme platform serving three hundred stores. phoenix in production already; data layer running on a single postgres instance with no audit trail. sixteen-week platform build. sovereign-hosted, audit-ready, owned by the in-house team on the last friday.
w. 01–02
contract.
read existing schema. draft the new model with the in-house lead. signed sow on day fourteen.
w. 03–12
build.
two-engineer pair, three days/wk on-site. ingestion + warehouse + versioned api + signed audit trail. all in their tenancy.
w. 13–16
pair + close.
two weeks of shadow-then-lead. their head-of-data signs the runbook. office hours quarterly to month eighteen.