Tier 2 · An AI build shop

Describe it. See a spec and a demo. Then decide.

For small businesses that need a website, an automation, or a compliance system built. A structured consultation turns your description into a written spec and a working demo, then one fixed price, from Jim Haist, the named engineer who builds it.

Start your spec See a sample spec →

Fixed price in writing, after the spec You keep the spec either way 50% to start · 50% on delivery Built and approved by Jim Haist

01 — The problem

Sound familiar?

These are the jobs small businesses describe to us in their own words. If several happen in your business every week, each one is a buildable project with a finish line.

Copy-paste work. The same details get retyped from emails and PDFs into spreadsheets, then into invoices.
Reports built by hand. Someone spends hours at month end assembling numbers that already exist somewhere.
Follow-ups you have to chase. Quotes, approvals, and deadlines move only when a person remembers to push them.
A website that describes the business but does no work. Enquiries land in an inbox and get handled one at a time, by hand.
Staff using AI with no record. Drafts and summaries go out, and nobody can later show what was sent, what came back, or who approved it.
Checks done from memory. Compliance steps live in one person's head, so they run differently depending on who is on shift.

You do not need a plan to fix any of this. Describe the job the way you would say it out loud. The consultation below turns a plain description into a draft spec, and tells you plainly when it cannot yet.

02 — Try the interview

Not a form. An interview.

This demo runs as a structured interview: a short set list of questions, one at a time, follow-ups only where an answer is thin, and your own stories as the evidence. It never asks you to define “working.” For a website, working is a standard list of checks, and that list is ours to supply, in the draft, for you to confirm or correct. What only you can supply is what happened last time, what perfect would open up, and what must never happen.

Tier 2 interviewer · Draft Spec v0 Demo · Free

Stage 1 of 3 · PlanningAbout 4 minutes

Stage 1 · Planning — your interview guide

How this works. I’m the Tier 2 interviewer. I’ll ask four questions, one at a time, and follow up only where an answer is thin, at most twice per question. There are no wrong answers and no yes-or-no questions. If you skip one, it goes on the record as missing. I will never guess it.

The last time this came up. A concrete warm-up, no follow-ups.
The magic-wand version. If it worked perfectly, what would that open up?
One real example, start to finish. The halfway point.
The other side. What would be wrong for your business? What must it never do?

Then I play back what I heard and ask if it sounds right, and the analysis stage turns the transcript into your Draft Spec, checked against this guide. First, which guide fits? Pick the closest one.

Or load an example transcript and watch the analysis work

Demo only. Nothing you type is sent or saved; it stays in this tab. Do not paste passwords, keys, or real customer or patient data into any interview at this stage. They are never needed yet.

·Stage 3 · Analysis: reading the transcript against the interview guide

·Restating the scope and drafting the workflow from your example

·Applying the standard “working” checks; scanning for regulated categories

·Checking the buildable minimum

DRAFT SPEC v0Your draft will appear here Draft — not a quote

Run the interview on the left, or load an example transcript.

What comes back is the analysis stage, not your answers pasted under headings: a restated scope, the workflow drafted from your one real example, the standard checks that define “working” for this kind of build (supplied by us, labeled BUILDER STANDARD), your deal-breakers carried as requirements, lines marked YOU SAID / INFERRED / ASSUMED / MISSING, any regulated-category flags your words trigger, and a verdict on whether this is ready to spec.

Every line is labelled, so you can see exactly what the interview added and what it refused to guess.

Method note: this interview runs in three stages — planning, interviewing, and analysis — with a set list and adaptive follow-ups, a concrete warm-up, a magic-wand question, a halfway signpost, a playback check (“Does that sound right?”), and at most two follow-ups per question. The questions are scoping questions, and the analysis stage becomes your draft spec.

03 — Method

Four steps. Each one leaves something in your hands.

A step that ends with a document you keep is proof. A step that ends with a promise is a claim. This process is built out of the first kind.

