The way most development projects fail isn't in the code. It's in the process that surrounds the code. A vague brief that produces a mismatched product. A timeline that slips by three months without warning. An invoice that's 60% higher than the original estimate. A developer who disappears after deployment and doesn't respond to bug reports. These failures happen because the commercial and communication structure of the engagement wasn't defined properly before the build started.
The process we use exists specifically to prevent those failures. Five stages, each with a clear purpose and a defined output. A fixed price confirmed in writing before Stage 3 begins. Milestone-based delivery so you review working software at each stage - not just at the end. A direct WhatsApp line to the technical team throughout. And post-launch support that's included in the project price, not added as a separate invoice the moment you go live.
Every Solidity Labs project follows a five-stage process: a free discovery call, a written fixed-price proposal delivered within 24 hours, a project kick-off once the advance payment clears, a milestone-based build with weekly progress updates and staging reviews at each stage, and a launch with 15 to 30 days of post-launch support included. You communicate directly with the technical team via WhatsApp throughout.
Every project at Solidity Labs runs through the same five stages, regardless of what's being built. The scale of each stage changes - a two-week chatbot project and a sixteen-week DeFi platform are very different builds - but the structure is identical. That consistency is deliberate. It's what allows us to give you a reliable experience from week one, rather than figuring out how to manage the project as we go.
Stage 1
The discovery call is a free 30 to 60-minute conversation. No agenda, no pitch, no presentation deck from our side. You tell us about what you're building. We ask questions. The goal is for both parties to understand whether this project is a good fit for Solidity Labs to build.
On the call, we'll ask about what you're trying to build and why. We'll want to understand who the end user is and what they're trying to accomplish. We'll ask about the technical constraints you're working within - whether you already have a codebase, what systems you need to integrate with, whether there are existing design files or specifications. We'll ask about your timeline and, where relevant, your budget range.
We'll also ask about prior experience with development agencies or freelancers. Not to judge - but because knowing what went wrong in a previous engagement is one of the most useful data points for structuring a new one. If a client was burned by poor communication before, we make sure the communication protocol is explicit in the proposal. If scope creep destroyed a previous budget, we make sure the scope document is unusually detailed.
At the end of the call, one of three things happens. We tell you we're the right team and outline what the proposal will cover. We tell you we're not the right team and explain why honestly - if we know who is better suited, we'll say so. Or we identify that there's more information we need before we can answer either way, and we agree a next step. We don't leave calls open-ended.
Stage 2
Within 24 to 48 hours of the discovery call, we send you a written proposal. This is a formal document, not an email summary. It contains every element of the engagement written out clearly, so that there's no ambiguity about what you're agreeing to when you sign it.
The proposal includes the full scope - every feature, every screen, every integration that's part of the project, described in plain language. It includes the fixed price - one number, covering everything in the scope. It includes the milestone breakdown - the specific stages the project is split into, with what gets delivered at each stage. It includes the timeline - start date, milestone dates, delivery date - as specific dates, not ranges. It includes the tech stack - the specific technologies being used and, where relevant, why. It includes the payment schedule - when the advance is due, and when the final payment is due. And it includes the post-launch support terms - what's covered, for how long.
You can ask questions about the proposal. You can request changes to the scope - if you want to add something or remove something before signing, that's the right time to do it. The proposal has no expiry date. You review it at your own pace. When you're ready to proceed, you sign and send the 50% advance. When both are received, the project moves to kick-off.
One thing the proposal does not contain: a number that grows after you sign. The fixed price is the price. If we underestimate a task - which happens occasionally in any honest estimate - we absorb it. The only thing that changes the price is a change to the agreed scope, and scope changes require a separate written approval from you before we do any additional work.
Stage 3
Once you've signed the proposal and the 50% advance has cleared, the project moves to kick-off. Building begins within two to three business days of the advance clearing.
On kick-off, we send you a detailed task breakdown - every item in the agreed scope translated into specific development tasks. This isn't a summary. It's the complete list, organised by milestone, that the team is working from. You review it and confirm it matches your expectations. This is the last structured checkpoint before building starts, and it's the right moment to raise anything that needs clarifying before the build begins.
We also share a progress tracker at kick-off - a shared document or project board that shows the status of every task: not started, in progress, in review, or complete. You can check this at any time without having to ask for a status update.
And we set up the project WhatsApp group. You, your team if applicable, and the Solidity Labs developers working on your project are all in it. This is the primary communication channel for the duration of the build. Questions go here. Updates go here. Feedback on milestone deliverables goes here. We keep it organised and responsive - questions asked on business days receive a response within 24 hours, usually faster.
