For vertical SaaS companies and the funds backing them
We install the AI-native engineering practices that scale — structured planning, shared workflows, and quality gates — and prove the before and after on one real project.
AI Delivery Assessment from $10K · Modernization Sprint from $40K
Two months of features shipped in one week.
One real project, measured before and after. Results vary by team and codebase — the measurement doesn’t.
85%
Faster feature velocity in top engagements — six-to-eight-week projects shipped in days.
The agentic engineering shift
Your competitors aren't hiring more engineers. They're building more with fewer.
Book an AI Delivery AssessmentThe Technical Valuation Gap
18–24
months behind.
That's how far behind the average lower-to-mid-market vertical SaaS team is on AI adoption — and competitors compound the advantage every quarter.
Closing that gap is what separates the teams that turn AI into revenue from the teams that watch it pass. Heavy Chain exists to close that gap — for the team itself, and for the funds backing them.
What you can buy from us
Start with the one-week Assessment to find the right project. Build it in the two-week Sprint. Keep the system current with the License. PE firms run the same discipline across the portfolio.
The flagship · build it
Two weeks, led by Jason. We embed with your team and ship one real, funded project the AI-native way: setting up the workflow, tooling, tests, and review standards, and training the team by doing the actual work. We measure before and after, so the gain is proven, not promised.
From $40K · two weeks
Currently embedded across a portfolio of lower middle-market vertical SaaS companies — for the operating teams and the funds backing them.
Click to read in detail →
Not sure where to start? The first call maps where you are and which rung of the ladder moves the needle fastest.
Book an AI Delivery AssessmentThe framework that ships with us
Most AI tooling assumes the model is the bottleneck. It isn't. The bottleneck is what the model is allowed to do.
ETC is our agentic engineering harness. It standardizes how work is specified, how context is structured, how AI-assisted implementation is guided, and how quality is preserved. Install it once — the same disciplines govern your team's work from then on.
Discipline > capability. The model is smart enough already.
Requirements are interrogated until they're buildable. Vague input never reaches implementation.
No production code ships without a test — enforced mechanically, no exceptions. Tests are the specification.
Work is broken down until every piece is small enough to build and verify in one sitting. Nothing oversized reaches implementation.
Every shipped task is checked against the original spec before it counts as done. Approval is earned, not assumed.
Every feature states the outcome it exists to move — and gets measured against that claim, not against activity.
When a bug escapes, the response is layered defenses, not a single patch. The same failure has to beat every layer to come back.
AI Delivery Modernization Sprint
Five phases over two weeks. We share the desktop the whole time — your team learns by shipping a real project, not by watching a demo.
01
We open with a working session on agentic engineering — spec-driven development, agent harnesses, and the disciplines your team will operate inside. The vocabulary lands first so the tooling lands on something.
02
We fork ETC into your GitHub repository — or your whole organization. The harness lives in your infrastructure from day one. Nothing about the deployment is opaque or external; you own it when we leave.
03
Together we choose the deliverable — a real feature from your roadmap, not a toy demo. We scope it, define what “done” means, and write the spec the build runs against. The work has to matter, or the lesson doesn't stick.
04
We sit and build the chosen feature together, sharing the desktop, while your team learns by shipping. What comes out is production-grade work you were going to need anyway — built the agentic way, in days instead of weeks.
05
Worst case: a feature shipped better and faster than your team would have built alone. Best case: the team has learned enough to act as internal champions, carrying agentic engineering into the rest of the organization on their own.
The fixed terms
Two weeks · shared desktop · ETC installed in your org · one production project shipped.
Run the numbers
Move the sliders. The math is conservative. The fee is fixed.
50% is the conservative default. Actual engagements have reached 85%+ — six-to-eight-week features shipping in four days.
Estimated annual value unlocked
$1,000,000
in year one
Value unlocked is output capacity, not headcount reduction — a team shipping faster ships more. Pricing shown is the flagship AI Delivery Modernization Sprint ($40K–$50K, two weeks); the math uses the top of the range. Start with an AI Delivery Assessment ($10K–$15K) to find the highest-leverage project first.
What leaders report back
Results from teams that crossed to the other side.
“Jason's influence has been transformative. He rebuilt the way our team thinks and executes—unifying the tech stack, embedding AI across the product, and raising the bar for everyone involved.”
Paul Laursen
Co-Founder, Athletica & HIIT Science
Unified stack · AI embedded across the product
“Jason brought investment in leadership, built our materials from scratch, kept every stakeholder in the loop, and elevated how we communicate across the company.”
Managing Partner
Private equity portfolio retrospective
3x delivery velocity
“Your technical expertise and vision has been so helpful along the way.”
“I highly value you as a person and professional. I hope you don’t mind if I consider you a mentor—I never really understood what that word meant until I started working with you.”
Senior Engineer
Data scientist, PhD in Theoretical Physics
Validated compliance workflows
“Shout out to Jason Vertrees for all the help.”
“I couldn’t have done it without Jason Vertrees and his incredible team at Heavy Chain Engineering, LLC. The fact that we launched a fully rebuilt site in a matter of weeks is still insane to me!”
From the field
Next step
Tell me where your engineering team or portfolio sits today. We'll assess whether Heavy Chain can help install AI-era delivery practices, select the right pilot project, or evaluate PortCo readiness — and decide if there's a fit.
Response time
Within 1–2 business days
Who it's for
CEOs, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, PE operators
How to reach us
Share context in the form — a real person will reply, not a sales rep
