Make your first hire
Choose it when
Choose a hire when the work needs judgment, relationships or ownership every day.
How we differ
Agents carry routine, checkable work under your supervision. A person carries judgment and accountability.
Buyer’s guide
Is this the right fit?
Traction is outpacing what one person can operate, and you must choose between hiring and building an agent stack you supervise.
Consult: $2,000 for 5 hours. Build: $45,000 minimum over 3 months, from $15,000 a month.
Ask about a Consult block → Try the working demo Ask about Build
Send a short enquiry, then choose a time to talk or wait for our reply. We agree the scope and price before paid work begins. Sending this form does not book or buy a service.
Who it is for
Solo founders, often technical, with a product customers already pay for and an ambition beyond a lifestyle business.
Who it is not for
If you have no product or paying customers yet, Build is too early; the free exercise at of1.ai/ask and our guides are a better start. We do not raise money, introduce investors or promise valuations.
What a Consult block can work toward
$2,000 $400 an hour · 5-hour blocks
A $2,000 block (five hours) can work toward a plan you can test: what agents can run now, what needs a check, and what still needs a person who signs. We agree the focus at the start; a block does not build the stack.
What to bring
- Every recurring job you do in a week, roughly timed
- Your stack: code host, CI, support desk and billing tool
- Revenue and burn, if you want to test the economics
- The job you would hire for first
- Anything you will never hand to an agent
When Build makes sense
$45,000 minimum · $15,000 a month · 3-month term
Build makes sense only if your repeatable workload and budget could justify $45,000 over three months ($15,000 a month for up to 5 processes), weighed against your real alternatives, such as a first hire or contractors. Consult can test the plan before you commit.
| Level | Price | At once | Three-month minimum | Adds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Build | $15,000 a month | Up to 5 business processes at once | $45,000 | The base level. |
| Build Plus | $25,000 a month | Up to 10 business processes at once | $75,000 | Adds processes that talk to your customers live or touch health, payment or student records, same-day requests, and 2 of your people trained as champions. |
| Build Program | $50,000 a month | Up to 20 business processes at once, across departments | $150,000 | Adds a named person on call around the clock as your backup, one shared platform piece at a time, and an MSA, a DPA, insurance and a security review. |
Agents that answer customers live, or touch payment, health or student records, are listed in Build Plus ($25,000 a month, $75,000 minimum). New software products and replacing a core system are quoted separately. Our shared 24/7 rotation covers only the systems we build with you.
New software products and replacing a core system are quoted separately. Our shared 24/7 rotation covers only the systems we build with you, with response terms in writing.
What does the work cost today?
Optional arithmetic on your own numbers, to set beside the commitments above. It runs only in this browser tab: there are no default figures, and nothing is saved or sent.
- Hours over three months
- —
- Cost over three months
- —
- One Consult block
- $2,000
- Build, 3-month minimum
- $45,000
Three months is counted as 13 weeks. This is not an estimate of savings: a system would not remove all of this work, your team’s time during the build counts too, and quality and risk matter as much as hours.
Before choosing Build
Make the price earn its place.
The total cost of today’s work is not the amount a system will save. Count only the time, errors or delays you have a credible plan to remove.
- Start with your baseline.
- How often does the work happen, who does it, and what would count as a better result? Use your own records.
- Include what remains.
- Add the fee, software, your team’s setup time, and the human review and maintenance you will still need.
- Compare the simpler route.
- Could an existing tool, a process change or a hire do the job better? If conservative assumptions do not justify Build, keep the simpler route.
For work judged by quality, service or risk, agree how you will evaluate those outcomes too. A saving or improvement is something to measure, not a promise this page can make.
Taking it to whoever holds the budget
If a co-founder, investor or board must agree, send them the sample stack map, the Consult price ($2,000) and, if Build follows, the three-month minimum set beside the hire it would postpone.
Other ways to solve this
Build the stack yourself
Choose it when
Choose this when you have the time and the work is simple enough to wire up between other jobs.
How we differ
We help define checks, budgets and stop rules, then build and test the workflow with you until you can run it.
Need to think it through first?
The free Of One exercise helps you map a decision and its open questions. Work through it in your browser, without an email gate or AI. Sending your answers for help is optional.
Try the free decision exercise →Tell us about your work.
Send a short enquiry, then choose a time to talk or wait for our reply. We agree the scope and price before paid work begins. Sending this form does not book or buy a service.