Stage 4
This is where most of the calendar time is. The build phase runs from kick-off to final delivery, broken into the milestones defined in the proposal. The length of this phase varies significantly by project - a focused AI chatbot might have two milestones over three weeks; a complex DeFi platform might have six milestones over four months. The structure is the same regardless of length.
Every Friday during the build, you receive a written progress update. It covers three things: what was completed this week, what's planned for next week, and any open questions or blockers that need your input. These are written, not calls - you can read them when it suits you and they create a record of progress you can refer back to. If you'd prefer a call instead of a written update, we can accommodate that, but the default is written because most clients find it less disruptive.
At the end of each milestone, we deploy the completed work to a staging environment - a live, working version of the product at that stage that you can access and test yourself. This is not a demo video. It's the actual build. You can click through it, test the features, try to break things, and tell us what needs to change before we move to the next milestone. We fix anything that doesn't meet the agreed specification before the next stage begins. Nothing is left 'to sort out later' - the milestone approval is a meaningful checkpoint, not a formality.
Your approval at each milestone is required before we proceed. This is a genuine gate, not a courtesy notification. If you're not satisfied with the milestone delivery, we don't move forward until you are. The 50% advance you paid at the beginning covers the first milestone phase. The remaining 50% is due at final delivery - after you've approved the completed product.
A word on scope changes during the build: requirements that were agreed in the proposal are covered by the fixed price. If you want to add a feature that wasn't in the original scope - something you thought of mid-build, or something a user test revealed you need - we write a mini-proposal for the addition. It covers what's being added, what it costs, and how it affects the timeline. You approve it before we build it. Nothing goes on the invoice that you didn't sign off on in advance.
Stage 5
Final delivery is not just handing over a ZIP file of code. It's a structured handover that makes sure you can actually use, manage, and maintain what we've built.
Final delivery includes the deployed product - live on your hosting environment, not on ours. It includes documentation that explains the codebase, how to manage the admin functions, and how to handle the most common operational tasks. It includes a handover call - 30 to 60 minutes where we walk you through everything we've built, how it works, what to watch for, and what to do if something goes wrong. It includes the source code transferred to your repository. And it includes the final invoice - the remaining 50% of the project price, due on delivery.
After delivery, every project includes a post-launch support period. For standard builds - AI chatbots, smart contracts, SaaS MVPs, web applications - this is 15 days. For larger or more complex projects - DeFi platforms, RWA tokenization platforms, exchange systems, full enterprise applications - this is 30 days. The support period is specified in your proposal, not determined retroactively.
During the post-launch support period, bug fixes are handled at no extra charge. Integration issues that surface under real-world conditions - things that behaved correctly in testing but run into edge cases with live users - are resolved. Minor adjustments within the agreed scope are made. What the support period is not: a free development phase for new features, a retainer, or a period where we're on call 24/7. It's a defined window for making sure the product works in production.
After the support period closes, the project is formally complete. If you want ongoing maintenance, new feature development, or additional support, that's a new engagement - scoped and priced separately. We're happy to take that work on. But it's a new conversation, not an assumption.
The single most common complaint about development agencies isn't missed deadlines or bad code. It's not knowing what's happening. A project goes quiet for two weeks. Emails don't get answered. The status update you asked for three days ago still hasn't arrived. By the time the product is delivered, you've lost confidence in the team before you've seen the result.
We've structured communication on every project specifically to prevent this. Four channels, each with a clear purpose, each consistent across every project we run.
Every project has a dedicated WhatsApp group containing you, your team if applicable, and the Solidity Labs developers working on your product. This is not a customer service inbox where a support agent relays your message to a developer. The developers in the group are the people writing your code. When you ask a technical question, you get an answer from the person who knows the answer.
Response time on business day messages: within 24 hours, typically much faster. The group is the fastest way to raise a question, share feedback on a milestone, or flag something that needs attention. It also creates a searchable record of every decision made during the build - if you want to refer back to why a particular feature was implemented a certain way, the conversation is in the group.
Every Friday during the active build phase, you receive a written update in the WhatsApp group. The update covers what was completed during the week, what's planned for the following week, and any open questions or blockers that need your input. The updates are brief and specific - not a list of jargon-heavy technical achievements, but a plain-language account of where the project stands.
If you'd prefer to receive the update by email - because you use a different tool for project communication - that's straightforward to arrange. The default is WhatsApp because it's the channel most clients actively monitor, but we adapt to what works for you.
At each milestone, we deploy the working build to a staging environment and ask you to review it. Some clients prefer to do this asynchronously - they test the staging environment themselves, write up their feedback in the WhatsApp group, and we address it. Others prefer a call where we walk through the build together. Both approaches work. If you want a call at any milestone, ask for it in the group - we'll schedule it within 48 hours.
