Your Technical
Co-Founder
Partner
We build your product at our risk, not yours. We only win if you win.
Helios is a venture studio that acts as your technical co-founder. We design, build, and ship your MVP — and we don't get paid unless your startup succeeds.
What This Is (And Isn't)
We're not a traditional incubator. We don't run cohorts, host demo days, or introduce you to VCs.
We're a risk-sharing build partner. We act as your technical co-founder, taking on the engineering risk so you can focus on what matters: building something people actually want.
The AI Coding Revolution Has Problems
Problem #1: Vendor Lock-in
The hype around "vibe coding" glosses over a dangerous trap: vendor lock-in.
At first, it feels magical — you're shipping fast and showing off demos. But the deeper you build on platforms like Replit or Fusion, the tighter the chains become. When you want to scale, change vendors, or bring your stack in-house, you discover the ugly truth: escaping means rewriting everything from scratch.
Vibes can get you started — but vendor lock-in guarantees you'll eventually pay for them, and the bill always comes due.
Problem #2: Mass Amateurization
You can build something fast with AI copilots, but only if you're willing to take big risks. The problem isn't whether the code runs — it often does — it's that no one is paying attention to architecture, scalability, security, and the messy parts that matter once real users arrive.
Amateur vibe coding skips over security, compliance, maintainability, and performance tuning. One overlooked edge case, and the whole thing buckles under pressure.
AI tools can accelerate development, but only when guided by engineers who know when to trust, when to verify, and when to rebuild.
Helios Solves Both Problems
Professional development. Aligned incentives. Zero upfront cost.
Who This Is For
✓ Great Fit
-
Domain experts without a technical co-founder
You know the industry, you know the customers, you just need someone to build it right. -
Founders with distribution or audience
You can sell. You have customers waiting. You need a product to sell them. -
Teams planning to raise within 6-18 months
You have a path to funding or revenue. This isn't a hobby project. -
Full-time committed founders
You're ready to go all-in on making this work.
✗ Not The Right Fit
-
Exploring ideas casually
If you're not sure what you want to build yet, this isn't the right time. -
Side projects without commitment
We invest significant resources. We need founders who are equally invested. -
Projects without a path to funding or revenue
We need a realistic exit path — either you'll raise money or generate revenue. -
"Just need some code" contractors
If you want an agency relationship, we offer that separately. This is a partnership.
How It Works
We take on the technical risk. You focus on customers and growth.
Apply & Get Accepted
We're selective. We look for founders with unfair advantages — domain expertise, distribution, or deep customer insight.
We Invest & Build
Helios invests $5,000 - $50,000 as an angel investment and begins building your product immediately.
Settle Up When You Succeed
When you raise funding or hit revenue milestones, we convert our work into cash or equity — your choice.
💰 You Pay Nothing Up Front
Our incentives are 100% aligned: we don't get paid unless your company works.
The Deal Structure
We track our build cost internally to determine a fair conversion when you're funded. Think of it as the value we've invested in your company — not a meter running in the background.
A
Cash Conversion
WHEN YOU RAISE OR HIT REVENUE
Pay us out in cash from your raise. Full ownership of code and IP transfers to you immediately.
B
Equity Conversion
KEEP US AS PARTNERS
Convert our build investment into equity at your funding valuation. Perfect if you want us to stay involved long-term.
C
Walk Away Clean
IF IT DOESN'T WORK OUT
If the project is abandoned or doesn't reach funding, you owe us nothing.
How Conversion Works
We track build cost at $500/hour — this reflects senior developer time, never meetings or overhead. You can see this in our dashboard so there are no surprises.
When you raise funding or hit revenue milestones, you and your investor choose: pay us out in cash, or convert to equity at your funding valuation. We're flexible because our goal is your success, not maximizing our take.
If you want to buy out early, you can pay the accrued amount anytime to take full ownership. Some founders do this once they have revenue; others wait for a raise.
What you pay for during development:
First two months of hosting are free. After that, hosting starts at $50/month based on your traffic and resource usage. This is real cost, not deferred.
Built on Aligned Incentives
We Only Win If You Win
If your startup fails, we don't get paid. We're economically incentivized to help you reach fundability — not to bill hours.
Milestone-Based Building
We build in phases with clear deliverables. You always know what we're working on and why — no runaway scope or mystery hours.
Predictable Buyout
The conversion amount is transparent and tracked in real-time. No surprises, no negotiation games. You always know where you stand.
A true technical co-founder without giving up half your company.
Why This Model Works
The Founder's Dilemma
Most founders fail because of inaction. They convince themselves that finding the right technologist is the thing holding them back.
The irony: Most engineers think coding is the easy part. The hard part is building something people actually want and will pay for.
Our solution: We remove the technical bottleneck entirely. You focus on customers, sales, and validation. We handle the engineering.
AI-assisted development lets us build faster — but only because we have 15+ years of experience knowing what to build and how to build it right.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are you investors or vendors?
Neither, exactly. We're a risk-sharing build partner. We invest real money (the angel investment) and real effort (our development work) into your success. We only get paid back if you succeed. That's not a vendor relationship — it's a partnership with aligned incentives.
What if the hours add up to a huge amount?
We build in milestone-based phases, not open-ended sprints. Before each phase, we scope the work together and you approve it. You can see the accrued amount in real-time in our dashboard. There are no surprise bills.
More importantly: we're incentivized to build efficiently, not to maximize hours. We only get paid if you succeed — padding hours doesn't help us.
Who hosts the codebase during development?
Helios handles deployment, hosting, and all the infrastructure. It's white-glove service — you don't need to think about DevOps.
First two months of hosting are free.
After that: Small apps start at $50/month. Larger apps cost $100-$300/month based on your stack and traffic.
What happens to the code if I walk away?
If the project is abandoned, Helios retains the underlying codebase — we took the risk building it, so we keep the asset.
But you always keep: Your brand, your data, your customer relationships, and all business IP related to your concept. You can export your data anytime.
This is much better than vendor lock-in platforms that want to keep you forever. And if you ever want to restart? We can talk.
Can I bring in other developers during the partnership?
During the build phase, we're your technical team. You can't bring in outside developers to work on the codebase until after buyout. This protects the integrity of what we're building and ensures clear accountability.
After buyout: The code is 100% yours. Host it yourself, hire anyone you want, do whatever you need. We'll even help with the transition.
How do I know this is legitimate?
Jason Fleetwood-Boldt has been building software professionally for over 15 years. Helios Dev Shop has a track record of successful client projects. We put real money into the companies we partner with — this isn't a scam, it's a business model built on aligned incentives.
Ready to Build?
If you have domain expertise, a clear vision, and the drive to make it happen — we want to hear from you.
We review applications on a rolling basis and respond within one week.