Question 1

Who is Onera built for?

Accepted Answer

We work with non-technical founders who have validated their idea and need a technical partner to ship it. Most of our clients are second-time founders between pre-seed and Series A, building SaaS or marketplaces. If you've done customer discovery, have funding (or a clear path to it), and want to move now, you're our person.

Question 2

I'm a first-time founder. Are you a fit?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes, yes. The question is not your title, it's whether you've validated the problem and are ready to deploy real capital into building. If you're still at the “idea stage” with no customer signal, we'll likely tell you to go talk to users first and come back when you have something to build. We'd rather be honest than take your money for a product nobody asked for.

Question 3

I haven't raised yet. Should we still talk?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Plenty of our founders are pre-fundraise, deploying personal capital from a previous exit or a small angel check. The 30-minute discovery call is free, and we'll tell you whether your timing makes sense or whether you should wait.

Question 4

I already have a technical co-founder or CTO. Is there still a reason to work with you?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes. If your CTO is heads-down on core product and needs extra hands to keep velocity up, or if you need a specific capability they don't have (mobile, infra, analytics), we can plug in. If your in-house team is healthy and fully resourced, you don't need us, and we'll say so on the call.

Question 5

How involved do I need to be week to week?

Accepted Answer

Less than you think, more than zero. Expect a weekly demo, async updates in Slack, and product decisions that need your input pushed to you in batches so you're not interrupted constantly. The promise is that you stay focused on customers and fundraising while we own the build.

Question 6

Do I own the code and the infrastructure?

Accepted Answer

Yes. From day one. Code lives in your GitHub, infrastructure lives in your accounts (AWS, Vercel, Supabase, whatever fits), and analytics dashboards are yours. When the engagement ends, there is nothing to “transfer” because it was always yours.

Question 7

How fast can you ship?

Accepted Answer

Faster than most founders expect. Our current clients regularly say we ship in two days what their other developers ship in two weeks. A focused MVP is typically 8 to 16 weeks. A scoped sprint can land in 2 to 4 weeks. Speed comes from senior engineers, no bureaucracy, and a refusal to overbuild.

Question 8

How much does it cost?

Accepted Answer

We have three engagement shapes:

Sprint, from $6K, for a scoped 2 to 4 week build.
Marathon, from $10K per month with a 4-month minimum, for an ongoing partnership.
Project, from $25K, for a fixed-scope, fixed-price end-to-end build.

Every engagement starts with a 30-minute call. We help you pick the shape that fits your stage, never push you into a bigger plan than you need.

Question 9

What's the difference between Sprint, Marathon, and Project?

Accepted Answer

A Sprint is one focused deliverable, shipped fast. Best when you have a clear definition of done and want to test working with us.
A Marathon is a continuous partnership: code, infrastructure, and analytics under one roof, with weekly shipping, until you're ready to hire your own engineers.
A Project is a fixed scope and fixed price for a defined product launch. Best when you have a deadline (board, demo day, fundraise) and want price certainty up front.

Question 10

Why is there a 4-month minimum on Marathon?

Accepted Answer

Because anything shorter is maintenance, not product building. Four months is long enough to ship something meaningful, learn from real users, and iterate. After month four, the engagement continues month-to-month with no auto-renewal lock-in.

Question 11

Do you take equity instead of cash?

Accepted Answer

No. We don't trade price for equity, and we don't accept equity-only or equity-discounted deals. You keep your cap table, we keep our pricing clean. The whole point of working with us is that you get a senior technical partner without giving up 15 to 25% of your company.

Question 12

What happens if the scope changes mid-engagement?

Accepted Answer

We talk about it openly and write a change order. We don't silently absorb scope creep, and we don't surprise you with a bigger invoice. If the new work is genuinely new, the price reflects that. If the new work replaces something we hadn't started yet, often it's a wash.

Question 13

Why not just find a technical co-founder?

Accepted Answer

You can, and if you find the right one, do it. The reality is that the search usually takes 6+ months, and you give up 15 to 25% of your company to someone you barely know. We give you senior technical leadership now, with no equity, no recruiting marathon, and a clean exit when you're ready to hire your own team.

Question 14

How are you different from a dev agency or offshore team?

Accepted Answer

Most agencies are project-based and incentivized to bill hours, not to make your business succeed. Most offshore teams trade cost for coordination overhead and quality risk. We work with founders the way a co-founder would: senior people, founder-level ownership, weekly shipping, and we tell you the truth even when you don't want to hear it.

Question 15

Why not hire a fractional CTO?

Accepted Answer

A fractional CTO can be great for advice, but most don't actually build. You still need engineers behind them, and now you're managing two relationships instead of one. We give you the technical judgment of a CTO and the people who write the code, in one team.

Question 16

What happens when I'm ready to hire my own engineers?

Accepted Answer

This is the part most agencies hide from. We help you do it. We help you scope the roles, write job descriptions, evaluate candidates, and onboard them into the codebase we built. The goal of every Marathon engagement is a clean handoff to your in-house team.

Question 17

Can you help me interview and vet candidates?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Non-technical founders consistently tell us this is one of the highest-leverage things we do. We sit in on interviews, run technical assessments, and give you a clear read on whether someone is a great hire, a good hire, or a future regret. You make the final call, with real signal.

Question 18

Will the codebase pass Series A technical due diligence?

Accepted Answer

That's the bar we build to. Clean architecture, documented decisions, sane infrastructure, and security practices that hold up to scrutiny. When investors send in their technical diligence partner, you want them to come back impressed, not concerned. We've already had a client go through this, and we build with it in mind from day one.

Question 19

How do we start working together?

Accepted Answer

Book a 30-minute discovery call. We'll talk about your stage, your goal, your timeline, and whatever technical context matters. By the end, we'll either propose a shape (Sprint, Marathon, or Project) with a number, or tell you we're not the right fit. The call is the discovery, there's no separate paid scoping phase.

Question 20

Where are you based, and can you work with US founders?

Accepted Answer

Our team is based in Europe, and we work with founders globally. We have a US entity (Delaware LLC) for clean contracting and invoicing with US clients. Time zone overlap with US East Coast is comfortable, and most of our communication is async in Slack so it doesn't matter where you are.

Your Vision. Executed Right.

The whole technical stack.
Not just code.

App

Infrastructure

Analytics

What partnering with Onera actually looks like.

Proven foundations, AI-native by default

Infrastructure that scales with you

Production-grade security, baked in

A cadence you can plan around

A decision log your next investor will read

Simple pricing. No equity ask.

A technical partner from MVP to your first hire.

A scoped build, shipped fast.

An end-to-end build with a fixed scope and timeline.

We don't disappear after launch. New features, infrastructure, analytics, and ongoing support. We handle the tech so you focus on growth and distribution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Onera right for me?

How we work

Pricing and engagements

How you compare to alternatives

The transition to your in-house team

Getting started

Book a 30-minute call.