When the build goes
sideways.
A vendor failed or exited. The product is behind, the deadline hasn’t moved, and you’re holding code nobody fully understands. We take over builds mid-flight: a senior audit of what exists, a stabilised release, and a team that owns delivery from there.
Nobody plans a rescue. By the time you’re reading this, one of three things has usually happened.
The vendor exited
The agency wound down, the freelancer went quiet, or the relationship broke. Either way the repo is yours now — and nobody on your side can read it.
The quality collapsed
It demos fine and falls over with real users. Every new feature breaks two old ones, and the team that built it can’t say why.
The clock started
Funding landed or a contract was signed. The build was already behind — and now the deadline has commercial consequences.
Three moves, in order. No commitment past the first until you’ve seen the memo.
Audit
Senior engineers read the codebase and map what’s salvageable. You get a written memo — keep, fix, or cut — with the reasoning, not just the verdict.
Stabilise
We take the release over the line: the bugs blocking launch, the infrastructure that pages you at 3am, the tests that don’t exist yet.
Own
The same team stays on the code — new features, performance, the long game. No hand-off, no rotating cast, no repeat of how you got here.
Do we have to start over?
Rarely. The audit tells us what’s worth keeping, and most codebases are salvageable once someone senior owns them. A full rewrite is the last resort — and if we do recommend one, you’ll see the reasoning before the recommendation.
Can you work with another team’s code?
That’s the job. We’ve inherited codebases with no documentation, no tests, and no handover. The audit maps what actually exists before anyone commits to a plan.
How fast can you start?
An audit can usually start within two weeks. Tell us the real deadline and we’ll be straight about whether it’s recoverable.
What do we get from the audit?
A written memo: the state of the codebase, what’s salvageable, the risks, and a plan with an estimate. It’s yours to keep, whoever you build with.
Who owns the IP?
You do, in full — same as every Origen engagement. Code, designs, infrastructure, documentation.
What if it’s not recoverable?
We’ll say so. Sometimes the honest answer is a smaller scope or a different sequence — you’ll get that in the memo, not after six months of invoices.
Behind schedule?
Let’s look.
Tell us where the build stands. It goes straight to Harley and Jonathan — a real reply within 24 hours.