Build your first AI feature with senior engineering support.
For founders and small teams that need additional AI and engineering expertise. Blend gives you a senior architect and engineers for a bounded piece of work, tells you when a tool would do, and agrees ownership and handover before development starts.
Sound familiar?
This page is for founders and small teams, with or without a developer, whether the AI is a feature for your customers or automation for your own operations. The two are scoped differently.
Typically
- Founders who need a first version of a customer-facing AI feature
- Teams with one developer who need architecture and AI experience alongside them
- Startups whose operations run on spreadsheets, forms and a growing inbox
Where it usually begins.
Each is a bounded pilot. Which actions wait for a person is agreed before it starts.
A customer-facing product feature
Scoped with extra care: permissions, cost per request, rate limits, fallback when the model provider is down, and a rollout separate from the pilot.
Your own operations
Onboarding, support replies, document handling: automate the repetitive part before you hire for it, with a person approving what matters during the pilot.
Build versus buy
Before writing code, we check whether an existing tool covers the need. A custom build is one possible recommendation, not the default.
What we need from you
- A clear description of the user and the job the feature does for them
- Whatever exists today: a prototype, a spreadsheet, a deck
- A decision-maker who can review weekly
What you get
- An architecture you can explain to an investor and a future CTO
- A working pilot, with evaluation on real cases, and a separately scoped production rollout when the evidence supports it
- Running costs itemised so unit economics are visible early
- Ownership, licences and handover are agreed before development starts. Bespoke code written for you is yours under the engagement agreement; third-party components keep their own licences, and infrastructure and accounts are arranged in scope.
After launch: who does what.
An operating guide names the owner, the review queue, the accounts involved and what to do when something fails.
Blend
- Support with a defined scope, agreed in writing
- Documentation and handover to your developer or your next hire
- Changes scoped and quoted
Your team
- A product owner who can prioritise
- Your own accounts for hosting and model providers where the scope puts them in your name
Before we begin.
Can you add AI to our product for our customers?
Yes. A customer-facing capability is scoped with the same care as an internal one: permissions, rate limits, cost per request and fallback behaviour when the model provider is unavailable.
Who owns the code and the solution?
Ownership, licences and handover are agreed before development starts. Bespoke code written for you is yours under the engagement agreement; third-party components keep their own licences, and infrastructure and accounts are arranged in scope.
How long does a first engagement take?
An assessment of 1 to 2 weeks, then a pilot of about 4 weeks including its evaluation. Together that is usually 6 to 8 weeks. The total depends on scheduling, access readiness and integration complexity. Rollout is scoped separately after the evaluation.
How is pricing structured?
A free fit conversation; a fixed-fee readiness assessment agreed before you commit; pilots and implementations quoted after the assessment; model usage, hosting and third-party services itemised at cost.
Who does the work?
Blend is founder-led. Senior engineers handle scope, architecture and delivery, and the team for each engagement is agreed before it starts.
Do you work with our existing developers?
Yes, and we prefer it. Your developers keep ownership of the product; Blend adds the AI capability, the evaluation approach and documentation, then hands over.
Build the first version with people who have built many.
Since 2008, Blend has shipped software for startups and established businesses across travel, education, manufacturing and e-commerce.