Blueprint
Know exactly what to build and how to build it — before you commit the budget
We translate your vision into decisions: What should be built to reach your next goal, and what are the technical decisions that need to be locked in? You walk into the build understanding your own project well enough to make confident decisions.
30 minutes. No obligation. If a Blueprint isn't the right fit, we'll tell you what is.
You're About To Spend Six Figures On A Build — And The Biggest Decisions Haven't Been Made Yet
You have a vision to build something. You might even have a list of features or user stories. But two things haven't been figured out, and that’s where money gets wasted, fast.
First: what exactly should you actually build? Not "what's your vision." What's the minimum you need to build to reach your next business milestone? If you don’t scope accordingly, all you get is an expensive guess aimed at no one in particular.
Second: how should it be built? Which model? What infrastructure? How does this thing handle messy real-world data at scale? Where are the technical risks that blow up budgets? If you rush to building without answering them, you’ll pay for it one expensive discovery at a time.
A big consultancy will take eight weeks and hand you a giant slide deck with no teeth behind it. Their recommendations fall apart the moment a real engineering team reads them. A dev shop will build whatever you described, even if the scope is wrong and the architecture won't hold, happily charging you along the way.
The uncertainty has to live somewhere: in the build quote, in the timeline, or in your budget. Right now, you're the one absorbing it.
Imagine Walking Into The Build With The Hard Decisions Already Made
Imagine knowing exactly how much you need to build and exactly how it should be built. Not a 40-feature wish list, but a sharp scope: these three things matter now, these seven can wait, and here's why.
The architecture is decided. Through our hard-won experience, we’ve picked the tech that lets you move fast now without turning into a maintenance nightmare as soon as you want to grow.
And because the scope is disciplined and the open questions are answered, there won’t be nasty surprises during the build that nobody saw coming.
You're not paying for someone's learning curve during the build. You're not absorbing their uncertainty in your budget. You're not overbuilding the wrong parts and underbuilding the right ones. You're starting the build with the fog already cleared.
That's what a Blueprint does.
The Right Scope And The Right Architecture — Before You Commit
That's the Blueprint. Here's how it works:
Before we start: A 30-minute fit call where you tell us about the problem, what you've already tried, and what you're trying to decide. We'll tell you whether a Blueprint is the right move, or whether you'd be better served by a Kickstart if you're earlier than you think.
The engagement: We spend a few sessions going deep on your problem. Starting at the high level, then drilling down. How does your vision translate to an immediate next business milestone, and what’s the minimum scope required to reach it? We’ll have a focused session with you to draw out exactly how a user engages with the system you want, to make sure nothing falls through the cracks.
Then we dig into the technical side: your data, your constraints, your integrations, the edge cases a generic proposal would miss. If there's genuine technical risk, the kind that would blow up a build budget if discovered mid-project, we don't just document it. We test it. A prototype of the hard part, running on your actual data, so nobody's guessing about whether it works. Not every Blueprint needs one. When it does, you'll know before the build starts, not during it.
By the end, you have a concrete plan. What to build now, what to buy off the shelf, what to defer. How the pieces fit together. Where the risks were and how they were resolved.
The debrief: We walk you through all of it. Scope rationale, architecture, trade-offs, and any prototyping results. You get opinions, not a menu. If we think you're planning to build too much, we'll say so and show you what to cut. If we think the build is simpler than you feared, we'll tell you that too.
What's included:
Pre-engagement fit call
Scope definition: what to build now, what to defer, and why
Architecture decisions: model selection, infrastructure, integrations, data pipeline. Made and documented.
If there's technical risk: a working prototype of the highest-risk part, running on your real data
A technical plan clear enough that any professional can execute it
A full debrief session with clear next-step recommendations
What's NOT included:
A production build (that's Build & Deploy)
Ongoing advisory beyond the engagement (that's Fractional CTO)
A slide deck that takes eight weeks and has no prototype behind it
A sales pitch disguised as consulting
Pricing: 12,000 CAD. Flat fee. No "starting at," no "depending on scope." If your problem is smaller than a Blueprint and can be answered in a day, we'll tell you that on the fit call and point you to a Kickstart
Ready To Get The Uncertainty Out Of The Way?
