Question 1

How much does a project actually cost?

Accepted Answer

Marketing sites start at $2,500 for founding clients and $5,000 at the regular rate. More complex web apps, AI agents, and custom software are quoted after a short discovery call — but pricing is always fixed upfront. No hourly billing, no scope-creep invoices, no surprises. See the Founding Clients section for exactly what's included and how many founding slots are still open.

Question 2

What's actually included in the project price?

Accepted Answer

Design, build, responsive layout, accessibility audit, Vercel deploy, domain + DNS setup, meta tags + JSON-LD structured data for SEO, and one round of content help if you need it. Stripe, Supabase auth, Resend email, and similar integrations are included when your project calls for them. We'll spell out every line item in the proposal before you sign anything.

Question 3

What happens after the 5 founding slots are filled?

Accepted Answer

Pricing returns to the regular rate ($5,000 for marketing sites) and the founding perks — lifetime 50% off support, founding-client case study slot — stop being available. The quality of the work stays identical; founding clients are just rewarded for taking a bet on 7z early.

Question 4

Do I have to pay ongoing fees after launch?

Accepted Answer

No — the build fee is one-time. Hosting on Vercel and your domain cost roughly $0–20/month total, billed directly to you, not through 7z. Support, updates, monitoring, and content changes are optional via a retainer. Founding clients get that retainer at 50% off for as long as they stay clients.

Question 5

What does a larger custom project cost?

Accepted Answer

Web applications, AI agents, and custom software are quoted individually after a discovery call — the range is typically $8,000–$30,000 depending on scope. Everything is still fixed-price. If the scope shifts mid-project, we stop, re-scope together, and you approve any change before I touch the code.

Question 6

What does the process look like from first call to launch?

Accepted Answer

Discovery call → written proposal with scope, timeline, and fixed price → 50% deposit and kickoff → weekly build updates with live staging link → launch day → handoff. Every phase has a clear milestone, and you'll see working code from week one — none of the "disappear for a month and come back with a surprise" agency pattern.

Question 7

How long does a typical build take?

Accepted Answer

Marketing sites: 3–6 weeks. Web applications: 6–12 weeks. AI agents: 4–10 weeks depending on integrations and compliance. I commit to a timeline in the proposal and stick to it — if something genuinely slips, you'll hear about it the week it happens, not the day before launch.

Question 8

How often will I hear from you during the build?

Accepted Answer

Weekly written update at minimum, plus a live staging link that's always up-to-date. For questions during business hours (Central Time) I reply within 2 hours. For anything urgent post-launch, same-day. You will never wonder what's happening with your project.

Question 9

What do I need to bring to kickoff?

Accepted Answer

Whatever brand assets, content, and context you already have — logo, colors, existing copy, reference sites you love. If you don't have any of that, we'll build it during discovery. Plenty of founding clients come in with nothing but a rough idea and we figure the rest out together.

Question 10

Do I write the copy, or does 7z?

Accepted Answer

Either. If you have strong opinions about voice, you write it and I polish. If you'd rather I draft it, I'll write every word for founder review. Copy is part of the build fee — I don't charge separately for it on founding-client projects.

Question 11

Why aren't there any client testimonials on the site yet?

Accepted Answer

Because 7z is new and I'd rather show you an empty section than fake a quote. Founding clients earn the first five testimonial slots after launch — real names, real roles, unedited quotes they approve before publication. See the Testimonials section for how that works.

Question 12

Who actually builds the site — you, a team, or subcontractors?

Accepted Answer

Just me. No account managers, no subcontracted developers, no design-hand-off-to-build-hand-off chain. You talk directly to the person writing the code at every step. That's the whole point of 7z.

Question 13

7z is brand new — how do I know you can actually deliver?

Accepted Answer

The Recent Builds section has three real projects you can click through: Velocity Learning (my in-house ed-tech product with iOS + Android apps and 12 languages), Château 529 (a family-owned assisted-living site), and 529 Auto Care. I'm also currently building HIPAA-aware clinical documentation AI for I Health Family Care — a physician practice in Houston. That project doesn't leave room for cutting corners, and whatever you hire me to build gets the same discipline.

Question 14

Do I own the code and design after launch?

Accepted Answer

Yes. 100%. Full repository transfer — GitHub, Vercel project, domain, all of it. You can take it to another developer anytime, no permission needed. The design is yours too: no watermarks, no "built by" footer credits unless you want one.

