Businesses spend $200B+ annually keeping legacy systems alive. Every feature update is a bomb waiting to go off. Big-four modernization consultants quote $500K-$2M engagements. We do the strategic assessment in 30 days — what to refactor, what to rewrite, what to leave alone — at a flat fee that SMB and mid-market companies can actually afford.
Austin's tech, creator economy, and enterprise software sector is filled with engineering teams carrying 8–15+ year-old codebases that slow every feature sprint. Big-four modernization consultants quote $500K–$2M for this work. We do the strategic assessment in 30 days — what to refactor, what to rewrite, what to leave alone — at a flat fee that Austin mid-market companies can actually budget for.
You run engineering at a mid-market company. Your core application was built 8-15 years ago on a stack that nobody on the team fully understands anymore. Every deploy is a gamble. Every feature request turns into a 6-week archaeology project. Security patches are behind schedule. The original architects left years ago. You know you need modernization. You also know that Deloitte, Accenture, and IBM will quote $500K-$2M for a modernization engagement aimed at Fortune 500 complexity. Your budget is $50K-$150K. So the system stays, tech debt compounds, your best engineers get frustrated and leave, and the risk of a catastrophic outage grows every quarter. What you need isn't a full modernization execution — it's a strategic assessment: what to refactor with AI assistance, what to rewrite ground-up, what to wrap and leave alone. That's a 30-day engagement, not a 2-year consulting contract.
Every legacy deploy is a bomb waiting to go off
Systems written before Docker, before modern testing frameworks, before TypeScript. Every change requires manual regression testing, runs through fragile CI/CD, and ships with 30-40% more bugs than modern codebases. The failure rate compounds over time.
Big-four modernization quotes start at $500K
Deloitte, Accenture, IBM, and Capgemini price modernization for Fortune 500 budgets. A $50M-$500M revenue mid-market company with technical debt can't absorb those rates — but still has the same systemic risk.
Your best engineers are already at the door
Senior engineers won't stay on legacy codebases indefinitely. Industry data: 60%+ of engineers cite technical debt as a top-3 reason for leaving. Every quarter without a modernization roadmap accelerates attrition of the people who actually understand the system.
Businesses spending over $200 billion a year just to keep legacy systems alive — the cost of not modernizing compounds quietly until a single outage pays for the rewrite.
— Ideabrowser Research, AI Refactoring for Regulated Legacy SystemsA 30-day strategic assessment that maps your legacy codebase, identifies the highest-risk components, builds a prioritized modernization roadmap, and delivers a written playbook for AI-accelerated refactoring. Not an execution engagement — the strategy and plan that your internal team (or a contracted implementation partner) executes. Flat fee. Specific deliverables.
Get StartedCodebase archaeology with AI assistance
We use Claude Code, Cursor, and modern static analysis tools to map your actual codebase — dependencies, complexity hotspots, security vulnerabilities, dead code. Takes days, not weeks, because AI reads 10K LoC in minutes.
Modernization priority matrix
Every component scored on: (a) risk if unchanged, (b) cost to modernize, (c) strategic value. Output: a 2x2 matrix telling you what to refactor now, what to schedule, what to wrap, and what to leave alone.
AI-accelerated refactoring playbook
For components flagged as 'refactor,' we document how to do it with AI assistance: which LLM, what prompts, what test coverage to build first, what rollback strategy. Your team executes with 10x productivity vs manual refactoring.
Compliance + security posture review
Legacy systems often fail current compliance (SOC 2, PCI-DSS, HIPAA). We flag specific gaps and provide remediation sequencing so compliance doesn't block modernization (or vice versa).
Written roadmap with resource estimates
Specific, actionable: 'Refactor the auth service next quarter, 3 engineer-weeks with AI assistance.' 'Wrap the reporting module with API gateway, 1 engineer-week.' 'Rewrite the billing engine in Q3, 6 engineer-months.' Not vague consulting language.
We discuss your codebase age, tech stack, team size, and current pain points. Within 5 business days you get a written preliminary assessment: whether a 30-day modernization assessment is the right scope or you need a different engagement.
Read-only access to your repo. We run static analysis, dependency mapping, complexity profiling. AI reads the codebase at 100x human speed. Findings: complexity hotspots, security vulnerabilities, dead code, poorly-tested regions.
30-min interviews with 5-8 engineers and 2-3 product people. We learn where the actual pain is, which components break most often, what features are blocked by architecture.
Written analysis: priority matrix, modernization roadmap with sequencing, resource estimates, risk analysis. AI-accelerated refactoring playbook for the priority components.
Final read-out with engineering leadership. We hand off the playbook. Your team executes internally, OR you engage us for execution support (priced separately), OR we refer you to specialist implementation partners.
Software architect specialist in legacy modernization using Martin Fowler Strangler Fig pattern
Our methodology is built on proven frameworks
If the assessment reveals your codebase doesn't need full modernization (sometimes the debt is more manageable than perceived), we'll say so directly. The assessment fee stands either way — the value is the honest read on where your code actually stands, not a guaranteed recommendation to engage us further.
Assessment Only
$9,997
Assessment + First Sprint
$24,997
Execution Partnership
Custom
15 minutes. We'll diagnose exactly what's holding you back and tell you whether we can help — no pitch, no pressure.
Free Resource
60-minute call where you walk us through your codebase situation: tech stack, age, team size, current pain points. Within 5 business days you receive a written preliminary assessment: whether a 30-day modernization assessment fits your scope, what the realistic scope would be, and honest assessment of whether you'd be better served by a different engagement (big-four firm, specialist partner, or internal hire).
Every quarter you delay modernization is another quarter senior engineers get frustrated, another quarter of compounded risk, another quarter of competitor advantage. Assessment is free and takes 60 minutes.
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