STEP 01

Consult

A structured conversation, like the demo above, run in full. It runs a set list of questions for your kind of work, one at a time, follow-ups only where an answer is thin, and a playback check before anything is drafted, until the buildable minimum is captured or the gaps are named.

Price: FreeTime: about 4 minutes to a draftYou keep: Draft Spec v0

STEP 02

Spec

Jim Haist reviews the draft and turns it into the full written spec: goal, users, workflow, in scope, out of scope, data and integrations, assumptions, and the checks the finished work will be tested against. You approve it or send it back.

Price: fixed fee, paidTime: set in writing with your specYou keep: the spec, whether you build with us or not

STEP 03

Demo & fixed price

A working demo is built from the spec, so you react to a real thing instead of a description. One consultation round on the demo settles the changes. Then the build price is fixed in writing against that spec. It does not move unless the scope does, in writing.

Price: one fixed price, in the specTime: set in writing with your specYou keep: the demo and the priced spec

STEP 04

Build & delivery

The build runs against the spec. A separate checker, which did not do the work, tests the result against the checks written in your spec. Results appear on your build page, pass or fail, before the balance is due.

Payment: 50% to start, 50% on deliveryTime: set in writing with your specYou keep: the finished work and the full record

Your build page: progress you can see, not updates you have to chase

Every job gets a build page. Artifacts appear there as they are produced: the spec, drafts, working versions. Test results appear there too, in plain language.

Questions go to the consultant, which answers from your spec and your build record, or escalates to Jim with the full context attached. You never have to re-explain your project to anyone.

This is a sample view, labeled as one. Your page shows your job only.

BUILD PAGE / SAMPLE JOBSPEC v1.0 APPROVED

spec_v1.0.pdfcontractAPPROVED

converter_draft_01artifactDELIVERED

check: totals match sourcetestPASS

check: exceptions flaggedtestRUNNING

final_packagedeliveryPENDING

04 — Services

Three kinds of work. The menu is the front door, not the ceiling.

Each service starts the same way: the consultation, the spec, the demo, the fixed price. What differs is the work class, and each card says plainly who it is wrong for.

Websites

Sites that do work, not just describe the business: enquiries captured and routed, orders taken through a proper payment processor, content your staff can update without a developer.

Business sites with enquiry and intake built in
Online selling through a payment processor, with regulated goods flagged up front
Rebuilds where the current site loses work you never see

Wrong for you if: you need a one-page placeholder by Friday, or a large custom platform with customer accounts in version one. The consultation will say so and split the work into phases instead.

Price: fixed in your specStart your spec →

Business systems & automations

One repeated job, built to run the same way every time: the document utilities, micro tools, and defined workflows that remove retyping and hand-built reports.

Statements, invoices, and PDFs into clean, checked spreadsheets
Invoice and document checking against a source of truth
Scheduled moves between files, forms, and inboxes, with a run log

Wrong for you if: the workflow changes every time it runs and nobody can describe the steps in order. That is a discovery job first, and the spec fee is where that gets settled.

Price: fixed in your specStart your spec →

Compliance automation

Checks that run the same way every time, with the record to prove it: defined rules applied to your documents and systems, exceptions flagged for a person, nothing decided silently.

Rule-based checks on documents, with each gap named and counted
Audit trail wrappers: what went in, what came out, who approved it
Review queues, so a named person signs off before anything ships

Wrong for you if: you want a system that makes hiring, lending, or eligibility decisions on its own. That gets flagged in intake, and the design keeps a person in the loop.

Price: fixed in your specStart your spec →

05 — Sample work

Raw words in. Spec out. Samples, labeled as samples.

Tier 2 is new and has no client list to show you, so this section shows the method instead: what a real enquiry looks like on the way in, and what the consultation makes of it. These are sample projects, built to demonstrate the transformation. They are not client work, and nothing on this page pretends otherwise.

Statements into a budget sheet

Sample project — not client work

What the visitor typed

“I get bank and card statements every month and I waste hours turning them into a budget sheet.”

