Discovery is a short paid engagement, 1 to 2 weeks, with a fixed fee agreed up front. It turns a rough idea or a stuck project into a scope document, an architecture outline, a timeline, and a written quote for the build.
Most bad software projects go wrong before the first line of code. The scope was a guess. The estimate came from a sales call. Nobody read the old codebase. Discovery fixes that in two weeks, before you commit real money.
Discovery is not a free proposal and it is not a sales call. It is real work by senior engineers, and you keep everything we produce.
At the end you hold a scope, a plan, a risk list, and a quote you can take to anyone. Build with us, build with someone else, or do not build at all. Your call.
What we need from you is small. Access to the code, the data, and the tools we need to read. One decision maker who can answer questions and sign off. About two hours of interview time spread over the engagement. We do the rest.
What you own at the end is everything. The scope document, the architecture outline, the risk list, the milestone plan, and the quote are yours. There is no obligation to build with us. We sign an NDA before we see anything, and we are happy to sign yours.
Bring a Lovable, Bolt, or v0 prototype. We map what is real, what is fake, and what has to be rebuilt before it can take paying users.
Bring your Shopify store, apps, and support stack. We find where cart recovery, support, and content automation would pay off first.
Bring your reporting stack, your CRM, or your product codebase. We scope the AI feature or the internal tool and tell you what it will cost to ship.
With great AI comes great responsibility, and TechEmulsion takes that responsibility seriously.
What Makes Discovery Different
Senior engineers do the work
Discovery is not run by sales. The people who read your code and write your plan are the engineers who would build it. The estimate comes from people who will be held to it.
We read the code, not the pitch
We open the repo, the database, and the integrations. For a prototype we test what actually works. For a failed project we find out what is salvageable. Nothing in the plan rests on a guess.
A quote you can take anywhere
The scope document and quote are written so another vendor could bid on them. That keeps us honest. You are paying for clarity, not for a pitch that only we can deliver.
Risks on paper before money moves
Every discovery ends with a risk list. Missing data, shaky integrations, unclear ownership, compliance gaps. You see them in week two, not in month four.
Fast to start, fixed to finish
We agree the fee and the dates up front. Kickoff is usually within a week of signing. The readout lands on the date we said, with every deliverable in the list.
Two Weeks, Six Steps
From discovery and architecture through development, integration, and optimization:
Kickoff
Interviews
Technical review
Architecture and plan
Estimate and quote
Readout
Sales Call Estimate vs Discovery
The difference between an estimate from a sales call and an estimate from discovery shows up later, in the build. Here is where it shows up.
| Task | Before | After | Impact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope changes after the build starts | Estimate from a sales call: scope shifts as the team learns what the product really needs | Estimate from discovery: scope is written down and agreed before the build starts | Fewer change requests, because the unknowns were found first |
| Surprises in the existing codebase | Estimate from a sales call: nobody read the code, so problems show up mid-build | Estimate from discovery: the code, data, and integrations are reviewed in week one | Problems land on the risk list, not in the sprint |
| Budget approval | Estimate from a sales call: a range with wide error bars and no paper behind it | Estimate from discovery: a fixed quote with milestones and stated assumptions | A number your team can approve against |
| Choosing a vendor | Estimate from a sales call: every vendor quotes a different scope, so bids do not compare | Estimate from discovery: one scope document any vendor can bid on | Bids compare like for like |
Discovery does not make a project cheap. It makes the price honest. You know what you are buying before you buy it.
What We Read During Discovery
We work inside whatever you already have. Discovery needs read access, not a new tool. Every deliverable is handed over in a format your team can edit.