Questions we’re
actually asked

01What services does Walsh London offer?

Walsh London is a senior software and AI consultancy based in London. We cover four main areas: web and mobile app development (React, React Native, iOS, Android), fractional CTO and engineering leadership, AI integration (LLM features, agents, RAG, voice AI), and cloud architecture (AWS, Firebase, Supabase).

Every engagement is led and delivered directly by the engineer writing the code, with no hand-offs or account managers.

08What AI services do you offer?

We help businesses integrate modern AI capabilities into their products: LLM integration (OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini), in-app chat and AI assistants, RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) pipelines, vector search, on-device machine learning, computer vision, voice AI (Whisper, ElevenLabs), and AI agent architectures.

We also provide AI feature strategy consulting for companies deciding whether and how to add AI to their product, often the most valuable engagement before any code is written.

04What is a Fractional CTO and do I need one?

A Fractional CTO is a senior technical leader who works with your business part-time, typically two days a week on a three-month minimum engagement. Fractional is the right choice when you need strategic technical direction, engineering hiring support, architecture reviews, and board-level technical communication, but are not ready to commit to the £150,000+ annual cost of a full-time CTO hire.

It is common for funded startups, scale-ups, and companies going through technical pivots. If you have a product team but nobody senior enough to be making architecture decisions, you probably need fractional help.

02How much does it cost to build an app with Walsh London?

Our MVP Kickstart starts at £25,000 for a twelve-week build covering web, iOS, Android, or a combination. Smaller scoped builds start at £8,000 for simpler products or single-platform releases. The two-week Discovery Sprint at £4,000 is often the starting point for anyone still deciding what to build.

Every engagement is scoped individually on a call before any fixed quote is given. The standard packages are starting points, not forced formats.

05How much does a Fractional CTO cost in the UK?

Walsh London's Fractional CTO engagements start at £5,000 per month for two days a week, with a three-month minimum. Larger scopes (three or more days per week, or deeper hands-on involvement) are quoted on discussion.

This is considerably more cost-effective than a full-time CTO hire, which typically costs £150,000 to £250,000 per year in London including benefits, equity, taxes and the recruitment cost of finding the right person.

12How long does a typical project take?

Discovery Sprints take two weeks. The MVP Kickstart is twelve weeks from kick-off to launch. Smaller scoped builds usually complete in four to eight weeks depending on feature set. Fractional CTO engagements have a three-month minimum but typically run six months to two years.

Kick-off availability is usually two to four weeks from signed contract, depending on current pipeline.

15Are your prices inclusive of VAT?

All prices shown on the site are exclusive of VAT where applicable. Walsh London Ltd is not currently VAT registered, so no VAT is added to invoices at this time.

Once we pass the HMRC VAT registration threshold, VAT will be added to invoices at the standard UK rate. Any existing fixed-scope engagements signed before that point will be honoured at their agreed price.

03Do you work with small businesses or only larger companies?

Both. We work with solo founders with a single idea, small businesses with a defined budget, scale-ups needing senior engineering leadership, and enterprise teams with specific scoped problems.

The free 30-minute advisory call is the fastest way to find out if your project is a good fit before any money changes hands. If the project is not right for us, we will say so and point you somewhere that is.

07Do you work with clients outside the UK?

Yes. Past and current client engagements have been delivered remotely for teams across the US, Europe, and the UK. Walsh London is based in London but can work in any timezone that allows at least three hours of working-day overlap for weekly demos and async collaboration.

09Can you rescue a project from another agency?

Yes. Several past engagements have involved stabilising or rebuilding work that a previous agency delivered poorly. This typically starts with a short technical audit to assess the codebase, architecture, and documentation, followed by a rescue plan with realistic timelines.

References from rescue projects are available on request.

06Who actually writes the code on my project?

The engineer you speak to on the first call is the engineer writing the code throughout the engagement. Walsh London does not use account managers, offshore teams, or ticket queues.

Senior hands on the keyboard from first call to last commit. This is the defining difference between us and a traditional agency, and the main reason clients hire us rather than somewhere larger.

13Do you use AI-assisted development tools?

Yes. Walsh London uses modern AI coding tools (Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot) as part of our normal workflow. This is disclosed openly because it materially affects delivery speed and cost.

AI-assisted development means we can ship more working software in less time, but the engineering judgement, architecture, and final code decisions remain human. Code quality is measured by the same standard it always has been, not by which tools produced it.

10Do you sign NDAs before a first conversation?

Yes. Walsh London is happy to sign mutual NDAs before any commercial discussion. A standard mutual NDA template is available on request, or we will execute yours.

Confidentiality is the default for every client engagement, with or without a signed NDA in place.

11Who owns the code after a project is delivered?

You do. All code, designs, and intellectual property produced during a client engagement is assigned to you on completion. We keep no ongoing licence, no hidden dependencies on our infrastructure, and the full source is handed over including deployment documentation and credentials.

You are free to take the codebase to any other developer or team after the engagement ends.

14What happens if we are not happy with the work?

Every engagement includes weekly demos, giving you a cadence to flag concerns early before they compound. Fixed-scope engagements include reviews at each weekly checkpoint.

If the fit turns out wrong for either side, we end engagements cleanly, hand over all code and assets, and refund any unused retainer balance pro-rata. No long lock-in contracts, no difficult exits. (But thankfully, this hasn't happened yet!)