Why should I trust you with this budget and timeline?

You shouldn’t have to, so LaunchPad is built so you don’t. The price and timeline are fixed per tier, you pay in stages, and Discovery comes first. If the plan Discovery produces doesn’t convince you, the money comes back to you.

The budget is fixed before you commit to the build

Each LaunchPad tier has a fixed price and a fixed timeline, excluding VAT:

Discovery sets the exact scope within the tier you pick. Hosting, licences and developer accounts don’t turn up later as extras, because they’re in that number. On a fixed price, if the agreed scope takes longer, that’s our problem, not yours. How much does a LaunchPad build cost? has the detail, and our guide to fixed price and time and materials explains who carries the risk in each model.

Your exposure is limited at every stage

You’re never asked to hand over the whole budget and hope. LaunchPad is paid in stages, with each phase invoiced in advance. Discovery comes first. That’s where we agree the plan, the screens and the scope in detail.

It’s also the point of maximum uncertainty, so that’s where we carry the risk. Not convinced by the plan? You don’t pay for it. Is there a refund policy? and do I pay upfront or in stages? cover the detail.

The timeline depends on both of us

A fixed timeline is a promise from us, and it relies on a few things from you. Decisions need making and feedback needs giving, on time. Waiting on a decision is the most common delay on any project, ours included. How much of my time will the project take? sets out what we’ll ask of you.

You own what you’re paying for

A budget is only safe if you keep what it buys. You own the code and the IP. Accounts and hosting are yours at launch, whoever held them during the build. Our AWS setups, GitHub repositories and app store listings can all be transferred to you. If we disappeared tomorrow, another team could pick up where we left off.

We don’t plan to disappear. After launch, TotalCare keeps the product running for a fixed monthly fee, so the budget you trusted us with doesn’t become a product nobody looks after. What will I actually have at launch? lists what you walk away with.

The evidence behind the promises

Promises are cheap, so here’s what you can check.

A client that stayed. We became Vault’s engineering team, building the reporting app that employees at Airbnb, Epic Games and Trustpilot use to report misconduct. Reports are encrypted on the person’s own phone, so even Vault can’t read them. We took the platform through SOC 2 and ISO 27001. When Diligent acquired Vault in May 2025, it kept us on.

In Vault’s team’s words: “Would recommend Contic 100%, always. If I could recommend Contic more, I would.”

The rest you can verify:

• Public-sector approval. We’re a supplier on Digital Outcomes and Specialists 7, through the Government Commercial Agency.
• Our own security. We hold Cyber Essentials Plus, are registered with the ICO and manage our compliance in Secureframe, aligned to SOC 2 and ISO 27001.
• Independent listing. You’ll find us in The Manifest.
• Partners. We work with Databricks, AWS, Stripe and Secureframe.
• Background. Our founder was the founding engineer at AI Music, which Apple acquired.

We use AI throughout our work, because it makes good engineers faster. It doesn’t get the last word on what reaches your users; a senior engineer does.

A cheaper way to test us first

If you’re not ready to commit to Discovery, start smaller. The first chat is free, and so is an architectural review. Either one shows you how we think before any money changes hands. If you’ve been let down before, what if an agency has let me down before? speaks to that directly.