Rapid Discovery
What we solve and build
- Pre-intake, then 2–3 stakeholder workshops.
- A fixed, AI-supported workflow the Product Owner follows.
- Output: scope, complexity and estimate, in a fixed machine-readable format.
5–6× faster
AI-native delivery · Same scope, same guarantees
AI-first tech solutions.Rapid Development.
5×faster to launch
<50%of traditional cost
A proprietary, AI-native software delivery platform. Same scope, same guarantees — a fifth to a third of the time, less than half the cost.
Discovery
5–6×
faster
Delivery
3–5×
faster
Your timeline
1/5–1/3
of traditional
Your cost
<50%
of traditional
Holycode's own measurements, benchmarked against our own traditional nearshore delivery of comparable projects.
Partners
- Microsoft
- AWS
- Swiss Startup Association
- Swisspreneur
Selected clients
- jobs.ch
- Oviva
- Rolex
- Yokoy
- ANYbotics
- Baloise
- Smallpdf
- Planted
The thesis
Not a 10% gain. A redesign.
AI is now what electricity was in the early 1900s.
Ford didn't win because he adopted electricity. He won because he redesigned the factory around it.
Let's not chase 10% with AI — let's redesign for 10×.
Just prompting an LLM
- Two engineers, one task, different prompts, different outputs.
- Fast, but not repeatable — AI is non-deterministic.
- Security, performance and scope are hoped for, not guaranteed.
Rapid Development
- Same structured inputs, same structured outputs, every time.
- Fast and repeatable — a defined process executed with AI.
- Security, performance and scope engineered in, then verified.
What the platform encapsulates
- Processes
- Rules
- Skills
- Commands
- Agents
- Architectures
- Tech stacks
- Guardrails
- Test scaffolding
- Limitations
Everything an expert team knows, encoded once — and applied identically on every project, by every engineer.
The platform
Three components
Rapid Delivery
How it gets built and tested
- A repository plugin dropped into the project repo.
- Reads Discovery, plans the work, executes it on commands.
- Output: a working product with tests at every level.
3–5× faster
Tech Debt Analysis
Proof that it holds up
- A SaaS platform that scans every build Delivery produces.
- Security, architecture, code quality, performance, documentation and tests.
- Findings fixed in Delivery, or on the platform itself.
Findings feed back into Delivery — or get fixed directly on the platform.
The three guarantees this exists to serve
Scope
Discovery defines it, Delivery executes it, tests prove it.
Security
Guardrails inside Delivery, verified on every build.
Performance
Architecture rules in Delivery, measured by the platform.
The toolset covers this in large part. Final confirmation stays with the engineer — manual QA on top of automated testing.
Determinism
Commands, not prompts
initiate projectprocess documentationgenerate roadmapexecute phase oneshow statusgenerate reportestimate effortadd featurefix bug
No free prompting at this stage.
Why this matters for you
- Two engineers running the same command get the same behaviour.
- Output stops depending on individual prompting skill.
- Speed becomes something we can review and guarantee.
What this means in practice
- Capability lives in the repository, not in one irreplaceable person.
- A new engineer is productive after training, not after years.
- The process is auditable — every step leaves an artefact.
3–5× faster — because the process is designed around AI, not decorated with it.
Comparison
An engineer with Copilot vs Rapid Dev
+15–25%
faster coding, on the part AI touches
3–5×
on end-to-end delivery of the product
Where the gain sits
Engineer with Copilot
Writing code faster.
Rapid Development
The whole chain — discovery, delivery, testing, review.
How it runs
Engineer with Copilot
Ad-hoc prompting, different inputs and outputs every time.
Rapid Development
Fixed commands and workflows, same inputs, same structured outputs.
Scope & estimate
Engineer with Copilot
Done by hand, outside the tool.
Rapid Development
Rapid Discovery: pre-intake plus 2–3 workshops, structured output.
Quality control
Engineer with Copilot
Reviewed manually, if at all.
Rapid Development
E2E tests in delivery, every build scanned for security and performance.
Whose capability
Engineer with Copilot
The individual engineer's prompting skill.
Rapid Development
The platform's — trained into every engineer, and improving.
Indicative figures. The Copilot range measures coding effort only — roughly a third of a project. The Rapid Dev factor measures delivery of the finished product.
ROI calculator
What this changes on your project
Set it up the way the project would have been staffed traditionally. Every output is a range, because the underlying figures are ranges.
How would this have been staffed traditionally?
people
Traditional timeline
months
€12,000/ month
Results
Timeline with Rapid Dev
1.7–2.7 months
Calendar time saved
6.3–7.3 months
Discovery phase
0.3–0.4 months
17–20% of the traditional discovery duration
Delivery phase
1.4–2.4 months
20–33% of the traditional delivery duration
Team you manage
1–1.5 FTE
down from 5 people
Traditional total cost
€540,000
Rapid Dev total cost
€20,952–€49,248
Absolute saving
€490,752–€519,048
Roughly 6.3–7.3 months and €490,752–€519,048 saved, on the same scope.
