Developer replacement
Your developer fell through. A senior US operator takes over and ships it.
Ghosted contractor, a developer who went dark, an agency that stopped performing. However you got here, you have a half-built product, customers waiting, and no one holding the wheel.
Kingbird takes over the repo, reads what's there, and gets you back to shipping. One senior US operator owns the work and answers on every call, engineering is scaled to your budget, and you keep the code, the accounts, and the IP. It's the same team that builds local business websites from $2,500 and puts AI to work in small businesses.
How people find us
The developer ghosted
Last message was two weeks ago. The repo hasn't been touched. They're not returning emails. You're about to miss a deadline.
The contractor didn't deliver
The project was supposed to take 3 months. It's been 6. What was delivered doesn't work, doesn't match the spec, or both.
The in-house engineer left
Your technical co-founder or first engineer resigned. The transition was minimal. Most of the context left with them.
The agency relationship broke down
The agency is billing but not producing. Communication is slow. You've lost trust in their ability to finish what they started.
What taking over looks like
We start with a Stabilization Review: a 10-business-day paid engagement where a senior US operator reads the codebase, backlog, and delivery history. At the end of 10 days you have a written 30/60/90 action plan. $2,500 flat, no retainer required.
The plan covers the top risks, what to fix first, what to defer, and the recommended resourcing path. If continuing with Kingbird is the right call, we'll say so and give you a proposal. If the right answer is a different kind of engagement, we'll say that too.
Roughly half of Stabilization Reviews convert to a Kingbird retainer or fixed-scope project. Most of those ship their first meaningful release inside 30 days of kickoff. The runbook gets written throughout the engagement so the project doesn't die with us when we're done.
Common questions
- Do you need documentation or is the code enough?
- The code is enough. Most takeovers come with minimal documentation. We read what's in the repo and fill in the gaps with context from whoever is available. If the previous developer is cooperative, we'll do a knowledge transfer call. If not, we work cold.
- How quickly can you start?
- The Stabilization Review can typically kick off within a week of payment. The review itself takes 10 business days. Most takeovers have their first meaningful release inside 30 days from the kickoff call.
- What if the code is in terrible shape?
- The Stabilization Review will tell you exactly how bad it is and what it costs to recover versus rewrite. We've seen codebases that looked unrecoverable but weren't, and codebases that looked fine but had fundamental architectural problems. We'll give you the honest read.
- Can you work with my existing team while they're short-staffed?
- Yes. We can operate as an embedded senior partner alongside your remaining team, or as the lead technical resource. We'll define the structure at the kickoff call.
- What does the transition look like after you're done?
- We write the runbook as we go. Every engagement ends with documentation that lets a new hire, a different agency, or your internal team pick up without starting over.
Get unstuck and back to shipping.
Book a call and tell a senior US operator what happened. If a Stabilization Review is the right first step, that's $2,500 flat, and if we slip the 10-day commitment $500 comes back.