Build, buy, or kill.
Decided in three weeks.
A 3-week decision process that shows what each option will actually cost, with real vendor pricing and gives you a buildable plan if building wins. Before you commit $500K–$5M to the wrong path.
You're responsible for critical technology decisions, without a clear framework to make them.
You have tools, workflows, and platforms that work. They just don't work together.
AI is now on the roadmap. Every decision carries more weight.
Fragmented Foundations
Built at different times, by different teams. They operate in isolation, not as a unified whole.
Compounding Complexity
Every fix adds more complexity. The stack gets harder to understand, not easier.
Decision Gridlock
Too many options. No clear way to choose. Rebuild, buy, or extend all feel risky.
The challenge isn't options. It's knowing what's right.
The four stuck places we keep finding.
These aren't edge cases. They're where most mid-size teams lose another quarter.
Build vs. buy, undecided for 9 months.
Every vendor pitch looks plausible. Every internal proposal looks expensive. Nobody can make the call stick.
Your CRM (Salesforce) bill keeps climbing, and no one can explain why.
You're being told to "consolidate" or "rebuild." Both are expensive. No one can tell you which is actually right.
An AI roadmap that's 80% demos.
You've seen the chatbot. You've seen the copilot. None of it has changed how your team actually works.
A CTO who needs judgment, not hands.
You don't need another contractor. You need someone who's shipped this before and will tell you the truth.
Not a deck. A decision.
Everything you need to commit with confidence or walk away with clarity.
The 3–4 real options you have, and which one actually makes sense
Build, migrate, or consolidate. Each path includes real vendor pricing and what it will actually cost over time.
What each vendor will actually cost and the risks
Feature gaps. Lock-in risks. Not a generic comparison.
The hidden costs everyone misses
Migration effort, retraining, integration rebuild, and internal disruption, quantified before you commit.
A build-ready plan (if building is the right move)
So you can execute — or take it to another team — with clarity and leverage.
From kickoff to decision in 3 weeks.
Three focused weeks. One written plan your team can act on.
Listen
Interviews with your operators, CTO, and two customers. We read your contracts, your stack, and your last three board decks. No workshops.
Model
We model build vs. buy vs. consolidate using real pricing. You see the real options take shape and react to actual scenarios, not broad assumptions.
Decide
A written recommendation. Build, buy, or kill, with owners, costs, and a 90-day execution path. We stay on to help you start.
Not decks. Real decisions.
Delivered in three weeks.
Every assessment ends with a written call, and the first two weeks of work already scoped.
The client was being pushed toward Salesforce consolidation. Our analysis showed it would actually increase cost.
We identified a lower-cost build path with equivalent functionality and gave them the plan to execute it.
Decision made in three weeks. Saved $1.5M/year.
A growth-stage agency with a 14-month internal build and three pilots that never made it out of staging.
We retired what wasn't working, picked the one workflow that compounds, and scoped the first two weeks of real work.
The roadmap became a list of changes that ship.
There is no strategy deck for how your business actually runs.
Dev shops
They start building before knowing if they should.
No vendor analysis. No cost modeling. You end up committing before understanding the decision.
Strategy consultants
You get slides. Not a decision.
Months of analysis, a 60-page report, and no one who can actually build the thing they recommended.
Telos
We give you the decision and the plan to execute it.
Three weeks. Real vendor pricing. A written recommendation with owners, costs, and a 90-day path. We stay on to help you start.
Three weeks. One decision.
Typically prevents a $500K–$2M mistake.
If this prevents one wrong vendor decision, it pays for itself immediately.
Questions we hear before every engagement.
Facing a $500K+ decision? Tell us what's on your desk.
We'll tell you if this is worth doing — or if you can stay the course. No pitch. No commitment.