30 minutes to talk through your problem and figure out if a Kickstart is the right move. No charge, no pitch.
Don't Take Our Word For It
"Their ability to demystify AI and deliver on real business-ready systems sets them apart in the industry."
— Andrew Fursman, CEO, 1QBit
"Ehsan demonstrated remarkable expertise in building and scaling AI-powered products from ground up... taking ReplayzIQ from initial team formation to market launch."
— Dave Kennet, Founder & CEO, ReplayzIQ From team formation to acquisition by Highspot.
Adaly: avoiding the technical dead end. Adaly needed AI-powered marketing tools that connect to their proprietary datasets through MCP. We helped them pick the architecture, avoid the dead ends that would have burned their runway, and secure a multi-million dollar investment on the back of a technical story that held up to scrutiny.
Still Have Questions?
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We go deep on your actual problem. That requires a session or two with you in the room, plus time spent assessing tradeoffs and options. It can take from one to three weeks, depending on your availability to answer questions.
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No. You bring the domain knowledge: what the problem is, what the business needs, what success looks like. We handle the architecture and explain the trade-offs in plain language.
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Not as a single number on a page. What it gives you is something more useful: a plan clear enough that any competent team, us included, can quote the build accurately instead of padding for uncertainty. The scope is sharp, the architecture is decided, and where there was technical risk, it's been tested. That's the information a builder needs to give you a confident number, and it's the information you need to evaluate whether that number is fair.
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You might be right. But most projects we see are overbuilt in some places and underbuilt in others. Features that feel essential but aren't, and core pieces that got less attention than they deserve. Our experience is that you can always get away with less in your initial build. And the technical pieces still need answering.
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A sharp scope (what to build now vs. later). Architecture decisions (documented, not just discussed). A prototype of any high-risk piece, if one exists. A technical plan detailed enough to hand to any build team and get an accurate quote. Written in plain language, not consultant-speak. You own all of it.
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Yes. The plan is written to be actionable by any competent team, clear enough that they can quote the build accurately and start working without a discovery phase. Nothing in the Blueprint locks you to us.
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It's yours. Code, data, everything.
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The Blueprint is a real engagement with a real deliverable. Many clients take the plan and execute it with another team. If you want to keep working with us on Build & Deploy, great, but there's zero pressure and nothing in the Blueprint that only we can execute.
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Absolutely. The more context in the room, the sharper the architecture decisions.
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This is remote by default, since there’s a good amount of work where we’ll be off on our own thinking, analyzing, and designing. If you're in the Greater Vancouver area, we can arrange an in-person session up front for some extra bandwidth. Otherwise, we run the whole thing remotely.
Why AICE?
We're senior AI engineers who think and ship. We'll tell you you're planning to build too much before we'll agree to build it. The people who cut your scope and design the architecture are the same people who'd prototype the risky parts, and the same people who'd build it. A Blueprint from us isn't a bloated document. It's a plan that's been pressure-tested by the people who actually know what production looks like.
Ready To Make The Build Decision With Confidence?
30 minutes. We'll talk through your situation and tell you if a Blueprint is the right move. No pressure. If it's not the right fit, we'll point you in the right direction.
Our guarantee: If you finish the Blueprint without a plan you're confident acting on, whether that's building with us or with someone else, we keep working on it. On our time, not yours. Until you do. We take the fit call seriously for exactly that reason: if your problem isn't a good match for a Blueprint, we won't sell you one.
We Only Take A Few Blueprints At A Time
Blueprints are intensive: senior engineers, real architecture work, hands-on technical vetting. We keep the number small so every engagement gets our full attention. Scheduling is first come, first served. The sooner you book the fit call, the sooner the uncertainty is out of the way.