From sketch to funded seed in ten weeks

The problem

A two-time founder with a thesis, a sketch, and eight LOIs from prospective design partners. No technical co-founder, a closing investor window, and a six-week travel schedule. They needed a working product, not a pitch-deck mock.

The approach

Treated the engagement like a founding-engineer sprint, not a contract. Picked a stack chosen to be re-readable by whoever inherited it (Next.js + tRPC + Prisma + Postgres on Vercel — boring on purpose). Shipped to staging weekly, ran demos with design partners every Friday, fed their feedback straight into the next week's scope. Documented every decision so the eventual in-house team didn't start cold.

The outcome

Working v1 in week 10. Six of the eight LOI partners converted to paid pilots within a month. Seed round (then $2.4M) closed off the back of the live demo. Helio hired their first in-house engineer in month four; I stayed on for a six-week support window before handing over.