15 Questions Clients Ask Before Starting a Project with Startup House
Alexander Stasiak ・ Marek Pałys
Sep 25, 2026・5 min read
Table of Content
Every sales call covers the same ground, and that is a good sign: these are the right questions to ask any software partner. Here are the 15 we hear most, with the same answers we give on calls.
Money
1. How much does a project cost?
Small MVP projects typically run €25,000 to €50,000. Enterprise solutions start at €200,000 and up, depending on scale and compliance requirements. The main cost drivers are project size, complexity, and required integrations. After a discovery call and scoping, you receive a precise estimate. Both Product Discovery and Scope Building end with a development cost estimate, so you commit a build budget to a validated number, not a guess.
2. What do I pay for, exactly?
Engineering capacity and outcomes, not overhead. In team augmentation, you pay for the engineers' work without benefits, office space, or unused time between projects, with costs tied directly to output. In managed models (Dedicated Team, AI-Native Pod), pricing covers the cross-functional team plus delivery management.
3. Is there a minimum commitment?
Engagements start from one month. Most augmentation clients run 3 to 12 months, scaling up or down as the project evolves. Dedicated teams have no long-term commitments beyond the active sprint cycle.
Time
4. How fast can we start?
Shortlisted engineer profiles typically within one week, onboarding complete within 2 to 4 weeks of your selection. For a full dedicated team, kickoff to first sprint takes a few weeks. Development on a scoped project begins within weeks of the initial workshop.
5. How long will my MVP take?
An MVP can go from kickoff to first user in even 1 week. Real examples: Simon Care's healthcare MVP was shaped by extensive user testing with patients; NegotiateNow's marketplace was built on a no-code stack to reach the market quickly. AI products like KnowHub or SmartSearch can go live in as little as 2 weeks once your data is prepared.
6. How long does the pre-development phase take?
Product Discovery runs 4 to 8 weeks and answers "should we build this?" Scope Building runs 2 to 5 weeks and answers "what exactly are we building, and what will it cost?" If you already have solid research, you can skip straight to Scope Building.
Team
7. Who will actually work on my project?
Mid-level and senior specialists from our 50-person Warsaw-based team: product managers, designers, frontend and backend engineers, QA, and DevOps. We do not place juniors in augmentation roles. Every engineer goes through technical assessment, code review, a structured interview, and reference checks before reaching your shortlist, and you approve every team member before they start.
8. Who manages the team?
Your choice of model decides. In Team Augmentation, engineers report to your leads inside your processes. In a Dedicated Team or AI-Native Pod, our delivery lead runs sprint planning, code review, and retros, and you set direction and priorities. In Build-Operate-Transfer, we manage the team until you take ownership.
9. What if an engineer isn't a good fit?
We start a replacement process immediately, without delay, so your timeline stays protected. In dedicated teams, continuity is kept through a core delivery lead and senior engineers who stay in place across changes.
10. Can we scale the team up or down mid-project?
Yes, on agreed notice, with no long-term minimums on individual engineers. Add capacity for a critical sprint, reduce when scope stabilizes. Scope change is treated as normal, not as a contract violation.
Ownership and security
11. Who owns the code?
You do. All code, documentation, designs, and product artifacts you commission belong to you, including full source code, design files, and deployment access. No vendor lock-in, no licensing fees. Handover documentation is written to stand on its own, whether you continue with us, your internal team, or another partner.
12. How is my data and IP protected?
NDAs are standard. Startup House is ISO 27001 compliant, with GDPR-compliant data handling. For regulated industries we map to your HIPAA, SOC 2, and DORA requirements, and infrastructure and data handling are documented for your auditors on request. In AI projects, your data is never used to train AI models, and processing stays within your secure environment.
13. You use AI in development. How is that governed?
Our teams use AI tooling for code generation, test writing, and documentation. Three rules apply: no AI-generated code ships without human review by senior engineers, security scanning runs on every push, and AI usage is documented in pull requests for a full audit trail.
Fit
14. What kinds of companies do you work with?
Enterprises and product companies across fintech, healthcare, cybersecurity, travel, logistics, and education, in Poland, Western Europe, Scandinavia, and the US. Clients include Siemens Financial Services (since 2016), Siemens Healthineers, PwC, Toyota, Rainbow Tours, CHOOOSE, and Omnipack. We work with early-stage products too: Graspify went from concept to a platform running live corporate training.
15. How do we start?
Book a 30-minute call. You share the idea or business challenge, we run a discovery workshop and prepare a detailed project brief, then a Software Requirements Specification defining scope, features, and budget. From there: roadmap, team assignment, and development within weeks, with demos and regular updates throughout.
The pattern behind the answers
Three principles sit under all fifteen answers. Estimates follow validation, so you commit budgets to tested scope. Teams flex with your roadmap, because scope change is the norm in product development. And everything we build is yours, because a partner you stay with by choice beats one you are locked into.
About Startup House
Startup House is a 50-person, cross-functional software development company based in Warsaw, Poland, established in 2016, ISO 27001 compliant, with 100+ products shipped, a client NPS of 75, and clients on 5 continents. Listed by the Financial Times and Statista among Europe's fastest-growing companies in 2022 and 2023.
Have a sixteenth question? Book a 30-min call.
How this article was made. Drafted with AI assistance, then fact-checked and edited by our team. Editorial responsibility: Startup Development House sp. z o.o. Read our AI content policy
Digital Transformation Strategy for Siemens Finance
Cloud-based platform for Siemens Financial Services in Poland
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