Engage my services
You’re assembling a team of A+ fintech builders.
To the naked eye, every startup is the same. But you know better: it’s not the size of the funding round, but the people that makes the difference. Any competitor can be outperformed by a small team of the very best.
So you’d do whatever it takes to work with them.
If you already know and trust me, this is the way we can collaborate.
Instead of seeking clients, I pursue perfect fits: those targeted organizations that I can best help.
Perfect fits understand that they’re a selected few, and are excited to pay a premium to engage my services in a much more focused and higher touch than a paid subscription to The Payments Engineer Playbook.
In order to do that, I’ve limited the number of clients I can work at the same time, and won’t take any new ones until one of my existing clients disengages.
I’m open to be surprised by the traits of prospects who turn out to be perfect fits. But so far I’ve narrowed the list down to the following:
You operate in the fintech space
You process at least 1M transactions per month
You’re either profitable (>$10M in revenue) or well-capitalized (post-seed, >$10M raised)
You’re based in Europe, the US or Latin America (UTC-08:00 to UTC+02:00)
If you meet these criteria, or believe there’s a compelling case for why they don’t apply to you, this page contains everything you need to feel confident about engaging my services.
3 Questions You Need To Ask Yourself
During our first ever conversation, I’m going to ask you 3 important questions.
I always ask them the first time I talk with every prospect. My goal is to discover any areas of concern, and see if there’s a way to address them.
I’ve decided to share these questions in advance so that you can be more prepared to answer them when we first meet. These questions are:
Are you prepared to invest at the level the problem deserves?
Are you looking for a developer, or to set the engineering tone?
Do you value exclusivity, or expertise?
Let’s look at each question in more detail.
Is money an issue?
I see “being an expert” as a slogan for perpetual progress.
Each day, I work to expand and deepen the skills, capabilities and processes from which I derive my expertise. I’m committed to the idea that continuous learning is non-negotiable.
I simply want to see how good I can become.
As my expertise has deepened, and my impact on clients has grown, I’ve increased my pricing to reflect that impact. Through charging more, I’ve created more space to think on behalf of my clients.
Perfect fits understand that they’re investing in the future of their company.
Is me not writing code an issue?
Perfect fits often ask me to be a hands-on developer. They’re usually mistaken.
Clients seek my services around the time when they realize that having a proper ledger can’t be postponed any longer. But they’re still a small team, and they don’t see the need for a system architect.
This is accurate. But what they really need is an entrepreneurial engineer that sets the tone for the new level of scale, correctness and strictness that a proper ledger system embodies.
Over time, the nature of the work slides towards what the Helsinki Design Lab describe as stewardship. As the company grows and hires more engineers, my work shifts from setting the tone in a hands-on manner to a more strategical and architectural role.
Perfect fits understand that this shift is natural, and they and I make a plan for it at the beginning.
Perfect fits understand that this shift is natural, and we plan for it from the beginning.
Is non-exclusivity an issue?
I don’t work full time with any of my clients. This is good for them.
Even though many engineers have built a ledger system sometime in their careers, it is rare that they do it more than once. Some get to see one ledger grow over many years, even decades, and others spend some time working on one, and then quit to do something else.
You should be wary about conflict of interest. But you should be terrified of incompetence.
Needless to say, IP and confidential information is out of bounds. But clever insight and critical takeaways are not. Non-exclusivity is what allows me to cross-pollinate what I learn from working with one client to all the rest.
Perfect fits understand that they are getting ideas and advice from someone who has already solved their problems before.
If you believe you’re a perfect fit, please send me an email at alvaro@alvaroduran.com with:
A short description of your current system
A summary of your plans for the future, and how my services can fit on them
The main constraint you’re facing
I’ll review it and reply within 48 hours.