Questions, answered.
Everything we get asked before signing. If yours isn't here, email hello@toledotechnologies.com — we reply within one business day.
Who owns what.
Who owns the code, repository, and infrastructure?
You do — from day one. Domain, hosting, repo, and database accounts are created under your ownership before kickoff. We're added as collaborators with the access we need to ship, and removed at handoff if you prefer. There is no source-escrow, no licensing trick, no vendor lock-in.
Do you sign NDAs?
Yes. We sign mutual NDAs as a default before discovery and keep them in force perpetually. By policy every engagement is permanently confidential — only material you explicitly clear can be referenced publicly, and only with written sign-off.
Can you sign our specific MSA / contractor agreement?
Usually yes. We work under our own SOW + your MSA when you have one. We'll flag clauses that materially affect band pricing (e.g. unbounded warranty periods, vague IP carve-outs) and propose redlines in writing.
Can you build things we'll later sell as a SaaS product?
Yes. The Olympian SaaS bands are exactly that. You own the IP. We optionally retain rights to publicly reference the build years later, with your approval — but it's not a default.
What happens if it changes.
What happens if scope changes mid-build?
Small changes (a few hours of work) are absorbed inside the band. Material scope changes (new features, new integrations, new user roles) are re-scoped in writing before continuing — you get a delta quote and you sign off before we start the new work. No surprise invoices, no work-on-faith.
How are payments structured?
Typically: 50% deposit at kickoff, then 2–4 milestone payments tied to written deliverables (e.g. "auth + schema live", "MVP deployed to staging", "production launch"). No payment without a demoable artifact. Net-15 invoicing unless otherwise agreed.
Do you offer fixed-price or hourly?
Fixed band, always. Hourly creates perverse incentives on both sides. The discovery output specifies the band, the build is delivered against that band, and we absorb overruns inside it. If you need pure dev hours after launch (with no monitoring), bucket retainers are available — see the pricing page.
What if I cancel mid-project?
You pay for the work delivered to date (last accepted milestone + any pro-rated work since). We hand off the repo, the deploy, the docs, and the working code as it stands. No exit fee, no claw-back.
After we ship.
Do I have to sign a maintenance contract?
No — never. Care plans are optional and you can cancel at any time. Handoff documentation is structured so your in-house team or any other firm can operate the system without us; running for years without a retainer is a valid path.
What does the handoff include?
Production-ready repository with README, deploy documentation, infrastructure diagram, runbook for common operations (deploys, restore from backup, env rotation), a recorded walkthrough of the codebase, and a 30-minute live training session for whoever will be operating it.
What if something breaks after launch and I'm not on a care plan?
Email the principal. Our policy: any bug we introduced before launch we fix for free. New requests get quoted under bucket retainer rates or under whichever discovery applies — either way, we don't ghost a system we built.
Do you do retainers without monitoring?
Yes. Bucket retainers (10 / 25 / 50 hours per month) are pure development time without the security / monitoring add-on. See the pricing page.
Stack, location, cadence.
What stack do you use?
TypeScript end-to-end. PostgreSQL primary. React or vanilla DOM on the surface. Node.js or Bun on the server. Drizzle / Prisma / raw SQL where each earns its keep. Deployable to AWS, GCP, Vercel, or your own VPC. Terraform / Pulumi for IaC. GitHub Actions for CI/CD. Sentry, Grafana, OpenTelemetry for observability. Full details at /stack/.
Will you work in my preferred stack instead?
Sometimes. If you have strong in-house expertise in a different stack (Ruby on Rails, Django, Phoenix, .NET) and the project is one we'd otherwise build in TypeScript, we can usually meet you there for a small re-scope. We won't take on stacks we don't operate (PHP, Java EE).
Where are you based?
Toledo, Ohio. We serve clients across the United States, remote-first, with weekly video demos and a live staging URL throughout the build.
Do you ever work on-site?
Discovery workshops are usually remote (video). For Olympian-band engagements ($175K+), we can do on-site discovery weeks if you cover travel. For build phases we're remote — the work is faster and the documentation is better.
What's the cadence during a build?
Weekly written update with a live staging URL. Demo call every 2 weeks (optional but recommended). Slack or email available throughout business hours. No daily standups — we believe in async-first engineering.
How many clients do you work with at once?
Roughly 2–4 active build engagements concurrently, plus ongoing care-plan clients. Capacity is the constraint — when we're full, we say so and recommend trusted alternatives.
Ask. We'll answer.
Anything not covered? Email the principal directly — replies within one business day.