Question 1

When is a custom app worth building instead of using off-the-shelf software?

Accepted Answer

When a spreadsheet has quietly become the system of record. If the real state of the business lives outside the tool you pay for, and people believe the spreadsheet when the two disagree, the tool has stopped modelling how the business works. Until that point, configuring an existing product properly is cheaper and faster.

Question 2

How long does a custom app take to build?

Accepted Answer

A focused first version typically reaches real users in 60 to 90 days from kickoff, preceded by two to six weeks of scoping. The largest variable is how quickly decisions get made on your side rather than engineering speed.

Question 3

Do I own the code?

Accepted Answer

Yes, entirely. The codebase sits in your repository, the infrastructure runs in your accounts and under your billing, and the documentation is written for whoever works on it next rather than for the original author. There is no platform you cannot leave.

Question 4

What does a custom app cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the workflows it has to carry and the systems it has to integrate with, which is why it is scoped rather than quoted from a description. An MVP Roadmap produces the scope, the architecture and a real number, starting at $6,000 and credited against the build if you proceed.

Question 5

Can you take over an app someone else built?

Accepted Answer

Yes. I audit what exists, work out what is worth keeping, and propose a path that replaces it incrementally rather than rewriting everything at once. Full rewrites fail at a well documented rate because they have to reach parity with behaviour nobody wrote down.

Question 6

Who actually does the work?

Accepted Answer

I do the architecture and the decisions that are expensive to reverse. Where a build needs more hands, my studio provides them and I stay accountable for the outcome. You deal with one person throughout.

You already built it. In spreadsheets.

The workaround becomes the system.

Three steps. No surprises.

Scope

Build

Hand over

Worth building when this is true.

Built and running.

Questions I get before we start.

One instrument. You own it.