The ethos
Here is the deal
No methodology with a trademark. No discovery phase that costs more than the build. One person who gets shit done, eight principles that decide what gets built and how, and terms written like a human wrote them.
Principles
Things we believe enough to argue about
Every build decision runs through these. If a piece of work fails one of them, it does not happen, however well it pays.
Demos lie. Production does not.
A system only counts when it runs on your real data, on a Tuesday, unsupervised.
The person you meet builds the thing.
No account managers, no junior bench. What gets said on the call is what happens in the code.
Working software beats status meetings.
You watch the system doing the job. Nobody needs a deck about progress when they can see progress.
Boring technology is a feature.
The ambition goes into what the system does, not the framework it is written in.
If a spreadsheet does the job, buy the spreadsheet.
Bespoke is for work nothing off the shelf can do. Recommending a build you do not need is expensive flattery.
Small and live beats big and planned.
The first slice does real work early. Plans that take months to show anything are how pilots die.
Your system, your keys.
Your accounts, your data, your IP. A supplier you cannot leave is a landlord.
Teach first, bill second.
If an hour of pointers gets you there yourself, that is the recommendation. We charge for the work you genuinely could not do faster on your own.
Disagree with one of these?
Book the call anyway. Arguing about it costs nothing and we both learn something.
Book a callWays of working
Three ways this runs
Every project fits one of these. Two end with a handover. One keeps us on the books, because live systems need looking after.
One-off build
We scope it, build it, put it live and hand it over fully documented. You own everything and owe us nothing ongoing. Come back when you want the next one.
What we buildBuild and run
We build it, then keep it running for a monthly fee: monitoring, fixes and improvements as your business changes. Live systems need looking after, and that is real ongoing work, so we charge for it. You still own everything.
What we buildTraining
Your team learns to build their own tools, Cook-a-Long format, on your real workflows. The cheapest way to never need us again, which is fine by us.
Private trainingThe shape of a project
Live early, then improve in the open
The intake is short: brief, first slice, live on real data. After that the project is a loop, not a line. There is no big-reveal launch day, because the system has been doing the job for weeks by then.
The terms
The contract stuff, before the contract
Who does the work
Dean Cookson. Not a team introduced after the contract is signed. I scope the work, I build the work and I answer the messages about the work. If that sounds like a constraint, it is also why nothing gets lost between the person who promised and the person who delivered.
How you hear from us
When something goes live you get a message that day, with a link to the thing working. Not a summary of effort, the thing itself. Questions get straight answers, including “that was a mistake, here is the fix”. Scheduled status meetings only if you want them; most clients stop wanting them once the links start arriving.
Billing, in plain words
We agree a number in writing before any work starts, and that is the number you pay. No meter running in the background, no surprise invoices, no charge for the first call. If the scope changes, the number changes in writing first, never on the invoice. If we run the system for you after launch, that is a monthly fee agreed the same way, and it pays for real work: monitoring, fixes and improvements, not a line on an invoice you forgot about.
Talk to the person who builds it
Book a call. 30 minutes, no pitch deck. You leave knowing what we would build first, what it replaces and whether we are the right shape for it.
Book a call. 30 minutes, no pitch deck.