UK scale-up engagements shipped since 2022
Industry Scaleup software development · UK Series A-to-B teams
Scaleup software development for the engineering org that needs senior overflow.
You’re at 14 engineers, Series A closed nine months ago, and next quarter has three product bets that all need senior depth your pipeline can’t hire in time. We slot in as a senior overflow team — two engineers paired on one priority bet, every PR reviewed by your tech lead. You stay the architecture owner; your team picks the code back up on day 91.
24hreply, from a senior
200+projects shipped since 2019
Senioronly, on the spine
You’re not hiring a vendor. You’re hiring two senior engineers for a quarter.
Your roadmap didn’t slow down because your hiring did. The bets are real, the deadlines are board-level, and the two senior reqs you opened in January still aren’t closed. We’re the overflow team that ships inside your repo, on your conventions, under your tech lead’s review, then hands it back.
Scale-ups, not strangers
Twelve UK scale-ups we’ve built alongside since 2022. You’re not the engagement where we learn how a Series A org actually works.
Never the bottleneck
Zero engagements where your existing team felt overruled or sidelined. Your tech lead vetoes the fit before we start, and again any time after.
They sign us again
Median retainer tenure of twenty-eight months. Most teams come back for the next bet, because the first handover actually held.
Nadia closed her Series A, then watched her roadmap outrun her hiring. So she rented seniority by the quarter.
Fourteen engineers, a board deck with three Q3 bets on it, and two senior backend roles that had been open since January. She didn’t want staff-aug bodies and she didn’t want to hand a bet to an agency that would build a parallel codebase. She wanted two seniors inside her repo for twelve weeks, then gone.
01
Week 0, the scope audit
5 days reading her codebase and the bet. We picked the one of three bets where senior depth changed the timeline most, and her tech lead signed the scope.02
Weeks 1–11, paired in the repo
Two seniors in her CI, her conventions, her standup. Every architecture call written up as an ADR the same day. Her staff engineers reviewed each one and pushed back twice. That’s the point.03
Day 91, the handover
Runbook, observability, ADRs, and code walkthroughs. Her team owned the bet the next morning. She signed us again for the Q4 bet before the handover sprint finished.Where your org sits today decides the overflow shape.
Most scale-up CTOs we hear from arrive in one of three shapes. None is harder than the others, and the right overflow looks different for each. Tell us the bet, your tech lead, the deadline, and your team size in the first email, and we’ll match the response.
You have the bet, the deadline, and two senior reqs that won’t close in time.
The right move isn’t lowering the bar on the hire. It’s two seniors paired on the priority bet for a quarter, shipping inside your repo while your pipeline keeps running. You hire at your own pace; the bet still lands on time.
- 12-week paired overflow sprint
- ADR pack handed to your staff engineers
- 12-month mutual no-poach on request
- Senior overflow · from £45K
You’re raising again and the architecture won’t survive the diligence call as written.
The spine held for the seed and the A, but the Series B partner’s technical diligence asks questions the current build can’t answer. We audit in week one, harden the bet over 8 to 12 weeks, and write the ADRs your acquirer’s CTO reads first.
- Architecture audit + senior hardening
- ADR pack your VC reads before the call
- Procurement + security pack pre-filled
- Audit + hardening · from £55K
You have the team and one expensive architecture call coming this quarter.
Multi-region, multi-tenant, cost engineering on cloud and inference. The next call sets the next eighteen months. We sit alongside your in-house engineers as a second senior voice, not a replacement, on the decisions that matter most.
- Embedded senior or architecture advisory
- Quarterly review with your CTO
- Cost engineering for cloud, AI, and data
- Advisory or embedded · from £5K/mo
Six things. Every one of them on day one.
You shouldn’t have to guess who’s actually showing up, whether they’ll respect your conventions, or what happens to the code when the sprint ends. Here’s what’s on the SOW before a line gets written.
Seniors named on the SOW
Two senior engineers paired daily. CVs and GitHub on request. Your tech lead vetoes the fit before we start if it’s wrong.