The progress tracker we share at kick-off is a live document. Every task in the project - every development item from the scope - is listed with its current status. When something moves from 'in progress' to 'complete', it's updated in the tracker. You don't have to ask for a status update if you don't want to - you can check the tracker at any time and see exactly where the project stands.
It happens on almost every project. You start building and realise there's a feature you didn't think of during the scoping phase. A user test surfaces something your original spec didn't account for. A competitor launches something that changes your thinking about what the MVP needs to include. Mid-project scope changes are normal. How they're handled is what separates a well-run project from one that turns adversarial.
Our rule is simple: any requirement that was agreed in the proposal is covered by the fixed price. Any new requirement - anything not in the original scope document - requires a separate written approval from you before we build it, and a separate price.
When you request a scope change, we write a mini-proposal for the addition. It describes what's being added, what it costs, how long it takes to build, and how it affects the overall project timeline. You review it, ask any questions, and approve it before we do any work. Nothing goes on the invoice that didn't get approved in writing first.
We also make a practical distinction between a scope change and a correction. If we built something that doesn't match the agreed specification - if the feature works differently from how it was described in the proposal - that's a correction, not a scope change. Corrections are covered by the fixed price and handled without additional charge. The milestone review process is specifically designed to catch these before they compound.
We don't silently absorb new scope and bill you for it at the end. We don't refuse to engage with changes because they weren't in the original brief. The answer to every scope change request is: here's what it costs, here's the timeline impact, and here's the written document for you to approve before we proceed.
Timelines vary significantly by project type and complexity. The numbers below are indicative - the specific timeline for your project is always in the proposal, with actual dates rather than ranges. We don't give estimates that are deliberately padded, and we don't give estimates that are optimistically compressed to win business.
Nothing specific. You don't need wireframes, a technical specification, or a business plan to have a productive discovery call. What's useful is a clear description of what you're trying to build and who it's for - even a rough one. If you have existing designs, competitor references, or a technical spec, bring them - they accelerate the proposal process. If you have none of these, the call still works fine. The most valuable thing you can bring is a clear answer to this question: what problem are you trying to solve, and for whom?
Building starts within two to three business days of the 50% advance clearing. From the discovery call to the proposal typically takes 24 to 48 hours. From proposal approval to project start is two to three business days. In most cases, a project can go from first call to active build within a week - sometimes faster if the proposal requires minimal back-and-forth. We'll always confirm the start date in the proposal itself.
If a milestone delivery doesn't match the agreed specification - something is missing, something works differently from how it was described in the proposal, or something is technically incorrect - we fix it before we proceed to the next milestone. This isn't negotiated. It's the standard. The milestone is not considered approved until you've confirmed it meets the spec. If there are multiple rounds of feedback needed, we work through them. The milestone review process is specifically designed for this - catching problems at the stage when they're least expensive to fix, rather than at final delivery.
Yes. The 50% advance covers the work completed up to the point you stop. If you stop mid-milestone, we deliver everything completed to that point in a usable, documented state. The remaining 50% is not owed if the final product hasn't been delivered and accepted. We've never had a client stop a project because of dissatisfaction with our work - but we include this answer because we believe you should know your options before you start. A project you can exit cleanly is a project you can enter with confidence.
We handle the deployment. The hosting account is the client's - you set up the hosting provider of your choice (we'll recommend one if you don't have a preference), give us deployment access, and we deploy to your infrastructure. This means you own the hosting environment completely and are not dependent on us to access your own product after the project ends. Domain setup, SSL certificates, and DNS configuration are included in the scope. The only cost that isn't part of our fee is the hosting subscription itself, which goes directly to your hosting provider.
Yes. We commit to your repository throughout the project - not just at final delivery. You or your technical team can review commits at any point during the build. We work in a branch-per-feature structure and open pull requests at milestone boundaries, which gives you a clean view of what was built at each stage. If you want a code review call at any point to walk through the architecture or a specific implementation decision, ask in the WhatsApp group and we'll schedule it.
The post-launch support period (15 or 30 days, specified in your proposal) covers: bug fixes - anything that doesn't work correctly is fixed at no extra charge. Integration issues - if a third-party API or service behaves unexpectedly with the live deployment, we investigate and resolve it. Minor adjustments within scope - small changes to behaviour, copy, or configuration that fall within the spirit of the agreed spec. What the support period doesn't cover: new features, new screens, or changes to requirements that weren't in the original scope. Those are new work. After the support period closes, ongoing maintenance, feature development, or extended support is available as a separate engagement.
The discovery call is free and takes 30 minutes. You don't need to have everything figured out before you book it - the call is specifically for talking through what you're building and whether we're the right team to build it. If there's a fit, you'll have a written proposal with a fixed price in your inbox within 24 hours.