Working with Exalynt
You buy engineering from Exalynt one iteration at a time, supported by a familiar team of engineers. Each iteration ends with progress you can see, and an honest account of what it lets you do and what remains. Then you decide what happens next. There is no long contract, retainer, or minimum number of blocks. This page walks through what that looks like in practice.
This page explains how Exalynt works. It is not a client agreement. Current prices and terms are on exalynt.com.
How an engagement works
- Buy a blockFlex, Core, or Dedicated, paid once and up front.
- Agree the goalThe most valuable slice we can finish this iteration.
- We buildOne week. Risks are raised as soon as we see them.
- CheckpointWe show what changed, why it matters, and what we recommend next.
Each block is paid once, up front, for a one-week iteration, unless an exception is warranted. You're buying a portion of one engineer's time, talent, attention, and focus for that week, applied to the most valuable work we can do for you. A block is never shared between engineers. You aren't buying hours, and you won't receive a timesheet.
What your block supports
Your capacity block supports focused engineering work on your needs, along with participation in Exalynt's engineering community. That includes reviewing work, pairing, mentoring, and improving shared practices, sometimes across client engagements. These contributions are included in our capacity model and help sustain the quality of our work. We explain your progress through what changed, why it matters, and what it enables next.
- Focused attention on your work. Your engineer plans attention appropriate to the block you bought, and shared contribution is never a reason to neglect it. You'll see progress on your needs at every checkpoint.
- Some capacity supports the wider team. Part of what your block supports may go to reviewing or pairing on another engagement, or to improving practices every engagement shares. It isn't always about your project, and it won't always help you right away. It's how every engineer has others to check their work and help them through hard problems, including on your project.
- No extra charge either way. When another Exalynt engineer briefly reviews or pairs on your work, it's part of their own shared contribution, not a separate charge to you.
- Conflicts are raised early. If your work and other commitments start competing, we tell you and adjust assignments so your work stays adequately supported. Work beyond what you bought belongs in the next block, if you choose to buy one.
Your team
Exalynt works through stable Engineering Teams: groups of engineers who work together over the long term. When you start working with us, we assign one of them to you. Over time, your team gets to know your business, your software, your priorities, and your goals. A larger client may have more than one assigned team, and a team may also serve other clients.
- We look to your team first. When you buy a block, we fulfill it with engineers on your assigned team whenever it's practical.
- Your team works together. Engineers review each other's work, pair on hard problems, and share what they learn about your business, so you get their combined judgment, not several people working separately.
- The rest of Exalynt is there when you need it. When the work calls for a particular skill, or more capacity than your team has that week, engineers from other teams can help. Engineers across Exalynt collaborate all the time, not in isolated groups.
- Your team stays with you. We keep the same team on your work over time where we can, including while you pause between blocks.
Teams provide continuity, not exclusivity.
You're working with Exalynt as an organization, supported by a team that knows you, rather than depending entirely on one person. In practice, that means:
- Less explaining the same thing twice. Your team remembers your business problems, your existing software, and why earlier decisions were made.
- More consistent decisions, because the people making them know what came before.
- Shared ownership of quality. The team takes responsibility for your software together, not one engineer alone.
- Less depending on any one engineer. If someone is away or busy, others on the team already know your work.
- Stronger working relationships with people you come to know and trust.
Your team doesn't change how you buy capacity. You still buy flexible capacity one block at a time, and a team costs nothing extra. A team assignment is an ongoing relationship, not a reservation of particular engineers: a block is Exalynt's commitment to apply that capacity to your work, so we can't guarantee that any one person is available in a given week. Engineering Teams explains how teams work in more detail.