Paired with your tech lead
We work in your repo, your CI, your conventions. Your tech lead reviews our PRs. No parallel codebase, no shadow stack.
ADR pack per bet
Architecture decisions written the same day they’re made. Your staff engineers inherit a document they can defend in diligence.
No-poach on request
A 12-month mutual no-poach in the engagement letter. We won’t approach your engineers, and we expect the same.
30-day walk-away, both ways
If the fit is wrong, both sides walk inside 30 days. No deposit forfeiture, no drama, no B-team after the deposit clears.
Handover to your team
Day 85 to day 91 is a handover sprint: runbook, observability, ADRs, code walkthroughs. Your team owns it on day 91.
Twelve weeks. One bet shipped. Your team owns it on day 91.
Scope audit
5 days reading your repo and the bet. We pick the bet where senior depth moves the timeline most. Your tech lead signs the scope.
Paired in your repo
Two seniors in your CI, your conventions, your standup. First ADR drafted. Your tech lead reviews the first PRs by Friday.
Ship the bet
The bet built end-to-end under your tech lead’s review. Every architecture call written up as an ADR the same day it’s made.
Hardening pass
Observability, load behaviour, edge cases, and the security questions your Series B diligence will ask. Severity-ranked, fixed in order.
Handover sprint
Runbook, ADR pack, observability dashboards, and code walkthroughs with your staff engineers. Nothing left in one head.
Your team owns it
Maintainable, hireable, documented code your engineers pick up the next morning. We’re gone, unless you sign us for the next bet.
We work in your stack first. This is what we reach for when the choice is open.
You already have conventions, and we ship inside them. When a bet needs a fresh service or you ask what we’d pick, we lead with boring, hireable choices that survive a Series B diligence call. Nothing experimental on the spine.
01
Product layer
React and Next.js in TypeScript. The default for the dashboards and B2B surfaces scale-ups ship most.React + Next.jsTypeScriptTailwindFlutter (mobile)
02
Backend + data
Node and Express on Postgres or Mongo. Python when the bet is data or ML. Hireable choices, not fashionable ones.Node + ExpressPostgreSQLMongoDBPythonGraphQLRedis
03
Infrastructure that scales it
AWS by default, EKS and Lambda where the load justifies it. We’ll deploy where your team already is.AWSKubernetes (EKS)DockerTerraformGitHub ActionsDatadog + Sentry
Scale + receipts · what your CFO, VC, and acquirer ask
The receipts that survive Series B diligence. Numbers, not adjectives.
When your investor’s technical partner opens the diligence call, they don’t want a pitch. They want figures they can verify. These are the ones that come up most, on code we wrote and still maintain.
Scale handled
Cumulative GMV and transactions through code we shipped, plus the production traffic that code carries every year. Right when your VC asks whether the spine holds at the next order of magnitude.
£540M+
GMV through our code
320M+
API calls / year, 2025
Trust held
Zero customer-data breaches in production across seven years, SOC 2 Type II achieved at Empyreal in December 2025, and a held pen-test report. Right when your enterprise prospect sends the security questionnaire.
0
breaches, 7 years
SOC 2
Type II, Dec 2025
Outcomes
Series A founders we built with who raised Series B, plus engineer retention so the same seniors sign, ship, and maintain. Right when you want continuity, not a fresh face on every engagement.
84%
cohort raised Series B
96%
engineer retention
Procurement, security, and trust. What your CFO, CTO, and DPO see in writing.
When your enterprise prospect or your acquirer sends the questionnaire, you shouldn’t be scrambling for answers we should have written down. Here’s what’s in the pack before you ask for it.
SOC 2 Type II achieved
Empyreal-internal SOC 2 Type II achieved December 2025. A Vanta or Drata evidence pipeline wired from day one for your engagement.
Signed DPA + SCCs
UK and EU GDPR-aware DPA. SCCs for cross-border data. A sub-processor list versioned and procurement-tested before you sign.
