CORDA

Find the core. Build around it.

A boutique software studio for founders and operators who need to solve the right problem, not just ship something fast. Strategy first. Code second.

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What we offer
Open Q2 2025
◆
AI Integration
Working systems, not demos
◇
Product Co-Build
Revenue split, aligned incentives
▲
Fractional CTO
Technical leadership on retainer
■
Discovery & Strategy
Clarity before commitment
Studio model
Senior engineers only. No juniors, no account managers, no hand-offs to people you never met.
How we engage
Strategy before code, always. We define what to build before committing to how to build it.
Capacity
Fewer than 8 active clients at once. Every engagement gets full attention, not a shared queue.
Max active clients
<0
A deliberate ceiling. Fewer clients means better work for each one.
Discovery to written proposal
0 wk
From first call to a fixed-price, written scope. No open-ended retainers to start.
First working build
0d
A working, deployed product, not a prototype. This is the commitment we make at proposal time.
Management layers between you and the team
0
You talk to the engineers. You talk to the strategist. No one in between.
How a typical engagement unfolds
Week 1 — Intro & alignment
We understand the problem, the stakes, and whether we are the right fit.
Weeks 2–3 — Paid discovery
Structured sessions produce a scope document, technical plan, and a fixed-price proposal.
Weeks 4–10 — Build
Weekly Slack updates, milestone demos, and direct access to the team throughout.
Week 10+ — Ship & hand-off
Clean documentation, knowledge transfer, and optional ongoing support retainer.
How we split a typical engagement (target allocation)
Strategy & scoping
25%
Build & ship
60%
Test & iterate
15%
More time on strategy upfront means fewer surprises and less wasted build time.
Services

Four ways
to engage.

Each track is built for a specific problem and stage. If you are unsure where you fit, start with Discovery. That is true for most new clients.

01
AI Integration
We find the highest-leverage places to add AI in your operations, then build systems your team will actually use. We do not build demos. Every engagement ends with working, deployed software.
LLM Workflows Automation Internal Tools
02
Product Co-Build
You bring domain expertise and an audience that has the problem. We bring execution. We structure these as revenue-share arrangements rather than hourly billing so our incentives stay aligned throughout.
SaaS Rev Share Full-Stack
03
Fractional CTO
We embed as your technical leadership layer on a monthly retainer. Architecture decisions, engineering hiring, investor prep, vendor management. This is a working role, not a consulting engagement with a slide deck at the end.
Retainer Architecture Hiring
04
Discovery & Strategy
A fixed-price engagement to get clarity before you commit to a build. We run structured sessions, produce a technical scope, run a build-vs-buy analysis, and deliver a roadmap your team can execute with or without us.
Fixed Price Roadmap Scoping
Approach

We find what
matters first.

Most software projects fail not because they were built wrong, but because the wrong thing got built. Corda exists to fix that. We spend real time on the hard question before writing any code.

Why strategy time pays off
Scope clarity
High
Rework risk
Low
Budget surprises
Low
Strategy before code
We define the actual problem before committing to a solution. That conversation is not wasted time. It is where most of the value gets created in any software project.
Senior attention, not delegation
You work directly with the engineers and the strategist. There is no account manager relaying information between you and the people writing the code.
Outcomes over deliverables
A Figma file that never ships is not a success. We measure our work against whether the software solves the problem in production, not whether it looks good in a handoff document.
Honest over comfortable
If we think you are building the wrong thing, we will say so. That conversation is part of the service, not a risk to the engagement. Clients hire us to think clearly, not to agree with them.
Process

How we start.

01
Intro Call
30 minutes. We talk about your problem, timeline, and whether we are the right fit. No pitch. No deck. Just a real conversation.
02
Paid Discovery
A structured, fixed-price engagement. Stakeholder sessions, technical analysis, build-vs-buy review. You get a written scope and roadmap regardless of what comes next.
03
Fixed Proposal
Defined scope, clear deliverables, timeline, and a fixed price. No open-ended arrangements. No surprise change orders mid-build.
04
Build & Ship
Weekly updates, direct Slack access to the team, and a working product at every milestone. We ship, iterate based on feedback, and hand off cleanly.
Who we work with

The right fit.

Client type 01
Early-stage founders
You have signals of product-market fit and need to build without assembling a full engineering team. We act as your technical co-founder for a defined scope and timeline, then hand off a codebase your team can own.
Client type 02
Operators with a specific problem
You run a business with a workflow, data, or operations problem that no off-the-shelf product solves. We build the specific thing you need. We do not try to expand the scope or sell you a platform.
Client type 03
Companies adopting AI
You have an established team and want to add AI to what you already do, without a disruptive rebuild. We map the real opportunities, build the integrations, and work with your team so the knowledge stays in-house.
Contact

Tell us what
you're solving.

We open a small number of new client slots each quarter. Describe the problem you are sitting with. That is where every good engagement starts.

Email hello@corda.studio
Based Houston, TX. Remote-first.
Response Within one business day.

Sent directly to our inbox. We respond within one business day.