Plate №01Senior product engineering
From idea to production-ready MVP in under 90 days.
Senior product engineers for founders who need to ship, rescue, or productionize software — without hiring a full in-house team.
Not cheap outsourcing. Not overpriced US agency work.
Senior engineering execution for founders who need to move now.
By the numbers
AI accelerates.Seniors decide.
Inputs
- AIAccelerates scaffolding, refactoring, review, testing, and repetitive delivery work.
- SeniorArchitecture, tradeoffs, security, reliability, and production decisions stay human-owned.
- OwnershipWe stay close to deployment, monitoring, handoff, and the long tail after launch.
Outputs
- Built fast
- Built right
- Built to last
AI
Accelerates scaffolding, refactoring, review, testing, and repetitive delivery work.
Senior
Architecture, tradeoffs, security, reliability, and production decisions stay human-owned.
Ownership
We stay close to deployment, monitoring, handoff, and the long tail after launch.
Built fast
Built right
Built to last
Senior engineers stay on the pager.
Start wherethe product actually is.
New idea, broken build, almost-finished prototype, or AI feature — we meet the project where it is and move it toward production.
- for: ideas · sketches · raw concepts
New MVP
for: ideas · sketches · raw conceptsAn idea, sketch, or workflow — into a usable product in 4–12 weeks.
- for: broken builds · slow vendors
Project Rescue
for: broken builds · slow vendorsA stuck or unfinished build — stabilized and shipped.
- for: prototypes · post-MVP polish
Production Launch
for: prototypes · post-MVP polishA working prototype — taken from "almost there" to production-ready.
- for: founders adding AI
AI Product Build
for: founders adding AIReal AI as a real product feature — workflows, assistants, automations.
Not sure where you fit? We'll help you find the right one.
Pick your launch path.One scoping call sets it.
2 weeks
Prototype Sprint
$4,500Clickable or functional prototype. Validate the idea fast.
4 weeks
Launch Sprint
$9,500Small MVP with auth, database, 1–2 core workflows, and deployment.
8 weeks
Most popularMVP Build
$24,500Usable product with 3–5 workflows, admin tools, integrations, and launch support.
12 weeks
Product Launch
$49,500Production-ready v1 with infra, CI/CD, monitoring, docs, and post-launch support.
2 weeks
Prototype Sprint
Clickable or functional prototype. Validate the idea fast.
Start here4 weeks
Launch Sprint
Small MVP with auth, database, 1–2 core workflows, and deployment.
Start hereMost Popular8 weeks
MVP Build
Usable product with 3–5 workflows, admin tools, integrations, and launch support.
Start here12 weeks
Product Launch
Production-ready v1 with infra, CI/CD, monitoring, docs, and post-launch support.
Start hereMost founders start with a scoping call — we'll recommend the smallest package that safely moves the product forward. Pricing depends on scope, integrations, and complexity.
Your build,visible every day.
BlocksCTO Pager is a private project portal — milestones, commits, decisions, on-call, and risks, visible daily. No Jira. No status meetings.
On call
Live
Muhammad
Responds within 4h
- Deploy · staging ✓14:23
- Call summary saved12:08
- 4 commits to main09:45
- Stripe checkout chosen08:30
- Auth refactor flaggedYest.
- Milestone 04 complete2d
- Weekly call · 5 logs2d
- Deploy · prod ✓3d
- Test suite failure4d
- 12 commits to main4d
- Deploy · staging ✓14:23
- Call summary saved12:08
- 4 commits to main09:45
- Stripe checkout chosen08:30
- Auth refactor flaggedYest.
- Milestone 04 complete2d
- Weekly call · 5 logs2d
- Deploy · prod ✓3d
- Test suite failure4d
- 12 commits to main4d
Always in the Pager
Milestones
Live progress · est vs actual
On call
See who is responsible right now
Decisions
Every call · every reference · searchable
Activity
Every commit · every deploy · live
Included with every engagement. Live from kickoff through the long tail.
Interlude
30 minutes. No deck. We listen first.
Stuck with a broken buildor slow vendor?
If you're already paying for software but still don't know what's working, what's broken, or what ships next — this is where we step in. We audit the codebase, stabilize the system, and help ship the next usable version.
Response protocol
- 011 weekAudit1 week
- 022 weeksStabilize2 weeks
- 034 weeksShip next release4 weeks
- 046–8 weeksRebuild core if needed6–8 weeks
The first 14 days.Day by day.
What happens after you book a call — written down, no surprises.
- 01Day 0
Scoping call
30 minutes. No deck. We listen first.
- 02Day 1–3
Scope drafted
A written scope: timeline, price, what is in (and out of) v1.
- 03Day 3–5
Contract & kickoff
Signed agreement. Calendar locked. Weekly call scheduled.
- 04Day 5–7
Pager goes live
You get portal access. Milestones, on-call, activity — visible.
- 05Day 7+
First commits
Engineering begins. Daily activity in the Pager.
We'll tell you on the call if we're not the right fit.
Years before BlocksCTO existed, we were already shipping production software.
We've worked inside production codebases across dating, health, social, AI, subscription, analytics, and data-heavy products — often behind the scenes, often under real operational pressure.
The names stay private. The shape of the work does not: real users, real load, real integrations, real consequences.
- Dating apps
Matching, moderation, and abuse signals under consumer-scale load.
- Social platforms
Feeds, follows, notifications — kept warm under spiky load.
- Health systems
Health-product workflows, audit trails, and sensitive data handling.
- AI-enabled product
LLM features wired into real user journeys, not demos.
- Big-data pipelines
Event ingestion, transforms, warehouses that don't drift.
- Subscription infra
Billing, entitlements, dunning — the parts that quietly fund you.
- Analytics surfaces
Dashboards your operators actually open in the morning.
- Real-time infra
Sockets, queues, presence — the unglamorous backbone.
Senior engineering hours, calmly applied.
Build beforeyou hire.
Common market ranges vary, but the pattern is simple: hiring a full product team is expensive before the product direction is clear. Hiring makes sense once the product direction is clearer — until then, a fixed-scope senior team can help reduce risk before committing to full-time payroll.
Cheap freelancers
Unclear
Variable cost · execution risk
BlocksCTO
$4.5k – $49.5k
Fixed-scope packages
US product team
$50–80k / month
Recurring · plus benefits + ramp
US agency MVP
$100–300k
One-time · higher-end MVP
Ranges are typical market figures we see — not official benchmarks. Pricing varies by scope, integrations, and complexity.
Work we won't take.
We avoid categories where software can create obvious harm, consent issues, or regulatory risk.
Adult content
Sex-industry products · NSFW platforms
Gambling
Casinos · sportsbooks · lotteries
Stalkerware & surveillance
Tracking people without consent
Disinformation
Mass political manipulation · fake-news platforms
Everything else — we'll discuss.
Bring us the current state.We'll tell you the safest next step.
New MVP, broken build, launch hardening, or AI feature — start with the current state of the product. We'll come back with the smallest next step.
Send project context