Questions Teams Ask Before Working With Us
Senior engineers. English first language. Half the cost of US and EU equivalents. Here is how it works.
Cost and Value
Why hire engineers in South Africa instead of locally?
South Africa has a large pool of senior engineers, English as a first language, and a legal system descended from English common law. Rates run 40 to 60 percent below equivalent US senior engineers and roughly half of what you would pay in London or Berlin. You get the same skill level. The difference is geography.
What does it cost?
A senior full-stack engineer in the US costs $150k to $220k fully loaded. In Western Europe, EUR 90k to 140k. A senior engineer through Cloud Intelligence costs roughly half the US rate and sits comparable to a mid-level salary in London or Amsterdam. We charge for engineering time. Fixed-scope projects with milestone billing. Retainer arrangements for ongoing work.
Do you take equity or revenue share?
No. We charge for engineering time. This keeps incentives aligned: we succeed when you renew the engagement because the work delivered value. Equity arrangements muddy that signal.
Time Zones and Communication
How do you handle the time zone gap?
South Africa runs on GMT+2. For London and most of Europe, that is a 0 to 2 hour gap. You work the same day we do. No 4 AM standups. No async-only workflows. For US East Coast teams, we overlap 3 to 4 hours every morning. We schedule standups, pairing, and handoffs during that window. Slack, GitHub, and Loom cover the rest.
Is there a language barrier?
No. South Africa has 11 official languages, but English is the language of business and higher education. Every engineer we hire has worked in English-speaking environments. You will not deal with translation layers or miscommunication from language gaps.
Legal and Security
Who owns the code and IP?
You do. Our standard contract assigns all intellectual property to the client upon full payment. NDAs are signed before any technical discussion. South African IP law is well-established and enforceable through international treaties in both US and EU jurisdictions. If you have a preferred contract template, we work from yours.
How do you handle security and compliance?
We build to SOC 2 standards. Encryption at rest and in transit by default. Zero-trust network architecture. We work within your compliance framework (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, POPIA) and document every control. Penetration tests happen before launch, not after an incident.
Team and Process
Do you work with our existing team or replace them?
We work alongside your team. You keep control of product direction. We bring senior engineers who pair with your people, review code, and transfer knowledge. We are not here to take over. We are here to make your team stronger.
What does a typical team look like?
No juniors. Every engagement is led by a senior engineer who architects the system and writes code. Depending on scope, we add engineers with the specific skills your project needs. You also get a delivery lead who owns timelines and communication. Typical team size is 2 to 4 people.
What tools and processes do you use?
We default to Agile with two-week sprints, daily standups, and retrospectives. GitHub for code, Jira or Linear for tracking, Slack for communication, Figma for design handoff. If your team uses something different, we adapt. The tools are not the point. Shipping working software every sprint is.
How do you guarantee quality?
Automated testing from day one. Unit, integration, and end-to-end tests run in CI on every commit. Every pull request gets reviewed by a second engineer before merge. We deploy to staging environments you can test against. Quality is not a phase at the end. It is how we write every line.
How do you handle scope changes mid-project?
Scope changes happen. We do not pretend otherwise. When a new requirement surfaces, we estimate the effort and tell you what it displaces. You decide the priority. No surprise invoices. No scope creep billed silently. Every change is a conversation.
Can you work within our existing codebase?
Yes. Most engagements start inside an existing system. We spend the first few days reading code, running the test suite, and mapping the architecture. We do not demand rewrites. We improve what is there and only recommend rebuilding when the current system genuinely cannot support your goals.
How do you measure success?
We agree on metrics at the start of every engagement. Throughput, latency, error rates, deploy frequency, time to recovery. For product work, we track user outcomes: conversion, retention, task completion. We report on these every sprint. You know whether the engagement is working because the numbers tell you.
After Launch
Do you offer ongoing maintenance and support?
Yes. After launch we offer retainer-based support and maintenance. Bug fixes, dependency updates, performance monitoring, small feature additions. You get priority access to the engineers who built the system. No handing off to a B-team that has never seen the code.
Can we speak to a past client?
Yes. Once we understand your project, we will connect you with a client whose engagement was similar in scope and industry. We do not cherry-pick references. We match you with the client whose experience is most relevant to your situation.