We do not take discovery calls. Not first ones, anyway.
The first thing we ask any prospective client is to send us a written brief. Five fields. Maybe ten minutes of typing. We respond by end of day with one of three answers: this is a fit and here is a scoped quote, this is a fit but we are booked until X, or this is not a fit and here is someone who might be better.
That is the entire qualification process. No discovery call. No second meeting. No "let's set up a 30-minute intro." A written brief, an honest reply, and one of three answers.
Why the brief beats the call
A 30-minute call sounds like the friendly thing to do. It is also a wonderful way for both parties to walk away with three different ideas of what the project actually is.
People are polite on calls. They round their numbers. They oversell their pain. They undersell their constraints. They mention the SaaS they tried last year as a passing detail and forget to mention they are still paying for it. A written brief makes them slow down for ten minutes and pin the actual problem to actual sentences.
It is also fair. A founder who is excited about her business will sell us the idea in a call whether the fit is right or not. The brief is harder to bullshit because you cannot react to the listener's face when you write it.
What we ask for
Five fields, in this order:
- Your name. Just so we know who is sending it.
- Business name. And we usually look you up before replying.
- What are you trying to solve? Two or three sentences. Specifics over slogans. "We have 6 outlets and we cannot tell which one is the best performer because the data is in 4 different systems" is useful. "We want to be more data-driven" is not.
- Service interest. MyInvois integration, data dashboards, forecasting, custom systems, or not sure yet. The last option is fine. Sometimes we redirect from one to another after reading.
- How should we reach you? WhatsApp number or email. Pick the one you actually check.
That is it. No revenue range. No team size. No "what is your timeline." We can figure those out from the brief and a five-minute LinkedIn check.
What the brief tells us that calls cannot
Three things, mostly.
One: the writing tells us how the team communicates internally. If the brief is sharp, short, and specific, the team is probably the same way internally. If the brief is full of buzzwords and vague aspirations, that is what the project meetings will sound like too. We can work with either, but the price is different.
Two: the absence of detail tells us where the project will go sideways. If a brief says "we need MyInvois compliance" without mentioning what their current system is, we know they have not actually thought about it yet. That is fine. We just price for the discovery work upfront instead of pretending it will be a fixed scope.
Three: the brief is a written commitment. When something drifts mid-project, we can point back to the brief. "You said the problem was X. We are now solving for Y. Let's re-scope." That conversation is much easier when there is a piece of writing to point at.
Why we say no without a call
Around a third of briefs get a "this is not a fit" reply. The reasons are usually one of these:
- The work fits a vendor plugin better than a custom build. We point them at the vendor.
- The budget is below what we can responsibly take. We tell them what they can do for that budget.
- The system is too far from our wheelhouse. We are not the right team for, say, a hardware-driven IoT integration. We say so.
- The problem is a people problem, not a software problem. We say that too, gently.
Saying no on email is much easier than saying no on a call. Calls have momentum. Briefs do not. If something is not a fit, both sides save the hour.
What the brief lets us actually do faster
The brief lets us say yes faster, not just no. When the fit is right, we go from brief to scoped quote in under a day. Sometimes within an hour. That is only possible because we are not stuck waiting for a calendar slot.
The teams that send a good brief and get a same-day reply are the ones we end up working with. Those teams are usually the ones running the kinds of businesses that need custom data and systems work in the first place. Tight operations, written-down processes, decisions that get made instead of relitigated.
If you have read this far, send us a brief. Five fields. End-of-day reply.