What the consultation produced

Scope, restated: replace a manual monthly conversion (PDF statements → hand-built sheet) with a utility that produces one categorized budget spreadsheet per month.

Inferred, to confirm: success means totals match the source statements exactly, and unclear items are flagged, never guessed.
Assumed for the draft: no live bank connection in version one. Statements are files you provide.
Out of scope: financial advice. The tool categorizes; it does not judge the spending.
Verdict: buildable minimum met after two follow-ups (the statement formats, and one real month-end walked through start to finish).

Invoice checking against contracts

Sample project — not client work

What the visitor typed

“Suppliers send invoices and I think some of them do not match what we agreed. Checking by hand takes forever.”

What the consultation produced

Scope, restated: compare each invoice against its matching contract on price, date, and line items, and produce a short exception report a person can send back.

Inferred, to confirm: the contract on file is the source of truth when the two disagree.
Assumed for the draft: mismatches are flagged for your decision. Nothing is disputed or paid automatically.
Open question it asked: who approves an exception over a set amount, and what is that amount?
Verdict: not yet, missing one thing: where the contracts live today.

An audit trail for staff AI use

Sample project — not client work

What the visitor typed

“My staff use AI tools for drafts and summaries. I need to be able to show what was sent and who approved it.”

What the consultation produced

Scope, restated: a wrapper that logs prompts, outputs, and approvals in one searchable record, with a review queue so a named person signs off before work goes out.

Flag it raised: if staff paste customer or patient data into AI tools today, that is a privacy and regulated-data question, settled in the spec before any build.
Assumed for the draft: the log is never edited after the fact. Corrections are new entries.
Out of scope: monitoring staff outside the named AI workflow.
Verdict: buildable minimum met.

06 — Who does the work

A named engineer. No account team.

Every large platform you use runs on tiers. Tier 2 is plain about its two.

The accountable human

Jim Haist

FOUNDER AND ENGINEER · TIER 2

Jim is the engineer behind Tier 2. He reviews every draft spec before any fixed price is given, makes the build and technical decisions, reviews the checker's results, and has the final call on anything a spec does not cover.

He works through the system by design. There is no phone number and no intake meeting to book, because the consultation is the intake meeting, and it is available now, at the top of this page. When a question needs engineering judgment, Tier 1 escalates it with your spec and build record attached, and the answer comes back in writing.

Reviews every Draft Spec v0 before a price exists
Builds, and judges the edge cases the spec cannot settle
Approves delivery against the checks in your spec

Tier 1 · Always available

The AI consultant

Your front door and your contact. It runs the intake, drafts the spec outline, answers questions from your spec and build record, and follows up when a build needs a decision from you. It does not sleep, does not hand you off, and does not need you to call during business hours.

Tier 2 · No phone number

The engineer

Jim Haist. Builds, judges edge cases, approves delivery. You will not speak with him directly, and that is not a limitation. It is why the work gets done instead of argued into a different shape mid job.

The engineer is building.

How checking works

One system builds. A second system checks.

The builder works from your spec. A separate checker, which did not do the work, tests the result against the checks in that same spec and writes the result, pass or fail, to your build page. No self grading.

07 — Pricing

The structure is fixed. The numbers are set in your spec.

Pricing silence reads as expensive and evasive, so here is exactly how money works at Tier 2, including the part that is not settled yet, labeled as not settled.

The consultation

DRAFT SPEC v0, LIKE THE DEMO ABOVE

You describe the work, the consultation probes the thin answers, and you get a draft spec with gaps and flags named. You keep the draft either way.

FREE

The full spec

THE PAID FIRST PRODUCT

Jim reviews your draft and produces the full written spec: scope, workflow, assumptions, checks, and the fixed build price. The document is yours to keep whether you build with us or not. If the finished spec is not buildable as written, the spec fee is refunded.

