VelocityDev partners with non-technical founders to co-build category-focused SaaS businesses. Full technical build in exchange for a co-founder equity stake. One to two ventures per year — in domains where we can add product as well as engineering value.
Founders with strong ideas but no technical capability face a structural problem. VC won't fund them. Agencies cost $50k–$150k. No-code hits a ceiling. Offshore contractors deliver code that won't scale.
The few players who do offer build-for-equity — Pioneer Square Labs, Atomic, eFounders — chase $10M+ outcomes and won't look at a niche SaaS targeting $500k–$2M ARR. The result: a large segment of capable, domain-expert founders with viable concepts, no path to a technical co-founder, and no realistic alternative.
AI-assisted development crossed a capability threshold in 2025–26. A SaaS MVP that costs an agency $80k–$150k can be produced in 8–12 weeks of focused effort. That economics flip is what makes equity-for-build viable — a traditional dev shop can't profitably take a meaningful equity stake. We can.
VelocityDev operates inside an active portfolio of 9+ live products across SaaS, marketplace, infrastructure, and B2B tooling. ezSign live in two countries. FixMySEO and FlyMyAd in active build. We've shipped this before — and the existing portfolio's infrastructure compounds the build-speed advantage.
One to two ventures per year. Not a pipeline. Not a dev shop with venture-studio branding. The whole proposition depends on concentrated technical attention on a small number of bets, with the lead deeply embedded in each one. Above two per year, the model breaks.
We build the product. You sell it, market it, lead it. The line is sharp, the deliverables are explicit, and the equity reflects what each side actually contributes.
Architecture, application code, database design, infrastructure, deployment, monitoring. Production-ready, not demo-ware.
Pushing back on scope. Simplifying where you're over-specifying. Identifying what to ship first and what to defer.
Bug fixes, scaling work, integrations, infrastructure, technical hiring decisions — for the duration of the vesting period.
Post-vesting, transition to a hired CTO or continue in advisory. Code is yours from day one of incorporation, not ours.
Marketing, sales, content, brand, customer success — these are the founder's responsibility. Full stop.
We contribute build effort, not cash. Founders who need capital should also raise from angels or grants in parallel.
Sophisticated founders won't give up half their company to a builder, and they shouldn't have to if they're bringing more than just the idea. The model is tiered against what the founder contributes — and every grant vests over 24 months with a 6-month cliff.
Concept, brand vision, time. No technical capability, no customers, no revenue.
Full build, architecture, infrastructure, product direction, post-launch support.
Industry expertise, customer access, signed letters of intent or pilot users.
Full build, architecture, infrastructure, ongoing technical leadership.
Existing revenue or paying pilots. Migrating from MVP / no-code / contractor build.
Rebuild or scale-up engineering, infra modernisation, technical co-founder role.
→ All grants subject to 24-month vesting, 6-month cliff. Convert to a fixed percentage at the next priced funding round, protecting both VelocityDev's stake and the cap table's investability.
Selection is the most important decision in the entire model. Picking the wrong venture costs six to twelve months of capacity. Every concept passes three tests before any term sheet is drafted.
Have you spoken to at least 10 potential customers? Can you articulate, specifically, what they said they would pay for? "I think people would buy this" is not customer evidence. "Three procurement managers at named companies have committed to a paid pilot at $X/month" is.
What do you bring that we cannot replicate? Domain expertise, network access, brand presence, regulatory knowledge. If the answer is "the idea," the equity tier is 45–55% — and the build only proceeds if the idea is unusually defensible.
Can we ship a production-ready MVP in 8–12 weeks of focused effort? If the technical scope is larger than that, we either reduce the scope or pass on the deal. No exceptions, no special cases, no quietly extending the timeline.
Founders evaluating VelocityDev will compare it to several alternative paths. Here's the honest map.
No structured form. No deck. No NDA. Send a 2-page Word doc or PDF describing your concept in your own words — and we'll respond within 5 working days.
How you frame your own concept on paper tells us more than any checklist could. We're looking for clarity of thought, evidence of customer contact, and an honest read on what you bring beyond the idea. A good concept doc is the same artefact you'd write for a prospective angel — if you can't write one, you're not ready for either.
We deliberately won't tell you what to put in it. The structure you choose, the priorities you lead with, the questions you anticipate — that is the signal we're reading.
Two pages. Your words. No template, no diagrams required, no boilerplate. If you find yourself reaching for ChatGPT to fill it in, you've answered the question for both of us.
hello @ velocitydev.ai · Response within 5 working days