Question 15

What if I'm not happy with the work mid-project?

Accepted Answer

Every project is split into milestones with partial payments. If you're not happy before the final milestone, we stop, talk about what's off, and either course-correct or you cancel and keep everything built to that point with a prorated refund. I'd rather eat a loss than ship something you'll resent.

Question 16

What technologies do you build with?

Accepted Answer

Next.js, React, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS for the front end. Supabase or Postgres for auth and databases. Stripe for payments. Resend for email. Vercel for hosting. Anthropic's Claude and OpenAI's GPT for AI agents. No WordPress themes, no template builders, no "drag-and-drop with a subscription" platforms. Everything is hand-built on modern infrastructure you actually own.

Question 17

Do you build mobile apps for iOS and Android?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Cross-platform with React Native or Flutter so your app runs natively on both iOS and Android from a single codebase. Velocity Learning has shipping iOS and Android apps through TestFlight and Google Play. I handle everything from design to App Store / Play submission.

Question 18

Can you migrate my existing site from WordPress, Wix, or Squarespace?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Content migration is included. Usually rebuilding on Next.js is actually faster and cheaper than trying to patch a legacy WordPress theme — you end up with a site that loads faster, ranks better in search, and doesn't need a plugin updater every week.

Question 19

What's an AI agent actually do for a business?

Accepted Answer

AI agents are autonomous workers trained on your specific business processes. Examples I build: a clinical documentation agent that writes patient notes while the doctor is talking, a lead qualification agent that vets inbound inquiries before they hit your inbox, and a customer-support agent that handles tier-1 questions over email and chat. Each one is custom — not a ChatGPT wrapper.

Question 20

How are your AI agents different from chatbots?

Accepted Answer

Chatbots follow pre-written scripts and live in a widget. Our AI agents are built on frontier language models (Claude, GPT-4), have access to your real systems (CRM, database, email, calendar), and can execute multi-step workflows — not just answer questions. Think of a chatbot as a FAQ widget and an AI agent as a trained digital employee.

Question 21

Can you handle HIPAA compliance for healthcare projects?

Accepted Answer

Yes. My current real-world engagement is building HIPAA-aware clinical documentation AI for I Health Family Care, a physician practice in Houston. I handle BAA execution, encryption at rest and in transit, audit logging, access controls, and session-aware PHI handling from day one. Healthcare clients are not a side quest for me — they're the stake that keeps 7z's standards high.

Question 22

What happens after launch? Do you just disappear?

Accepted Answer

No — that's the whole reason 7z exists. Founding clients get lifetime 50% off ongoing support, monitoring, content updates, and bug fixes. I'm building 7z on a 20-year horizon because I'm playing a long game with the rest of my life. When you need someone in 2030, I'll still be the person you email.

Question 23

What if I find a bug after we go live?

Accepted Answer

Any critical bug is fixed free within 30 days of launch — no retainer required. After that, bugs are covered under the ongoing support retainer, or billed at a fixed per-issue rate if you'd rather not commit to a monthly plan. Critical means "site is broken" or "users can't do the thing they're supposed to do" — not cosmetic nits, which also get fixed but through the normal update flow.

Question 24

What if I just need small content changes every few months?

Accepted Answer

Totally fine. You can pay-per-request at a flat rate per change, or keep a light monthly retainer that covers a set number of updates. Most small businesses end up on the retainer because it's simpler and cheaper long-term — founding clients get it at 50% off forever.

Question 25

Do I get a client portal during and after the project?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Every 7z client gets a private portal at 7zwebdevelopers.com/portal/<your-slug>. You'll see project progress, milestones, weekly status updates, the staging preview, every document we share (contracts, welcome docs, anything else), and an invoices tab that accepts one-click Stripe payment. You can file tickets there too — anything from a typo fix to a new feature request. Everything stays in the portal so nothing gets lost in email chains.

Question 26

How do I sign the contract?

Accepted Answer

Three ways, you pick: (1) inline e-signature on the portal — type your full legal name, check the agreement box, done (legally binding under the U.S. ESIGN Act); (2) download the PDF, print, hand-sign, scan, and upload it back; (3) sign with Adobe Acrobat's e-sign and email it back. After you sign, I counter-sign from my side and both signatures lock onto the PDF archived in your portal.

Your portal is private