Indicative. Benchmarked against Holycode's own traditional nearshore delivery of comparable projects. Your figures are confirmed at the end of Discovery, where the estimate is fixed.
Quality
Testing is part of the build, not a phase after it
Unit tests
Functional tests
Integration tests
End-to-end tests
All four are instructed and configured inside the Rapid Delivery repository by us — testing is not an optional extra quoted separately.
Model strategy
The models are a replaceable part
Rapid Discovery
Runs on Claude today.
Configurable — any capable model
Rapid Delivery
Runs on Claude today.
Configurable — any capable model
Tech Debt Analysis
Runs on Kimi and MiniMax, hosted on Fireworks.
Configurable — any capable model
Where the value actually sits
- Not in the model — in the process, rules and artefacts wrapped around it.
- A model swap is a configuration change, not a rebuild.
- Falling model prices work in your favour.
What this de-risks
- No single-vendor dependency baked into your product.
- No exposure to one provider's pricing or roadmap.
- New model generations are an upgrade path, not a disruption.
How it works
How an engagement actually runs
Discovery
Weeks, not months
- Pre-intake, then 2–3 workshops with your stakeholders.
- You get scope, complexity and a firm estimate.
- You decide whether to proceed — before any code exists.
Delivery
One engineer, your product
- One Agentic Engineer builds against the agreed scope.
- Status, progress and effort available on demand.
- Tests written at every level as the product is built.
Live and verified
A handover you can audit
- Every build scanned for security and performance.
- You own the code and the documentation outright.
- Keep us on support, or take it fully in-house.
The estimate is fixed against the scope you approved at the end of Discovery.
Who is responsible for what
You
Framing the problem, deciding what to build, judging the result.
Holycode
The process, the engineer, the toolset and the guarantees.
The AI
Writing the code, inside rules it is not allowed to break.
Discovery can be bought on its own. So can Tech Debt Analysis — on a codebase we have never touched.
Status
Where it stands today
4
Discovery complete
through Discovery, entering delivery
3
In delivery now
commercial projects built on Rapid Delivery
5–6×
Discovery speed
against our own baseline
3–5×
Delivery speed
against our own baseline
Not a prototype. Rapid Development is running on paid commercial client engagements right now.
What has been validated
- Internal projects first, where we could measure against a known baseline.
- Delivery measures 3–5×, discovery has since improved to 5–6×.
- Every current project is commercial and paid, not a pilot.
What is still early
- The sample is small — single digits of projects, not hundreds.
- Figures are our own measurements, not third-party audited.
- The platform keeps changing as we learn — you get the current version, not a frozen one.
We would rather state this plainly than have it surface later.
Tech Debt Analysis
Start with a measurement, not a commitment.
It runs on any codebase — including one we have never touched. You can engage it independently of Rapid Development.
- Security
- Architecture
- Code quality
- Performance
- Documentation
- Tests
Or ask us to run it for you
FAQ
Questions we get asked
You do, outright, together with the documentation. There is no licence back to us and nothing you need our permission to change.
No. The models are a replaceable part. The value sits in the process, rules, commands, guardrails and artefacts wrapped around them — Discovery's structured output, Delivery's repository plugin and the Tech Debt Analysis platform. Swapping a model is a configuration change, not a rebuild.
Guardrails live inside Rapid Delivery, and every build Delivery produces is scanned by the Tech Debt Analysis platform for security, architecture, code quality, performance, documentation and tests. Findings are fixed in Delivery or on the platform. The toolset covers this in large part; final confirmation stays with the engineer, with manual QA on top of automated testing.
Rapid Discovery produces scope, complexity and an estimate in a fixed, machine-readable format. The estimate is fixed against the scope you approve at the end of Discovery — before any code exists.
The estimate is fixed against the approved scope. A change to that scope is handled as a change: it is described, estimated through the same Discovery workflow, and agreed before it enters Delivery.
Yes. Discovery can be bought on its own. You get scope, complexity and a firm estimate, and you decide whether to proceed.
Yes — on a codebase we have never touched. It is the lowest-commitment way to start, and it can be engaged independently of Rapid Development.
The calculator frames it well: projects that would traditionally have been staffed with a team of 3 to 12 people over 3 to 18 months. Rapid Delivery runs those with roughly 1–1.5 FTE on your side of the table.
You own the code and the documentation outright. Keep us on support, or take it fully in-house — both are normal endings.
Holycode was founded in 2014, is headquartered in Binningen, Switzerland, and delivers from Belgrade and Novi Sad in Serbia. We are 400+ employees and have worked with 200+ clients.
Same scope. Same guarantees. A fraction of the time and the cost.
Discovery takes weeks, not months — and you decide whether to proceed before any code exists.