Hiring a dev studio is one of the most important decisions you’ll make as a founder. Get it right and you’ll ship a great product in weeks. Get it wrong and you’ll burn through cash, miss your timeline, and end up with code that needs to be rewritten from scratch.
Here’s how to tell the difference before you sign anything.
Red Flags
No portfolio or case studies. If they can’t show you real products they’ve built, walk away. Every credible studio has work they can point to. “We can’t show anything because of NDAs” for every single project? That’s suspicious.
They won’t show you code. You don’t need to be technical to ask this question. A good studio will happily walk you through their codebase, explain their architecture, or let a third party review it. If they get defensive, there’s a reason.
100% payment upfront. Standard practice is milestone-based payments. You pay as features get delivered. Anyone asking for full payment before writing a line of code is either desperate or planning to disappear.
Vague timelines. “We’ll have something for you in a few months” isn’t a timeline. You should get a week-by-week breakdown with clear deliverables. If they can’t plan the work, they can’t execute the work.
They say yes to everything. A good studio pushes back. They tell you what’s realistic and what isn’t. If everything you suggest gets a “sure, no problem,” they’re either not listening or not experienced enough to know better.
Green Flags
Weekly demos. You should see working software every week. Not mockups, not slide decks — actual running code. This is the single best indicator that a studio knows how to ship.
Fixed quotes with clear scope. A well-defined project should have a well-defined price. Good studios will give you a fixed quote based on a detailed scope document. Changes cost extra, and that’s fair.
They own less code than you. When the project is done, you should own 100% of the codebase. Full IP transfer, full access to all repos, credentials, and infrastructure. If they retain ownership of anything, negotiate that before you start.
Clear communication. You should know who your point of contact is. You should get regular updates without having to chase them. Slack, email, weekly calls — the format doesn’t matter, but the consistency does.
Questions to Ask Before Signing
- Who actually writes the code? Will it be the people in this meeting, or will it be outsourced to a different team?
- What happens after launch? Do you offer ongoing support? What does that cost? Can I bring in my own developers later?
- Can I see a recent project? Not from three years ago — something you shipped in the last six months.
- Do you do equity deals? This tells you a lot. Studios that accept equity typically believe in long-term partnerships. Studios that don’t are focused on delivery. Neither is wrong, but know what you’re getting.
- What’s your process when scope changes? Because it will. You need to know how they handle it — change orders, re-scoping, or flexible timelines.
Trust Your Gut
After all the research, references, and portfolio reviews — trust your instinct. If communication feels off during the sales process, it’ll be worse during the build. Find a team you actually enjoy working with.
Looking for a studio that checks all the green flags? Talk to IN2Labs — we’ll show you our work, our process, and our code.