A website optimization platform that connects behavioral analytics, AI diagnosis, experiments, and deployment in one loop.
- Behavioral analytics on the live site
- AI diagnosis and change suggestions
- Experiment preview, testing, and deployment
SYS / ZERO:HOURaccepting new engagements
// fractional founding engineer for seed-stage startups
Founding engineers.Without the hire.
Bring in a senior product engineer to shape the product, make the technical calls, and ship alongside you. Without the full-time salary, equity, or months of recruiting.
Led by Hak · 20+ years shipping software
// the engagement
$3,500
one paid working trial
1 week
one bounded improvement
one queue
the next priority stays clear
100% yours
code, repo, IP, documentation
// Why this exists
The first engineering hire is hard to get right. Waiting has a cost too.
At seed stage, you need senior engineering judgment before the role, timing, and cap table are ready for a permanent hire.
The search takes over
Founder time moves from customers and product into sourcing, screening, and selling the role.
The decision is expensive
Salary, equity, benefits, and management time commit you well before you know how the working relationship feels.
The role is still changing
Today you need product judgment. Next week it may be architecture, frontend polish, or an integration rescue.
The roadmap keeps moving
Customers do not pause while you recruit. Every delayed product decision compounds into another delayed release.
A prototype is not a foundation
The demo proved the idea. It did not settle the data model, deployment path, or how the next engineer will extend it.
A rushed hire is hard to unwind
When timing wins over fit, the company pays twice: first for the mismatch, then for the rebuild and the search that follows.
No onboarding month. Give us the repo, the product context, and one ordered priority list. We work directly in your codebase, explain meaningful changes in a short Loom, and finish each sprint with working software and a clear next step.
// Industries & product contexts
Strongest where the product has real moving parts.
The sector matters, but the product shape matters more. ZeroHour is a strong fit when workflows, integrations, data, or AI carry the product's actual value.
- AI products & developer tools
Agent workflows, code intelligence, evaluation, model integrations, and the product infrastructure around them.
Current products: Klarq · Arguz
- B2B SaaS & workflow software
Role-based products, operational workflows, billing, reporting, and the edge cases that turn a prototype into a durable system.
Client product: BOSApps
- Marketplaces & service platforms
Multi-sided products coordinating onboarding, booking, payments, messaging, and the operational layer behind the customer experience.
- TravelTech & hospitality
Booking, inventory, content, operational workflows, and integrations across travel and accommodation products.
Built in the space: Travelizr
- HealthTech & digital care
Patient-facing journeys, care operations, subscription flows, and product systems that need reliability and careful data handling.
Experience: FormelSkin.de · next-generation platform during its 34M Series A stage
- Automotive, mobility & regulated products
Integration-heavy software where reliability, traceability, permissions, and a deliberate handover matter from the start.
Experience: BMW · Allianz · Hella Gutmann
// Ownership
What your fractional founding engineer can own.
The useful middle ground between a narrow ticket-taker and a full agency team: one senior product engineer who can move across product, architecture, and implementation.
Zero to one
Turn the product brief into a usable v1: architecture, core flows, deployment, and the decisions between them.
New AI products
Design and ship AI features that belong in the product—not demos that fall apart in production.
The rescue
Take over a promising prototype, find the weak points, and turn it into a product you can keep building on.
Integrations that hold
Connect models, payments, data, and third-party systems without leaving the next engineer a puzzle.
Human_accountabilityAI-augmented.
AI-augmented.
Human-accountable.
AI speeds up research, implementation, testing, and documentation. Hak still owns the architecture, reviews the code, and stands behind what ships.
The point is not to produce more code. It is to shorten the path from a good product decision to working, maintainable software.
The tools make the work faster. They do not make the decisions.
Accelerated implementation
Boilerplate and repetitive changes move quickly.
Rapid prototyping
Test product decisions before overbuilding them.
Tests and review
Use automation to widen the safety net around each change.
Documentation that keeps up
Capture the decisions your next engineer will need.
AI supports the workflow. Engineering judgment remains the product.
Start with one week.
Week one is a paid working trial inside your real product—not a discovery fee. We enter the repo, ship one bounded improvement, and leave you with a Loom and a clear next step.
Weeks of runway
1week
A planning view, not a contract. Stop before the next week begins.
The trial is part of the work. Continue for four weeks and the progressive rates total $10,000—an average of $2,500 per week. From week three, the rate stays at the $2,000 weekly floor.
Projected run
$3,500
1 week · Paid working trial
- Rate at this stage
- $3,500
- Average per week
- $3,500
- Capacity
- 10–20 hrs / week
- Billing
- Weekly
billed weekly · stop at any weekly boundary
Week 1
$3,500/ week
paid working trial
Week 2
$2,500/ week
complete the first sprint
Week 3+
$2,000/ week
ongoing build rate
Aftercare stays separate.
