You have an idea and nothing built
Nothing exists yet, and you want a qualified opinion before it does.
First Look
An honest read on your idea, before you spend anything.
The smallest engagement we offer. You send a short brief, we spend a structured hour with you, and you get a one-page written take covering what is strongest about the idea, what is weakest, and what to do next.
Before anything exists · 60-minute call · one-page letter
Who it is for
When this is the right one.
Everyone has told you it is a great idea
Usually people with no engineering background and no reason to say otherwise.
You are about to spend real money
On a patent attorney, a developer or a prototype, and you want a second view first.
You want to see how we think
This is the least expensive way to find that out before committing to anything larger.
What you get
The deliverables.
Structured call
Sixty minutes, recorded, run in four phases. We confirm the brief, you present in your own words with minimal interruption, we ask our prepared questions, and then we give you our honest reaction. The structure is what separates this from a coffee chat.
First Look Letter
One page, delivered as a PDF. What we heard, our honest read on the strongest and weakest parts of the idea, and a specific recommendation for what to do next.
How it works
Step by step.
- Idea briefYou share a short brief through whatever private channel suits you, whether that is email, a message, a voice note or a quick intake call. There is no web form, deliberately, so nothing about a pre-IP idea ends up in a third party's database.
- PreparationA senior engineer reads the brief and prepares three to five probing questions specific to your idea.
- The callSixty minutes with a senior engineer, recorded, so that we listen properly before we react.
- The letterDrafted from the brief and the recording, then edited and signed by the senior engineer who ran the call.
What sixty minutes buys
An experienced opinion, not a detailed analysis. If your idea needs a proper technical investigation, the letter says so and points you at the engagement that does it.
Where it leads
The next step.
The letter always ends with a specific recommendation. A Kick Start if the idea has legs and you need direction and funding, a Risk Review if you already have something built, a set of cheap validation experiments to run first, or an honest suggestion to park it.
Kick Start
For an idea you believe in but have not started building. We sanity-check the direction and point you at the funding that fits it, before you spend a year and a patent fee finding out the hard way.
Read more →Risk Review
For a project about to get expensive. An independent techno-commercial read on what could go wrong, with a recommendation against each risk and a view on whether deeper work is warranted.
Read more →If this is not quite your situation
Then tell us about the project anyway.
They exist so that starting with us is small and low-risk, and they are not the limit of what we take on. This one is a starting point, not a boundary. Describe what you are trying to build and we will scope something that fits it, or say plainly that we are not the right people for it.