ATOMIC LOCOMOTIVE

Atomic Locomotive / How it works

How it works · First email to handoff

No discovery phase.
No hourly meter.

Here is the whole thing from the first email to the day the app is yours, including the parts most shops leave for the contract: what I need from you, how we talk, how you pay, and what happens if it goes wrong.

A signal box and cleared semaphore signal at night with a red streamlined locomotive approaching down the line.

The line

Six stops. You can get off at any of them.

  1. Stop 1

    The call — free, twenty minutes

    You request it. I reply, usually the same day, with times. On the call you show me the app or describe the idea, and I ask blunt questions. It ends one of three ways: you do not need me and I say so; you need a diagnostic because I cannot responsibly quote without reading the code; or the scope is clear enough to book a run directly.

    A plain-language answer, and if relevant, a departure date.

  2. Stop 2

    The diagnostic — one day, $2,497, credited or refunded

    Only for rescues where I need to read the code first, and only if you want it. I read everything, run it, and write down what you have, what is broken, what it would take, and what it costs. If the answer is "you do not need a run," the fee comes back.

    The written teardown. A fixed quote for the recommended path.

  3. Stop 3

    Booking — the fare is fixed here

    You get a one-page agreement: what the run includes, what it does not, the departure date, the fare, and the terms of engagement. Half is due at booking. If the diagnostic fee applies, it comes off here. Two runs are on the schedule at a time, so the departure date is real.

    A signed one-pager and a date on the calendar.

  4. Stop 4

    The run — five working days

    Day one is a working session with you, then I build. Every day you get a link to the staging app and a short end-of-day note: what moved, what did not, what I need tomorrow. Read both. Drift is caught on Tuesday, not Friday. See the Rescue Run and the Prototype Run for the day-by-day.

    A daily link and a daily note. Scope changes written down as they happen.

  5. Stop 5

    Handoff — day five

    Deployed to your infrastructure. Repo in your GitHub organization. Tests, runbook, recorded walkthrough. A call where you drive and I answer. Then the second half of the fare. You can inspect every item in the Handoff Standard before you pay it.

    Everything in the Handoff Standard. Ownership was yours from the first commit; now the keys are too.

  6. Stop 6

    After — your call

    Take it to your team. Hire someone and give them the walkthrough. Book another run for the next path. Or keep it alive on the Roundhouse. Any of those is a success. If you hand this to a different developer next month, the deliverables were designed for exactly that.

What I need from you

About an hour a day during a run, more on day one. Access to the repo and hosting for a rescue. Fast answers about what the app is supposed to do. Someone with authority to say yes to scope cuts. If you cannot be reachable that week, pick a different week.

How we talk

Email for anything that should be written down, which is most things. A shared channel if you prefer. One call on day one, one on day five, and short ones in between only if something needs a decision. No status meetings.

How you pay

Invoice, card or ACH. Diagnostic up front. Runs half at booking, half at handoff. Roundhouse monthly from the day you start, stopping the month you cancel. Prices are in USD and fixed once booked.

If it goes wrong

If I misjudged the work, that is my problem, not a change order; the fare stays. If your app turns out to need more than one run, you find out at the diagnostic, not on Thursday. If the diagnostic says you do not need a rescue, the fee comes back. If a run cannot be delivered for reasons on my side, the deposit comes back.

Who owns what

You own the code from the first commit; it lives in your GitHub organization. Hosting and third-party accounts are yours and billed to you. I keep a right to describe the work in general terms as a case study only if you agree in writing, which is what the founding rate trades on.

Confidentiality

A mutual NDA if you want one, yours or mine. Production data stays in your accounts. Nothing about your app is discussed publicly without your written yes.

Steam it up.

Twenty minutes on a call, free. You show me the app or describe the idea, and I will tell you which run you need, or that you do not need one. No deck, no discovery process, no sales sequence.

Book the 20-minute call

bill@atomiclocomotive.com · Austin, Texas · Usually replies same day