A FREE PROJECT REVIEW WITH SAM HALCROW
Get 30 recommendations for your project from a CTO at no cost
In this session I sit inside your project with you - whether it's underway, about to start, or still just a plan.
I then hand-write the 30 most critical recommendations for your project: 10 things I'd keep doing, 10 things I'd stop doing, and 10 things I'd start doing - with the reasoning behind each one.
I only run a handful of these each month, and I screen every application myself.
Request your free project review
No cost, no obligation. I'll call you personally.
16+ years
Leading technology initiatives
253
Companies I've worked with
1,000,000+
Engineering hours delivered under my leadership
26
Engineers on my team today
The 10/10/10 recommendations
Specific. Defensible. Hand-written for your project (it's not a template).
The below are real recommendations from past sessions and clients, anonymised. Yours will be different, that's the point. Notice what they have in common: each one is a problem someone had been avoiding, delaying, or couldn’t see.
WHAT’S WORKING AND WHY YOU SHOULDN’T TOUCH IT
10 things to keep doing
- “Your two-week release cadence. It’s the only thing keeping scope honest.”
- “Postgres. You don’t have a problem with your database, it's a query problem.”
- “The senior dev who owns integrations. He’s not underperforming, he's just underpaid.”
WHAT’S QUIETLY COSTING YOU MONEY AND MOMENTUM
10 things to stop doing
- “Stop rebuilding the mobile app. The web app is where your revenue is.”
- “Letting the vendor run sprint planning. That’s your roadmap, not theirs.”
- “Paying for three overlapping monitoring tools nobody reads.”
WHAT CHANGES YOUR TRAJECTORY FROM NEXT WEEK
10 things to start doing
- “An owner for every system. Right now, four have none.”
- “Weekly ship notes to the exec team. Trust is your real backlog.”
- “A definition of done. Half your ‘finished’ features aren’t.”
WHAT THIS CHANGES
Same team. Same budget. Less problems.
You don't need a bigger team. You need to know what to do with the one you've got.
Most tech problems don't blow up. They pile up: a postponed decision here, an owner nobody assigned there. None of it looks urgent on its own, so none of it gets fixed. Months later, you'll realise the gap between where you are and where you could be is much wider.
The thirty recommendations compound because most of them cost little to act on. They’re actionable decisions, not projects. The expensive thing isn’t making them - it’s the months spent not making them.
MY TRACK RECORD
Hear from the companies I'm currently working with
Angela Bevitt-Parr
National Marketing Manager AWS Australia
Tim Buric
Chief Technology Officer Agilyx & MUNIvers
Kelvin Kenney
Chief Executive Officer Bow Wow Meow
"We nearly didn't do the session - our project was already behind and it felt counterproductive. But it's a great thing that we did, because by the end of the session we had a completely different picture of what was going on."
"Every retrospective we'd do, we'd identify something, fix it, and the next sprint would have the same problems. Halcrow came in and showed us why that kept happening."
Mez HomayunfardCo-Founder, Online Marketing Gurus"My engineers had been flagging the same problems for months and I believed them but couldn't act on it. After the session with Halcrow, I had a ranked list of action steps. That's what was missing."
Ajay UnniFounder, Stickman Cyber"My team is good. I knew that. What I didn't know was what was getting in their way. Those are very different problems and Halcrow introduced us to the best solutions."
Tim BuricCTO, Agilyx Group"Our project was behind and everyone had a different theory about why. After the session there was a clear answer. That was the first time we were all looking at the same thing."
Kelvin KenneyCEO, Bow Wow Meow"We had been going in circles for long enough that we couldn't afford not to know what was wrong with the way we were building our product. After engaging Halcrow, we had the answers we needed."
Tim VerdonProduct Manager, Ticked Off"Our engineers really appreciated the recommendations Halcrow gave us. Someone finally coming in who understood what they were dealing with and could translate it upward."
Ryan LeederCTO, Stickman Cyber"What surprised me was how quickly Halcrow got oriented. I thought it would take a week to get them up to speed. But in one session Sam was already seeing things we'd stopped seeing."
How it works
A 1:1 session. No slide decks. I look at your project with you.
STEP 1
Request a session
Tell me what you’re building and where it hurts. I screen every application personally; this only works when there’s something real to look at.
STEP 3
You get your recommendations in writing
We open the hood together: your project, tech stack, team structure, and vendor setup. I do the diligence live and think out loud. You see exactly how I reach every recommendation.
STEP 2
The working session
Thirty specific recommendations (keep doing, stop doing, start doing) with the reasoning. Yours to keep and act on, with your team or with mine. No invoice and no obligation.
I screen applications. Here’s the honest criteria.
This is for you if…
- You’re building, about to start, or in the middle of something that matters to revenue: a product, platform, or internal system
- Budget and ownership for the work already exist inside your organisation
- You’re willing to open the hood of whatever exists right now: repos, roadmap, and team structure
- You want thirty honest calls, including the uncomfortable ones
It’s not for you if…
- Nothing is funded or planned yet; there’d be nothing real to assess
- You’re collecting a free roadmap to hand to the cheapest offshore quote
- You want validation, not honesty
Frequently asked questions
Asked before almost every session
Here's everything people usually want to know before they apply, answered the way I'd answer them on a call.
- Why is this free?
- Because it’s how I win clients. I’d rather not pretend otherwise. Some of the thirty recommendations will be things you can act on tomorrow, on their own. Take them and run, genuinely! Some will need senior hands: an accountable technical owner, engineers who’ve done it before, or both. That’s what I do for a living. I embed as a fractional CTO, and I bring a 25-strong software and cloud engineering team when one’s needed. If the recommendations shows work worth doing together, we’ll both know it by the end of the session before the recommendations are even sent over. If it doesn’t, you keep the thirty calls and we part as friends. No invoice for the session. No follow-up sequence. No obligation.
- Is this a sales pitch in disguise?
- The commercial interest is stated above, not disguised. What it isn't: a slideshow about Halcrow, a quote ambush, or a follow-up sequence. One session, thirty written recommendations, one reply from me.
- What do we need to share?
- Whoever knows the build best, and the real picture — roadmap, team structure, vendor arrangements, ideally a look at the architecture or codebase. The more honest the input, the sharper the recommendations. Sanitised inputs get sanitised outputs.
- Will you sign an NDA?
- Yes. Standard practice — most sessions run under one.
- How does it actually work?
- A session together inside your technology, then I go away, absorb it, and personally write your 10/10/10 — 10 things I'd keep, 10 I'd stop, 10 I'd start, with the reasoning, in plain English. Written by me, not generated from a template.
- How long until we get the recommendations?
- Within 2 days of the session.
- Who should be in the session?
- The person accountable for the project and whoever knows the build best — often that's two different people, which is itself informative. Vendors optional; sometimes better without, and I'll say which I'd prefer once I've seen your application.