An independent technical read before you sign.
Vendor shortlist, evaluation matrix, contract-red-flag review. Fixed-scope, 2–3 weeks. Retainer or one-off engagement.
Who this is for
Non-technical executive evaluating vendors (CMS, analytics, AI, infrastructure) where vendor sales teams are out-talking the buyer, and an independent technical read could change the decision.
The pain today
- Vendor sales demos making everything look equivalent
- No internal technical expertise to evaluate vendor claims
- Previous vendor choice turned out wrong — not repeating that
- Contract terms that sound standard but aren't (data rights, exit clauses)
- TCO unclear — quoted price differs from real monthly bill
The outcome you get
- Vendor shortlist with evaluation rubric — not 'the sales team I liked best'
- Build vs buy vs partner analysis when relevant
- Contract red-flag review — data rights, SLAs, exit, liability
- TCO model per vendor including hidden costs
- Negotiation leverage identified before the second sales call
Vendor eval framework (build/buy/partner)
Before picking a vendor, decide if vendoring is the right path. Build: custom development owned in-house, maximum control, maximum maintenance burden. Right when the capability is core differentiator. Buy: vendor product fully replaces internal capability, minimum control, minimum maintenance. Right when the capability is commodity (payments, email, analytics). Partner: joint build or significant integration with a vendor, medium control, shared maintenance. