A
In seat from June 2026Senior Engineer, A
Senior Engineer, Next.js and Supabase
Shipping a clean App Router front end and the Postgres schema underneath it in the same Sprint.
Next.jsSupabaseTypeScript
Bangalore, India
Founded 2026 · Chicago and Bangalore
One feature, shipped
every two weeks.
(Or you don’t pay for the next one.)
Holdfast is a small engineering studio that ships one production feature for your startup every two weeks. Fixed scope, fixed price $9,500, no retainers, no minimums, no conversion fees. Senior engineers based in India. A founding partner runs every project from Chicago.
- Average ship time
- 11 days
- Median Sprint margin
- 68%
- Engineers past year one
- 100%
sprint log
in progress
Stripe webhook reconciliation
14-day sprint · 47 commits · main
- d01Brief and scope locked
- d02Spec written, schema drafted
- d03Skeleton scaffolded
- d04Webhook receiver
- d05Idempotency keys
- d06Event store
- d07Reconciler loop
- d08Retry and backoff
- d09Edge cases
- d10Eval and tests
- d11Reconciliation dashboard
- d12Hardening pass
- d13Staging deploy
- d14Shipped to production13:42 UTC
Northwind
Cadence
Lumen Health
Parcel
Fathom
Trellis
Logos shown are illustrative until first external case studies publish
Method
A 14-day sprint.
Four steps, one fixed date. Here is exactly what happens between your brief and your production deploy.
- 01Day 0
Brief and scope
You send a one-page brief. We send back a fixed scope, a fixed price, and a delivery date by end of day.
- 02Days 1 to 3
Spec and skeleton
The partner writes the spec, the engineer scaffolds the code with Claude Code, and you get a Loom walking you through both.
- 03Days 4 to 12
Build and review
Daily commits, twice-weekly Loom updates, an async Slack channel. Claude Code, Cursor, and Linear, in the open. You watch the work happen.
- 04Days 13 to 14
Ship and handoff
Deploy to your production, write the README, record a 10-minute handoff video, and close the sprint.
If we miss day 14, your next Sprint is free. We have not missed yet.
The difference
What we don’t do.
The agency model has a set of habits founders have learned to dread. We built Holdfast by removing them, one at a time.
Traditional dev agency or staffing firm
Holdfast
Them
Bills hourly with no scope cap.
Holdfast
Fixed price per shipped feature.
Them
Sells you a 12-month minimum commitment.
Holdfast
Month to month. Cancel any time.
Them
Charges $50,000 to convert your engineer to a full-time hire.
Holdfast
Zero conversion fee. Hire anyone, any time.
Them
Sales VP runs your intro call, project handed to an offshore team.
Holdfast
Founder runs every intro call. Senior engineers run delivery.
Them
Hides the AI tools they use, sells you "premium senior hours".
Holdfast
Open about every tool. We log AI time saved on every sprint.
If you have ever signed an Andela MSA, you know exactly why we built this.
Recent work
Sprints that shipped on time.
Internal lab projects and external client work. Every one delivered inside its window.
Pricing
How we price.
Two products. Two prices. One discovery option.
Discovery Sprint
Scoping$2,500/ 5 days
- A written spec for the feature you want shipped next.
- A fixed-price Sprint quote and ship date, both in the spec.
- Two 45-minute working sessions with a partner.
- Credited 100% against your next Sprint if you sign within 30 days.
Best for: scoping work where we both want a written spec before committing to a build.
AI Build Sprint
Fixed price$9,500/ 14 days
- One production-ready feature, scope locked on day 0.
- If we miss day 14, your next Sprint is free.
- Daily commits, twice-weekly Loom updates, async Slack.
- A senior engineer named in your contract, founder reviewing.
- Full handoff: production deploy, README, 10-minute video.
Best for: a specific feature, integration, or workflow you need shipped now.
Embedded Pod
Month to month$13,500/ month, per engineer
- A senior engineer embedded in your team, tools, and standups.
- Month to month, 30-day notice, no minimum term.
- Weekly cadence, daily Slack, a written monthly review.
- Zero conversion fee if you later hire them full-time.
- Founder review and a second engineer to pair when needed.
Best for: a continuous workload of 2 to 6 months.
There is no enterprise plan. We do not negotiate on price.
How we are structured
Partners2
Senior engineers4
BDRs, sales VPs, success managers0
Open client Sprints, capped6
Chicago · Bangalore
Who we are
A small studio. On purpose.
Holdfast is two partners and four senior engineers. That is the whole company. We cap open Sprints at six at any one time, which is the number two partners can review honestly without thinning out.
One of the partners runs every intro call. The same partner writes the spec, signs the contract, and is the named reviewer on every pull request. There is no sales team between you and the person who will own your build, because the team is small enough that there is no need for one.
The senior bench in Bangalore writes every line of client code. Junior engineers exist in the studio, but they work only on our own lab projects, never on yours. That rule is not flexible.
We do not have a BDR. We do not have a sales VP. We do not have a “success manager.” This is on purpose.
Engineers
Senior, every seat.
No juniors on client work. The bench grew out of the senior intern pipeline, trained on lab projects until they were senior by our definition.
B
In seat from June 2026Senior Engineer, B
Senior Engineer, AI Integrations
Building AI features that know when to refuse, with an eval harness the client can keep tuning.
ClaudeRAGEvals
Bangalore, India
C
In seat from June 2026Senior Engineer, C
Senior Engineer, Backend and Postgres
Billing code and money flows you do not have to double-check, with an audit trail that holds up in diligence.
PostgresStripeAPIs
Remote, India
D
In seat from June 2026Senior Engineer, D
Senior Engineer, Frontend and Design Systems
Building interfaces that feel hand-made: real design tokens, real motion, never a default template.
ReactDesign systemsMotion
Bangalore, India
Journal
Arguments, not listicles.
Writing about shipping software. Direct, opinionated, specific. No tips, no thought-leadership.
FAQ
Frequently asked, plainly answered.
The questions a skeptical founder asks before signing. Answered without the sales gloss.
Your next Sprint is free. Not a discount, not a partial credit, the next Sprint is on us. The deadline is written into the contract as a date, not a target. We have not missed one yet, and the day we do, that clause does its job.
Have a feature in mind?
Send a one-page brief by end of day. Get a price and a ship date back by morning.