Need maintenance after the build? Support starts at $2,000/mo for fixes, monitoring, and security updates.
paid working trialbilled weeklystop before the next weekeverything stays yours
// Compare
Move now. Hire deliberately.
ZeroHour is not a replacement for every founding hire. It is a way to get senior ownership while you find the permanent answer.
| ZeroHour | Founding hire (FTE) | Agency | Freelancer | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to start | First outcome in one sprint | Often months | Often weeks | Varies by availability |
| Working relationship | One accountable senior engineer | An internal owner | A team and account lead | A direct specialist |
| Engagement shape | One sprint or an ongoing run | A permanent role | A project or retainer | Usually project-based |
| Breadth | Product and full-stack | Depends on the hire | A multidisciplinary team | A defined specialty |
| Code and IP | Yours from day one | Company-owned | Depends on the contract | Depends on the contract |
| Knowledge transfer | Documented in your repo | Lives inside the team | Depends on the engagement | Depends on the person |
| Equity | None | Often salary plus equity | None | None |
| Best when | You need senior ownership now | You are building the internal team | You need several disciplines | You need a specialist task |
← Scroll horizontally to compare →
A full-time hire is the right answer when the role is clear and you are ready to build the internal team. ZeroHour covers the gap before that point—and hands the work over cleanly when you get there.
// The working relationship
Senior ownership, without the handoffs.
The engagement is designed to move the product now and leave your eventual team with a clean foundation.
One accountable senior engineer
One person owns the decisions and the code—not a chain of account managers and handoffs.
Product judgment included
We challenge scope, simplify the solution, and help decide what should ship next.
Working software every sprint
Each sprint has one agreed outcome and ends with something concrete.
Async by default
Decisions happen during overlap. Meaningful changes arrive with context, not another meeting.
Everything stays with you
Your code, repo, accounts, documentation, and IP remain yours from day one.
Built to hand over
The work is documented so your eventual hire can continue without reverse-engineering a black box.
// Selected work / currentWe ship our own products.
We ship our own products.
Client work gets the same standard.
Two products we are actively building—and one founder's account of what it is like to build with ZeroHour.
01 /03
Showing Klarq, slide 1 of 3.
// Experience
Senior judgment, accountable to one person.
ZeroHour is led by Hak, a product engineer with more than 20 years across enterprise software and startups. Before AgentiveStack, he shipped products and systems for BMW, Allianz, and Hella Gutmann, then spent five years helping founders build and launch software.
From Fortune 500 companies to fast-moving startups
20+Years building software
10+Years in enterprise
50+Products & features shipped
What we won't do
The boundaries are simple. No black boxes, vague timelines, or work you cannot carry forward.
No AI washing
We won't slap 'AI-powered' on a feature that's just if-else logic.
No vague timelines
'A few months, depends on scope' isn't a timeline. We give you fixed weeks.
No surprise invoices
The price we quote is the price you pay. Period.
No PowerPoint-only consulting
We don't deliver decks. We deliver working software.
// Questions
Before you book the trial
Why not make the founding hire now?+
You should—when the timing and fit are right. If you need senior ownership now, ZeroHour gets the product moving while you hire deliberately. When the full-time role makes sense, the repo and documentation are ready for a clean handover.
How does a sprint work?+
We agree on one useful outcome, work directly in your repo for two weeks, and share meaningful changes with context. At the end, you have working software, a walkthrough, updated documentation, and a clear recommendation for what comes next.
What do we have after the first sprint?+
Working software, a walkthrough, updated documentation, and a clear next step. Continue, pause, or hand it to your team.
Is this really one person?+
Yes. Hak is the engineer you work with and the person accountable for what ships. The surrounding practice—tests, review checklists, documentation, and operational tooling—keeps the work transferable and reduces the usual single-person risk.
Do you take equity?+
No. ZeroHour is paid in cash. You keep the cap table, the code, and the IP.
Will the timezone work for a US team?+
Usually. EET overlaps with US mornings and leaves a long uninterrupted build window afterward. We use the overlap for decisions; updates and Looms are waiting when your next day starts. We confirm working hours before the first sprint.
What tech stacks do you work with?+
We work in modern web and AI product stacks and prefer boring, well-supported choices over novelty. If your stack is unfamiliar, we will say so before you book.
7d
// your first week
Ship now. Hire when you're ready.
Bring the roadmap, the prototype, or the product that's stuck. We'll define one useful first week—and tell you plainly if ZeroHour is not the right fit.
Book a callno long-term commitment · keep everything we ship