DSAR runbook + erasure
A 30-day DSAR response that’s defendable. Right-to-erasure handled at the schema. The flow an ICO audit can walk without surprises.
30-day walk-away, both ways
You keep everything. IP assigns on commit. Two handovers in seven years, both inside 48 hours, neither contested.
No-poach on request
A 12-month mutual no-poach in the engagement letter. We won’t approach your engineers during or after the sprint.
Procurement security pack
SIG-Lite and CAIQ pre-filled. Pen-test report, architecture diagram, DR plan, and the SLA with an uptime SLO your buyer expects.
Three ways to start, in GBP
Pick the shape. The number’s in the reply.
GBP throughout. UK VAT applies, reverse-charge for EU, none for non-EU. No day-rate and no staff-aug. Milestone payments structured around your runway, not ours. The audit is fixed and standalone if that’s all you need.
Scope audit
5 days reading your repo and the bet, ending in a written brief, a severity-ranked fix list, and a fixed sprint quote. Often signed standalone before the bigger build. Right when you can’t yet name which bet senior depth changes most.
£8K
fixed
5 days
duration
Overflow sprint
Two seniors paired daily on one priority bet, twelve weeks, fixed scope and fixed price. ADR pack to your staff engineers, handover at day 91. Right when the bet is real and your hiring pipeline can’t fill the gap in time.
£45–95K
fixed scope
12 weeks
duration
Embedded advisory
A second senior voice on the calls that matter. Fortnightly architecture review with your CTO, on-demand translation for investor and procurement questions. Right when you’d rather not make the next architecture call alone.
£5K
per month
Ongoing
cadence
What scale-up CTOs actually ask before signing.
Is this staff-aug? Will I get a B-team after the deposit clears?
No. Scaleup software development with us is two named senior engineers on the SOW, with CVs and GitHub on request, paired daily on one bet. The engineers who sign are the engineers who ship. There’s no day-rate, no bench, and no swap to a cheaper face after the deposit.
Will your team slow ours down or build a parallel codebase?
We work inside your repo, your CI, and your conventions, and your tech lead reviews our PRs. There’s no shadow stack. Across twelve scale-up engagements since 2022, zero teams reported feeling overruled or slowed down. Your tech lead vetoes the fit before we start, and any time after.
What happens to the code when the 12 weeks end?
Days 85 to 91 are a handover sprint: runbook, observability, ADR pack, and code walkthroughs with your staff engineers. Your team owns maintainable, hireable, documented code on day 91. IP assigns on every commit, so it’s yours the whole time, not just at the end.
Will you poach our engineers?
No. We’ll put a 12-month mutual no-poach in the engagement letter on request. We won’t approach your engineers during or after the sprint, and we ask the same of you for ours.
We’re raising Series B. Will this survive the diligence call?
That’s the point of the ADR pack. Every architecture call gets written up the same day, so your VC’s technical partner reads decisions, not guesses. We’ve shipped scaleup software development for teams through Series B diligence, and 84% of the Series A cohort we built with raised their B.
Our prospect sent a security questionnaire. Can you help us answer it?
Yes. The pack ships SIG-Lite and CAIQ pre-filled, a pen-test report, a DPA with SCCs, and a DR plan. We achieved SOC 2 Type II at Empyreal in December 2025 and wire a Vanta or Drata evidence pipeline from day one of your engagement.
What if it isn’t working out?
Both sides walk inside 30 days, no deposit forfeiture and no drama. In seven years we’ve handed over twice, both inside 48 hours, neither contested. You keep everything either way, because IP assigns on commit.
How fast can you start, and will you sign an NDA first?
Send a five-line brief: the bet, your tech lead, the deadline, and your team size. You’ll get a real reply inside 24 hours with availability and the next 5-day scope audit slot. We’ll sign your NDA before you share anything sensitive.
In context
Inside the work.
A look at the kind of scaleup software development surface we hand over — real screens, real data, documented and yours from day one.