Choosing a block
| Block | Units | Price | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flex | 1 | $2,000 | The smallest allocation on a project. Covers focused features, fixes, reviews, and steady progress when an iteration needs less capacity. |
| Core | 2 | $3,750 | The standard block. Covers feature development, integrations, automation, and ongoing iterative development. |
| Dedicated | 4 | $7,000 | Larger iterations, significant features, major integrations, and several related improvements at once. |
All three blocks provide the same engineering capabilities: discovery, architecture, development, integrations, and new features. The only difference is how much capacity we allocate, on a 1:2:4 model: Core is twice a Flex, and Dedicated is twice a Core. Larger blocks cost a little less per unit (details). A small feature can be built with Flex, and discovery can happen inside Dedicated.
Flex is simply the smallest way to apply capacity to your project, for an iteration that needs less. "Don't build it" is a successful outcome in any block: if an iteration shows that an existing tool solves the problem, you've saved money.
At each checkpoint we recommend which block size fits the next piece of work. See Engineering Capacity for the full details.
Buy what each week needs
The hours are a reference for scale: approximate overall effort behind each block, including the shared contribution above, not hours reserved only for your project.
Because you buy one week at a time, you can match what you spend to what each week needs:
- Tight on money this week? Buy a smaller block, or none at all. You're not locked in, and you keep everything built so far. Pick up again when it makes sense.
- Want features out a bit faster? Buy more than one block for the same iteration. Each block is its own engineer's work, so separate pieces can move forward in parallel. Not all work can be parallelized, because some pieces depend on others, so talk with us first and we'll tell you what can run side by side.
What to expect in every iteration
- We confirm the goal at the start, in your language, not in technical terms.
- We raise risks as soon as we see them. Short iterations exist so a wrong direction shows up in days, not months.
- We stay inside what you bought. We never exceed the purchased capacity without your agreement. If more is worth doing, it belongs in the next block.
- At the checkpoint, we talk about outcomes: what changed, what we learned, what we recommend next, and which block size fits that work. What we mean by value explains how to recognize progress.
- Every iteration ends with something real, such as a working feature, a deployed improvement, a validated design, a clear recommendation, or an honest write-up of what we learned.
- We show you work early, and tell you how stable it is. Everything we show carries a stability level (Prototype, Alpha, Beta, or GA), so you know what you can rely on. Work moves up as soon as it's ready, sometimes all the way to GA within one iteration.
Who carries the risk
You risk only the block you bought. If the work needs more investigation or debugging than planned, the price doesn't change: Exalynt absorbs the overrun. You can stop after any iteration and keep everything built so far. Sharing risk explains why we work this way.
Who operates your software
Separately from block size, you choose who runs your software once it's live. Blocks cost the same either way.
- Self Operated: your team operates production and arranges infrastructure directly. You don't need an Exalynt operations plan, and you can still buy blocks whenever you want help.
- Operated by Exalynt: an engineering team stays accountable for monitoring, routine production care, and responding when something goes wrong, under an operations plan. Every product Exalynt operates needs one: Essential, Standard, or Extended, from $399 a month per product. Infrastructure and third-party services are additional and passed through at cost, with no markup, and you can keep using hosting providers such as Railway or AWS. A plan starts only when the software goes into production use under our care, never during development and never retroactively.
We do not profit from unnecessary infrastructure.
A plan pays for keeping the software healthy, including investigating alerts and routine restoration. It doesn't buy new features or substantial changes, which are bought in blocks. A difficult month doesn't cost more, and no plan includes 24/7 human response. Operations plans compares the plans and explains what they cover, when one can change, and how it stops.
What you own
- Your software and source code. You own the custom software we build for you and receive its source code.
- Your data. You can leave at any time and take your code and data with you.
- Exalynt keeps its reusable IP: the libraries, tooling, and frameworks we bring to every engagement.
Leaving
You can stop after any iteration. There is no minimum term, exit fee, or buyout, and if Exalynt operates your software, a standard handoff is included. We'd rather keep you because the work is good than because leaving is hard.
What you're paying for
You're paying for quality engineering: experienced engineers doing careful work, so your software keeps running and stays easy to change long after each iteration ends. Software built to be sustainable costs less over its lifetime than software that has to be patched, worked around, or rewritten.
