Onwards Labs Onwards Labs
HOW IT WORKS

Sprint first. Build only if it's worth building.

Most founders spend $50k finding out what they should have built. The sprint answers that first — and its deliverable doubles as your build plan, whether you build with us or not.

DEFINITION OF DONE

We don't sell MVPs. We sell revenue-ready.

"MVP" can mean anything — which is the point of the word. Ours is checkable: done means a stranger can sign up, pay, and use it, without you in the room.

Payments live

Stripe in production. Real money can move on day one.

Auth & accounts

Sign-up, login, reset — the boring 30% where DIY tools stall.

Deployed

On your infrastructure — not a preview link in someone's sandbox.

Analytics wired

You see what users actually do, from the first session.

Terms & privacy

The legal pages real customers — and app stores — expect.

Onboarding

A stranger reaches value without a demo call from you.

THE THREE PHASES

Sprint. Build. Keep a CTO.

PHASE 01 · TWO WEEKS
Build Readiness Sprint

Two weeks of engineering judgment applied to your idea: what to build, what it really costs, whether it's worth building at all.

— Scoped product spec
— Stack decision
— Real budget & timeline
— Build-vs-buy calls
— Risk map
No viable path inside your budget? The sprint is free.
PHASE 02 · SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS
The Build

A senior delivery pod builds to the sprint spec, with Ryan as your fractional CTO making every technical decision. Weekly demos, billed stage by stage.

— Revenue-ready product
— Your repo, your infra
— Docs + handover video
— 60-day defect warranty
Fixed scope, fixed date. Late weeks credit you $1,000 each.
PHASE 03 · ONGOING
Fractional CTO

After launch: iteration sprints driven by what the analytics say, infrastructure that scales, engineering resource on tap.

— Post-launch iteration sprints
— Infrastructure & security
— Part-time or dedicated engineers
— Hiring & team guidance
A CTO's judgment on retainer — without co-founder equity.
THE DELIVERY LEDGER

Six stages. Six things in your hands.

Every stage ends with an artifact you can hold and a gate you control. Billing follows the same rhythm — one-sixth of the fee per stage, never a dollar past the gate you're at.

01 — SPRINT · WK 1
Draft & alignment
The idea becomes a written structure: scope, user flows, what's in, what's out — argued over with you until it's right.
→ A draft spec you can read, mark up and tear apart.
GATE: SCOPE SIGN-OFF
02 — SPRINT · WK 1–2
Working concepts
Your core screens, designed for real — so you react to something concrete, not a description.
→ Concept designs of the screens that matter.
GATE: YOU PICK THE DIRECTION
03 — SPRINT · WK 2
Clickable prototype
A prototype you can tap through and put in front of real customers — before a dollar of build budget is committed.
→ A prototype link + the full dossier: spec, stack, budget, timeline, risk.
GATE: BUILD / DON'T BUILD — YOUR CALL
04 — BUILD · WK 1–6
The build
The senior pod builds to the signed spec. A staging link is live from week one; demos every Friday.
→ Working software you can click, every single week.
GATE: DEFINITION-OF-DONE CHECKLIST
05 — BUILD · FINAL WK
Test
Tested the way a stranger uses it: sign up, pay, reach value. Defects die here, not in production.
→ A passed launch checklist, in writing.
GATE: IT SHIPS WHEN IT PASSES
06 — ONGOING
Maintain
Sixty days of defect cover, monitoring from day one, then iteration sprints driven by what the analytics say.
→ A live product with warranty in writing — repo and infra in your name.
GATE: MONTH TO MONTH — WALK AWAY ANYTIME
ANY GATE CAN SAY STOP — EVERYTHING PRODUCED UP TO THAT POINT WALKS WITH YOU.
THE SPRINT DELIVERABLE

You walk away holding the plan.

The sprint output is a build-ready dossier: spec, stack, budget, timeline and risk map — priced and sequenced. It doubles as our proposal if we build, and as a brief any competent team could execute if we don't.

Either way, you stop guessing.

APPENDIX B — RISK MAPCONFIDENTIAL
Build Readiness Report
SPEC · STACK · BUDGET · TIMELINE · RISK
BUILD WINDOW
6–8 weeks
DECISION
Build / don't
IN WRITING

The mechanics nobody else will put in a contract.

G-01 / LATE PENALTY
If we're late, we pay.

$1,000 credited back for every week past the delivery date. The deadline isn't a hope — it's a clause.

G-02 / WARRANTY
60 days of cover.

Any defect in the first 60 days after launch gets fixed at our cost. Marketplaces hand you code and vanish; we stay.

G-03 / OWNERSHIP
You own everything.

Your repository, your infrastructure, documented, with a recorded handover video. No hostage code, no lock-in.

G-04 / SPRINT GUARANTEE
No path, no fee.

If the sprint can't define a build path inside your budget, the sprint is free. We'd rather refund you than build the wrong thing.

G-05 / WALK-AWAY CLAUSE
Leave at any gate, take everything.

Billing tracks the six stages — one-sixth each. Stop at the clickable prototype? You've paid for three stages, and the spec, concepts and prototype leave with you. No exit fees, no haggling.

EVERY CARD ABOVE IS A CONTRACT CLAUSE, NOT A MARKETING LINE.
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