Four ways to work with us.
Each one is a plain-English description of what you are buying. The names are ours; the deliverable is always working software you own.
Launch
IDEA → MVP
The core engagement, and where most founders start. You bring the idea, the problem or the specification. We work out what actually needs to exist, engineer the smallest version that proves it, and put it in front of real users.
What it includes
- Mission definition — the hypothesis, written down
- A flight plan: what is in the first launch, and what is not
- Product and interface design
- Engineering — frontend, backend, data, integrations
- Infrastructure, deployment and environments
- The systems check: auth, backups, logging, tests
- Launch, and the analytics to learn from it
- Handover — the code, the accounts, the documentation
A good fit when
You have an idea or a problem worth solving and no product team — and you would rather find out in ten weeks than ten months.
Dock
PROTOTYPE → PRODUCTION
Something already exists. A Figma file, a working demo, an internal tool, or an application you built with AI that got remarkably close. We assess it honestly, keep what is sound, and engineer the rest to the point where you can hand it to paying customers without wincing.
A rewrite is a last resort. It throws away working software and the domain knowledge baked into it, and swaps a known set of problems for an unknown one.
What it includes
- An honest assessment of what you have
- What to keep, what to repair, what to replace — with reasons
- Data model and integrity work
- Authentication, authorisation and the obvious security gaps
- Deployment, environments and rollback
- Tests where failure would actually cost you
- The remaining product work to make it usable by strangers
A good fit when
It demos well and you are quietly afraid to give it to real customers.
Boost
EXISTING PRODUCT → MAJOR CAPABILITY
One significant thing, scoped and built. A new feature the roadmap keeps deferring, an integration that unblocks a deal, an AI capability that needs to be more than a demo, or the engineering required to move a product from one platform to two.
Typical work
- A substantial new feature or product surface
- Third-party and payment integrations
- AI capability built to production standards
- Public or partner APIs
- Performance and cost work on something already live
- Architecture and platform changes
A good fit when
Your team is at capacity and something important has been waiting three quarters for a gap that never comes.
Ground Control
ONGOING PRODUCT ENGINEERING
Launch is the start of the founder’s journey, not the end of ours. Ground Control is continued engineering, maintenance and iteration on a monthly basis, so the product keeps moving while you work out whether it is the right time to hire.
It ends when you want it to. Everything is yours throughout — the code, the infrastructure, the accounts.
What it includes
- Iteration on what launch actually taught you
- Bug fixes and production support
- Dependency, platform and security upkeep
- Infrastructure and cost management
- Technical guidance when you are hiring your first engineers
- A monthly written account of what changed and why
A good fit when
You have launched, it is working, and hiring a full engineering team is not yet the right move.
What Starport is not.
Being clear about this saves everybody a first meeting.
Not a body shop
We do not sell developer-hours by the seat. We are accountable for a product being launched, not for a timesheet.
Not a design agency
Design is part of the work, but we do not hand over mockups and wish you luck. The deliverable is running software.
Not a no-code prototype factory
We use whatever tool is right, including AI and off-the-shelf platforms — but you end up owning real, portable software.
Not a fund or an incubator
No equity, no workshops, no pitch-deck clinics. You own the mission and the company. We build the launch vehicle.
Bring us the mission.
Tell us the idea, the problem or the half-built thing. We’ll tell you what the smallest worthwhile first launch looks like.