To get that quality, Exalynt recruits the best engineers it can find and pays them competitively. Every engineer is paid the same share of a block, whatever their level and wherever they live, and their teammates are paid to help (details). Each engineer's pay is agreed before the work starts and doesn't depend on what you pay. Your payment for a block is held until that block is fulfilled and the engineers are paid (details). Only the rest of each block payment runs the company that stands behind the work: engineering standards, reusable tooling, absorbing overruns so your price doesn't change, and keeping a reserve.
Exalynt publishes exactly how a block payment splits between the engineer and the company. If you're curious, How the money flows has the details.
Frequently asked questions
Does capacity cost more if Exalynt operates my software?
No. Each block has one price, whoever operates the software. If Exalynt operates it, you pay infrastructure at cost and for an operations plan, separately from capacity.
Can I always work with the same engineers?
We aim for that. Your assigned team exists so familiar engineers work with you over time, and we look to them first whenever you buy a block. We can't guarantee that a particular person is available every week, because engineers also support other clients and have limited availability. Your team shares what it knows, so the work continues well when someone isn't available. If there's an engineer you'd especially like to keep working with, tell us. See Your team.
Can I take over operating the software later?
Yes. The plan stops when Exalynt stops operating the software, a standard handoff is included, and your capacity price doesn't change. See Changing who operates the software.
Do you charge more if something takes longer than expected?
No. The price of a block doesn't change. That's the risk Exalynt accepts in exchange for being paid the same when things go faster than expected.
What if the work is bigger than one block?
We deliver the most valuable complete slice we can within the iteration, then explain at the checkpoint what remains and what it would take. You decide whether to buy the next block. If work regularly needs more than a block, we'll suggest a larger block, or more than one block in parallel where the work allows.
Can you tell me roughly what a whole project will cost?
Yes. We can give you an estimate: a Low, Mid, and High range of what the project would cost and how many weeks it would take on each block, with the Focuses and assumptions behind it. It's a planning range, not a quote, and you still buy one iteration at a time. See Project estimates.
Can I use something you showed me at a checkpoint in my business?
It depends on its stability level. GA is ready for anything, Beta suits real use with a fallback, and Prototype and Alpha are for reacting and giving feedback. If you'd like to rely on something sooner, tell us, and we'll say what it would take. See Stability levels, and the Stability checklist for what each level includes.
Is all of my block spent on my project?
Not all of it. Your block supports focused work on your needs, plus the reviews, pairing, mentoring, and shared practices that keep Exalynt's work good, sometimes on other engagements. Both are included in the price, with nothing charged separately. You'll see what that focused attention produced at every checkpoint: what changed, why it matters, and what it enables next. See What your block supports.
Will I see how many hours were spent?
No. You bought a block, not a timesheet. At the checkpoint we talk about outcomes: what changed, what we learned, and what we recommend next.
Can I earn anything for introducing someone to Exalynt?
If you'd like to. As a client, you can choose to enroll in the Exalynt Partnership Program, and your partnership earns a share of the value of the new clients you introduce. It's optional, there are no quotas or obligations, and it doesn't change your own engagement or prices. Most of all, we hope you'll recommend us because the work has been worth it.
Who do I talk to when several engineers work on my project?
The engineers doing the work: each one talks with you about their own blocks. Every team also has a Team Lead, one of its engineers, who helps the team stay aligned on your goals and keeps continuity with you over time. If you're not sure who to ask, ask anyone on your team, and they'll make sure the right person answers.
Does a Dedicated block give me a dedicated engineer?
For that week, roughly. A Dedicated block is about a full week of one engineer's time, talent, attention, and focus, which supports focused work on your project along with that engineer's shared contribution to Exalynt's engineering community. It isn't an ongoing assignment: each block is bought on its own. What carries over from week to week is your assigned team, which we look to first whenever you buy capacity.