Software project rescue
Stalled products, shipping again.
Your product is stuck. The previous team is gone or going quiet, releases keep breaking, and nobody can tell you what it will take to finish. I take it over with the devmonks team: a paid two-day audit tells you what is worth keeping, and if we fix rather than rebuild, most of the fixes land in the first week.
Signs
When a product needs rescuing
Most rescues start with one of these. Often it is several at once.
- The agency or freelancer who built it has stopped answering, or wants to start again from scratch.
- Every release breaks something that used to work, and nobody knows why.
- The app has not been updated in a year and no longer builds, or the stores have started rejecting it.
- An MVP built in a hurry, or with AI tools, works in the demo and falls over with real users.
- You are paying every month and cannot see what is being done or when it will be finished.
- The code exists, but nobody on your side can read it, deploy it or say what it is worth.
Process
How a rescue runs
- 01
Audit
Two days, paidWe read the code, the infrastructure and the history, run the build ourselves and talk to whoever is left. You get a written report: what works, what is broken, what is risky, and a plain recommendation to fix or to rebuild, with the reasons.
- 02
Plan
Right after the auditIf you go ahead, we agree the order of work by priority: what is breaking for your users first, then what blocks the next release, then what will cost you later. Nothing starts without your sign-off.
- 03
Stabilise
First weekIf we fix rather than rebuild, most of the fixes land in the first week. Builds that run, releases that go out, and the worst of the crashes gone, on a staging app you can open yourself.
- 04
Ship
Every couple of daysThen the product moves forward again: daily updates, a demo every week and a fresh build on staging every couple of days, so you always know where it stands.
- 05
Look after it
After launchOne month of support is free after the rescue ships. After that, a retainer keeps it running and growing, or we hand it to your own team with everything documented.
Fix or rebuild
Fix first, rebuild only when it is cheaper
Most stalled products are not broken beyond repair. They are missing an owner: someone who reads the code end to end, decides what stays, and takes responsibility for the next release. A rebuild is the expensive answer, and it is the right one only when the audit shows that fixing would cost more.
When the audit recommends a rebuild, it says why in terms you can check, and it says what can be carried over: data, design, the parts of the code that are sound. You decide with the facts in front of you.
Who does the work
Led by a CTO, done by senior engineers
I lead every rescue myself as CTO of devmonks, and the work is done by our senior engineers. We are AI-accelerated and engineer-verified: models speed up reading and fixing an unfamiliar codebase, and an engineer reviews and tests every change before it ships.
Taking over code we did not write is familiar ground. At Dingi I owned iOS releases, OS migrations and SDK updates on an existing Swift codebase used by more than a million people. Our stack covers Flutter, iOS and Android, React and Next.js, Node.js, Python and Django, and AI products built on OpenAI's platform.
Engagement
How the engagement works
- A paid two-day audit comes first, with a written report you keep whether or not we continue.
- Fix work starts after the audit, in the order of priority we agree together.
- Daily updates, a weekly demo and a staging build every couple of days throughout.
- One month of free support after the rescue ships, then a retainer or a clean handover.
Proof
Work you can check
- Dingi Life, maps and navigation for Bangladesh, downloads at peak
- 1M+
- pin_code_fields, my open-source Flutter package, downloads a month
- 400K
- Odoo LLM, commits as its largest contributor
- 1,492
- Products shipped across mobile, web and AI
- 40+
- devmonks, OpenAI Partner Network
- Select tier
- OpenAI API Deployment and Technical Practitioner
- Certified
Questions
Questions founders ask
How long does a software project rescue take?
The audit takes two days. If we fix rather than rebuild, most of the fixes land in the first week after it. How long the rest takes depends on what the audit finds, and the report says so before any fix work begins.
Can you take over a project another team or agency built?
Yes. That is what most rescues are. We need access to the code, the hosting and the app store accounts; the audit tells you what is missing if any of those are lost.
Will you insist on rebuilding it?
No. We recommend a rebuild only when the audit shows fixing would cost more, and we show you why.
Do you rescue Flutter and mobile apps?
Yes. Flutter, iOS and Android are home ground: I author pin_code_fields, a Flutter package downloaded about 400,000 times a month.
Do you work with founders outside Bangladesh?
Yes. devmonks works with founders in the United States, Europe and the Middle East, with daily written updates and an agreed overlap window for calls.
Tell me where it is stuck.
A first call is free. Bring what you know about the product and the team that built it, and you leave with an honest read on whether it is worth saving.