JalenBuilds studio / 02 Open 16 proofs
JalenBuilds Brief ↗
§ 01 How I work · in three parts Voice · Structure · Filter

Quiet rooms, sharp axes.

I’m a one-person studio — marketing sites, internal tools, calculators. Fourteen of these in twenty-four months, none of them late. I price in days, I ship every Friday, and I’d rather lose the lead than win the wrong one.

Below: the five acts every project moves through, then the ten questions I get most. Read both before you brief me. If anything here isn’t what you need, close the tab.

§ 02 · The five acts

Every project moves through the same five rooms.

I
3–5 days

Discovery

I read what you wrote, then I ask you the questions you didn’t answer.

You get
A return note. A scope read. A go/no-go on whether I’m right for this.
II
2–4 days

Scope

I write the smallest version of your project that still earns its keep.

You get
A one-page scope. Fixed price quoted in days. A start date.
III
2–4 weeks

Sprint

I build it. You see it Friday. Then Friday again. Then it ships.

You get
A live staging URL every Friday. A draft you can click through.
IV
1–2 days

Reveal

We go live, quietly. No launch deck, no kickoff Slack channel.

You get
A production URL. A handoff doc the size of an index card.
V
Ongoing

Handoff

You own it from here. I keep the lights on for 30 days, no charge.

You get
Repo access. A bug fix window. A standing offer to brief me again.
§ 03 · Ten questions

Answered once. If any disqualify us, good.

Before we work together

How do you price?

Fixed price, quoted in days, never hours. Most projects land between $8k and $40k. I’ll send the number with the scope, in writing, before either of us commits.

Do you take rush jobs?

Not under two weeks. I work one project at a time and I won’t burn the current one for a new one. If your deadline is shorter than that, I’ll tell you who else to call.

What do you not work on?

Crypto, gambling, anything that needs to lie to its user. Also: pure agency overflow where I never speak to the actual client. The work gets worse and I get bored.

Why solo? Don’t I want a team?

A team is right when the work is bigger than one person. For a marketing site, an internal tool, a calculator, a portal — one person is faster, cheaper, and the design holds.

Once we start

How do we communicate?

Email is primary. Phone for anything urgent. I don’t live in Slack, Linear, or Notion — I’ll work in your tools when there’s a reason to, but I won’t pretend I’m on your team.

What’s the weekly cadence?

Monday brief check-in (15 min, async OK). Friday demo of working software (staging URL, no slides). That’s it. No standups, no sprint planning theatre.

Can the scope change mid-sprint?

Once. Quietly. If the change is small I’ll absorb it; if it’s real I’ll re-quote in writing before I touch the code. Scope creep is a process problem, not a billing one.

After delivery

What happens after launch?

Thirty days of free bug fixes. After that, retainer at $4.5k/month (10 hrs) or one-off briefs at the same day rate. Most clients come back twice.

Do I own the code?

Yes. Full repo transfer at launch, MIT-licensed unless you ask otherwise. I keep nothing proprietary and I never resell client work.

Can I hire you again later?

Yes. Returning clients skip Discovery; I already know the system. Same day rate, faster start. Eight of my eleven studio clients have come back at least once.

Still here? Then knock.

I read every brief in twenty-four hours. If I’m not the right person you’ll know by tomorrow.

JALENBUILDS · SEATTLE · MMXXVI · STUDIO Start a brief contact@jalenbuilds.com · ≤ 24h