Technical review before development starts
Is your software project technically and commercially sound — before development begins?
0x41 Labs reviews custom software projects for mid-sized companies before an important project turns into an expensive false start. You get a clear assessment of feasibility, architecture, effort and risks.
Free written pre-check · Technical Fit Check afterwards €295 net
Confidential. Vendor-independent. No disclosure of sensitive project data.
The situation
Three situations where a review costs less than the decision without one.
Requirements exist, effort is not dependable
There is a picture of what should be built. What is missing is a reviewed architecture and an effort range a budget can rest on.
Existing systems have to be integrated
ERP, CRM, data or legacy systems are in play. Whether and how reliably they can be connected determines the effort and feasibility of the whole project.
Several suppliers, different promises
The proposals differ substantially in scope, technology and price — and there is no independent technical basis for judging them.
It is right before this point that a short independent review costs less than a wrong technology decision or an abandoned development project.
The offer
One paid entry point, one thorough clarification.
The Fit Check answers whether and how to proceed. The Discovery delivers the full technical basis for the decision.
Entry point
Technical Fit Check
The fast, paid assessment of your project with a concrete recommendation for the next step.
- 45-minute video call, paid before the session
- structured written project intake beforehand
- review of problem, goal, system landscape and rough scope
- the most important open technical risks
- short written assessment within one business day
- recommendation: Discovery, direct implementation, smaller pre-analysis, or no fit
- credited in full against a Discovery commissioned within 14 days
Main service
Technical Discovery
The complete technical basis for a decision ahead of a larger investment.
- structured kickoff
- analysis of goal, processes, existing systems and integrations
- technical options and recommended target architecture
- effort range, dependencies and risks
- written results document
- closing session with a decision recommendation
- larger or particularly security-critical projects scoped individually
The Fit Check is an assessment, not an architecture project — and it does not replace implementation. The thorough service is the Technical Discovery.
How it runs
Four steps, no non-committal loop.
- 01
Describe it briefly
You outline the project, the situation and your preferred timeframe through the form — at a high level, without confidential documents.
- 02
Free pre-check
I review your details in writing — that costs nothing. If it fits, you receive the payment details for the Fit Check and then the appointment.
- 03
Get a decision
A 45-minute session, followed by a short written assessment with a recommendation within one business day.
- 04
Start safely
Where it makes sense, the Technical Discovery follows with a clearly defined scope — and the Fit Check amount is credited.
Selected work
Anonymised projects.
MedTech · Computer vision · approx. 4 months
- Starting point
- A large German health and medical supplies provider wanted to move a measurement that previously happened in-store onto the customer's smartphone.
- Critical question
- Can geometric measurements precise enough for a medical fitting be derived from smartphone camera images?
- My role
- Technical feasibility assessment, image-processing concept, mobile application, backend and production deployment.
- Result
- The critical question — achievable accuracy under real capture conditions — was answered before full build-out, not after months of development.
FinTech · Trading platform · approx. 6 months
- Starting point
- A platform needed to secure transactions between parties unknown to each other, without holding users' funds itself.
- Critical question
- How can escrow logic be built so that no party — including the operator — can unilaterally dispose of the funds?
- My role
- Architecture of the trading and escrow logic, backend, infrastructure and production deployment.
- Result
- A multisig escrow architecture with cleanly separated rights of disposal — decided before development, not corrected afterwards.
Analytics · Business software · approx. 2.5 months
- Starting point
- Operational data sat in POS systems and several separate sources. Reporting was produced manually and reassembled every time.
- Critical question
- Which data has to be consolidated, and how, so that reporting becomes dependable and stops requiring rework?
- My role
- Data model, integration of the source systems, analytics application and operations.
- Result
- One dependable central view where every report had previously been assembled by hand.
System integration · Wholesale · approx. 3 months
- Starting point
- A mid-sized German wholesale business ran a years-old in-house application for order processing alongside its ERP. The two systems knew nothing of each other — article and customer data were maintained in both places, and where they disagreed, whichever version someone had last corrected by hand won.
- Critical question
- Can the existing ERP interface carry a bidirectional sync — or does data ownership between the systems have to be drawn differently?
- My role
- Analysis of the system landscape and the interfaces that actually existed, target architecture, data model, implementation of the integration, and production operation.
- Result
- The intended bidirectional sync could not be made reliable with the available interface — decided during clarification, not after months of silent data divergence. The ERP stayed the system of record for master data and the in-house application took process data only. Duplicate maintenance and the manual steps it caused are gone: around 22 hours a week in total.
Some projects are subject to strict confidentiality and security requirements, so the case studies are anonymised. The examples show the type of problem, the scope of responsibility and the result, without exposing clients or sensitive systems.
Suitable if
Suitable for concretely planned projects.
- A custom software project is concretely planned.
- Existing systems are to be integrated or replaced.
- Important internal decisions on architecture and effort are pending.
- The planned scope is typically between €10,000 and €75,000 — smaller and larger projects are possible.
- You are looking for a confidential, independent technical partner.
Not suitable if
Not suitable for these requests.
- Only a simple website or a small standard integration is needed.
- You are looking for cheap developer capacity for individual tickets.
- The project is fully specified and should be implemented without clarification.
In those cases I say so directly in the pre-check — before a paid session is arranged.
FAQ
What to know before enquiring.
€295 net for a 45-minute video call, including a structured written project intake beforehand and a short written assessment within one business day. Payment is made before the session. The written pre-check that precedes it — whether a Fit Check makes sense for your project at all — costs nothing.
Yes. If a Technical Discovery is commissioned within 14 days of the Fit Check, the €295 net is credited in full against the Discovery price.
A high-level description: the goal of the project, the situation today, which systems are involved, the rough scope and your preferred timeframe. That is enough for the form; the structured intake follows after the pre-check.
No, and please do not. Architecture diagrams, credentials, customer data and confidential documents do not belong in the first contact form. A high-level description is sufficient for the assessment; anything further is handled through an appropriate channel.
Primarily mid-sized companies, typically with projects in the region of €10,000 to €75,000 — smaller and larger ones occur and the amount is not an exclusion criterion. What matters is the phase: when the decision is pending but feasibility, architecture and effort have not been settled with any confidence.
Then that is exactly what the assessment says, with the reasoning. A clear recommendation against a project, or in favour of a standard product, is a legitimate and often the commercially most valuable result. Where that is already apparent in the free pre-check, no paid session is arranged.
The Fit Check is an assessment: 45 minutes, the most important risks, and a recommendation for the next step. The Discovery is the thorough service: 5–7 working days covering the system landscape, target architecture, effort range, risks, a written results document and a closing session. The Fit Check replaces neither a Discovery nor implementation.
Yes, that is the normal case. Often it is precisely the reason: an independent technical assessment of an existing supplier's claims, or a basis for an internal IT team's decision.
The written pre-check is usually done within one business day. The session itself depends on current capacity and can normally be scheduled within a few business days of payment.
Enquiry
Planning a custom software project and want clarity before development starts?
Describe your project. You will receive a free written pre-check with the next sensible step — without having to send sensitive project details through the form.
It does not have to be settled what the finished software looks like. What matters is what should be achieved operationally and what budget range is realistically available.