For software companies with paying customers
We are senior engineers. We spend one month on the product you already run, for a fixed price. We do not rebuild it. We start with the teardown: a free written report on your code.
The teardown is a document, not a sales call. You do not have to buy anything after it.
What breaks first, at what load, and what it costs
What we could not see. Production data and the module. Every finding that rests on them is marked ASSUMED below. This list comes before the findings, not after.
Finding 1 · MEASURED. The order queue and the share one database connection. Under the webhook times out and an order is charged twice. Reproduced on . Fix: , days.
Finding 2 · READ. is traced in the code but was not run. Cost when it fails: .
Evidence: MEASURED = we reproduced it · READ = traced in the code, not run · ASSUMED = rests on what we could not see
Two kinds of companies come to us
New product
You built the product fast, often with AI. Customers pay for it. Now every new feature takes longer than the last one. In one month we add the tests and release checks the code is missing, and leave your team the tools to keep shipping.
How the month worksEstablished product
Your team is five to forty people. The code is years old and the people who wrote it have left. Only one person can safely touch some parts. In one month we map the code, add release checks, and fix the part the teardown ranks first.
Read the page for older productsOne real example · one client, not an average
A founder built his product in about a week. A large customer signed a contract. Two engineering agencies read the code. Both said: throw it away and start again.
We saw both written quotes. The difference between the two columns is the reason this company exists.
$150,000+ is not our estimate. It is what two agencies wrote in their quotes for this one product. Your quote may be lower, and sometimes a rebuild is the right choice. But he was told that a rebuild was the only option, and it was not. He asked us not to publish his name.
How the month works
We work on your normal release schedule. Your customers do not wait for us.
Before we start · free
We read your code as it runs today. You get a written report: what breaks first, at what load, what it costs, and what one month can change. The report is yours, even if you do not hire us.
Week 1
We write down what will be true on the last day, and which day that is. Then we remove code that nothing uses anymore.
Weeks 2 and 3
We add tests around the code that stays. Every change passes a review before it reaches your users.
Week 4
We run the product under the traffic it will really get and fix what breaks. Then we leave on the agreed date. The tests, release checks, delivery setup, notes and AI agents — configured for your codebase — stay in your repository.
How we keep the price low
This is why the price is one engineer’s month, not a team on payroll. Nothing reaches your users before one of us has read it.
| Stage | AI agents do | One of us decides |
|---|---|---|
| Teardown | Read every file we are given access to, map what depends on what, reproduce what can be reproduced, draft the findings | Which findings are real, what proves them, and the final verdict |
| Week 1 | List code that nothing uses, draft the removal list | What we remove, and what must be true on the last day |
| Weeks 2 and 3 | Write test scaffolding, run checks across the whole codebase, propose fixes | What ships, and how any critical part is built |
| Week 4 | Run the load tests, collect what broke, draft the handover notes | Whether the product is ready, and what is still not fixed |
We do not publish a "2x faster" number. We have done this only a few times, and that is not enough data. What we can show you is this table, and a teardown of your own code that you can check line by line.
Whatever we could not see — a private module, production data, anything behind credentials we were not given — is listed in the report before the findings, and every finding that rests on it is marked as such.
Who does the work
You can look us up before you write to us. The person you talk to is one of us. We do not pass the work to another company.
Founder · architecture and method
Decides what the product must keep and what it can lose. Writes the method down so your team can use it after we leave.
SEI Software Architecture Professional · CISSP · TOGAF 9 · Claude Certified Architect · co-author of Building an Application Development Framework (Packt, 2025)
LinkedIn
Co-founder · cloud and delivery · your daily contact
On your product full time for the month. Runs it from start to end and talks to you every day. Sets up a release process your team can keep.
20 years in cloud and delivery · AWS Solutions Architect Professional · Security Specialty, Machine Learning Engineer and Data Engineer · Claude Certified Architect
LinkedIn
Infrastructure and reliability
Lead DevOps engineer and SRE. Makes deployment repeatable, so every environment starts the same way and the product survives its own traffic.
LinkedIn
Mobile architecture
Owns the app on the phone: how it works without a network, what the server must guarantee, and what a store review costs in days. iOS first, Android too.
LinkedIn
Backend systems · edge computing
Builds fast from scratch and knows what it costs. Sets up a stack that grows with the product, not one you rebuild because of it. Brings full transparency to every backend service — spend, errors, performance — before anyone has to ask.
LinkedInPrice and terms
If the teardown shows that you do not need us this quarter, we write that in the report. This has happened before.
Teardown
Free
a written report, not a sales call
One month
Fixed
the price is named in the teardown
We have no client testimonials yet. The two examples above are our own account of what two founders told us. Both asked us not to use their names. Two CEOs have agreed to write statements, and we will publish them here when they arrive.
Three fields · no sales call
Roman or Ivan reads your message, not a mailbox. If we need access to your repository to write something useful, we ask for it in our first reply and say exactly what we need.
Or email rv@system5.dev. Your name, your email, and the one thing you are most afraid will break. That is enough.
Roman or Ivan reads it, not a mailbox. If we need access to your repository to write something useful, we ask for it in our first reply and say exactly what we need.
If the teardown shows that you do not need us this quarter, we write that in the report.
Questions we hear often
Every answer below is also in the structured data of this page, word for word.
Every change goes behind tests, and checks run before anything reaches your users. We work in small steps, on your normal release schedule. If something goes wrong, it is small and we roll it back fast. In the one engagement where this was tested against a live paying customer, that customer saw no interruption.
We leave on the agreed date. The tests, release checks, notes and AI agents stay in your repository. Your team runs them without us. If you want another month later, it is a new month with a new fixed price. There is no retainer.
Because we name the price in the teardown, after we read your code and know that one month is enough. The shape of the price: you pay for one engineer's month, not for a team. AI agents do the repetitive work. The rest of us join for hours, not weeks.
One engineer is on your product full time for the month and talks to you every day. The others join for the parts they own. AI agents do the volume. Everyone is named on this page, and we do not pass work to another company.
We see the code first. The teardown is a read of your running code that ends in a written report. If one month is not enough, we say so in the report instead of taking your money.
They should not. You keep releasing on your schedule. Our changes go out in small steps, behind tests.
