Fixed Fee
Best for
- Clear scope
- Defined product requirements
- MVP or feature build
- Known timeline
Typically engaged by: Product or engineering lead with a defined scope.
Cash + Equity
Best for
- Early-stage founders
- AI-native startup ideas
- Strong founder-market fit
- Long-term studio alignment
Typically engaged by: Founder or founding team.
Retainer
Best for
- Fractional CTO
- Ongoing product leadership
- Monthly development support
- Continuous improvement
Typically engaged by: CTO or VP Engineering.
Outcome-Based
Best for
- SMB automation
- Measurable cost reduction
- Revenue recovery
- Sales or operations improvement
Typically engaged by: Operations or finance lead.
At a Glance
Model comparison
Stakeholders
Who You'll Work With
Every engagement model is built around a different kind of stakeholder — here's who we typically partner with.
Founders
For cash + equity co-builds, we work directly with the founder or founding team usually the person who owns the vision, the domain expertise, and the equity decision.
Business Operators
For outcome-based and fixed-fee automation work, we typically partner with an operations or finance lead the person who owns the workflow we're improving and the KPI it moves.
Technical & Funded Teams
For retainer and custom engineering work, we work alongside a CTO, VP Engineering, or product lead often coordinating with the same team's existing developers.
Questions, Answered
Common questions
What's coming from the studio
Two things we've been building for ourselves — that we're getting ready to open up.
The DSHG Orchestrator
The system we use internally to combine fast-execution AI with deep-reasoning AI into one coherent build, instead of stitching tools together by hand. We're preparing it for select partners.
The DSHG Agent Governance Standard
A published framework for how AI agents should be scoped, supervised, and paused for human review — formalizing how we already run every engagement today.