ONE FIXED FEE, PAIDOpen: fee not yet set

The build

PRICED AGAINST YOUR APPROVED SPEC

Builds are quoted as one fixed price after the spec and demo, and the price does not move unless you change the scope, in writing. Starting-at ranges for websites, automations, and compliance systems will be published here as the price points are set, so you can self-qualify before you start.

FIXED PRICE IN THE SPECOpen: starting prices not yet set

Payment staging

THE STRUCTURE IS THE GUARANTEE

Half the build price to start the build, half on delivery, after the checker results are on your build page. Half the money moves only when you have the work and the evidence it passed its checks.

50% TO START
50% ON DELIVERY

What moves a build price: the number of workflows or screens, the integrations involved, whether regulated data is in scope, and how much of the buildable minimum is still missing when you start. Those drivers are named in your spec, next to your price, so the number is checkable instead of mysterious.

08 — Straight answers

Questions a careful buyer asks.

Answered the way they are asked. Where something is not settled yet, it says so.

You are a new company. Why should we trust you?

Fair question, answered straight: Tier 2 is new, and it has no client list, no testimonials, and no logo wall. This page will not invent any of those. What you can check instead is the work itself: run the consultation above and grade the draft it produces, read the sample transformations, and hold us to the structure. A fixed price written in a spec you approve, half the money held until delivery, checker results on your build page, and a spec fee refunded if the spec is not buildable. You risk the spec fee, not a project budget, to find out whether the method holds.

What does it cost?

The consultation and Draft Spec v0 are free. The full spec is one fixed fee, paid, and yours to keep either way. The build is one fixed price, written in the spec after the demo, paid 50% to start and 50% on delivery. The spec fee amount and the starting-at ranges for builds are not published yet; they are open decisions, labeled as open in the Pricing section rather than filled in with invented numbers.

How long does a build take?

The timeline is written into your spec alongside the price, before you commit to the build, and the demo round happens before that commitment. A draft spec takes about four minutes of interview in the demo above. Anything more precise before your scope is known would be a guess dressed as a schedule.

Do I own what gets built?

Yes. The spec, the demo, and the finished work are yours, documented and handed over. The spec is yours even if you never build with us, and you can take it to another builder. That is written into the offer on purpose.

Is my business data safe in the consultation?

Do not paste passwords, keys, real customer records, or patient data into the consultation. None of it is needed to scope a build. The consultation works from descriptions: what the data is, where it lives, and who owns it. Where regulated data is part of the real build, the spec names the handling requirements before any data moves.

What if my work involves regulated data or regulated goods?

Then the consultation flags it, in the open, the way the demo above flags alcohol and firearms sales: age gates and transfer rules for the goods, payment processors that restrict the category, and the checks a build has to carry. Health data, payment data, employee data, and children's data each raise their own named requirements. A fixed price comes only after Jim has reviewed those flags. A shop that sells compliance work and does not flag it in its own intake has failed its own audition.

What if the finished work does not match the spec?

Then it does not ship as if it passed. The checker tests the work against the checks written in your spec, and the results sit on your build page before the balance is due. Work that fails a check gets fixed or the failure stays on the record in plain language. If a spec turns out not to be buildable as written, the spec fee is refunded.

Who actually does the work?

Tier 1, the AI consultant, runs intake and follow-up. Builder agents produce the work from your spec, a separate checker tests it, and Jim Haist, the founder, reviews specs, makes the technical calls, and approves delivery. There is no account manager and no hand-off to a stranger mid job.

Can I just talk to a person first?

The consultation is the first conversation, and it is staffed by the system Jim built for exactly this. It asks better opening questions than a sales call because it has to produce a document, not a pitch. If your case genuinely needs engineering judgment at intake, the consultant escalates it to Jim with the draft attached, and his answer comes back in writing.

Start with the description. Keep whatever it produces.

A short interview gets you a Draft Spec v0: restated scope, the standard checks that define working for your kind of build, labeled assumptions, named gaps, any regulated flags, and an honest verdict. It is free, it runs in your browser, and the draft is yours either way.

Start your spec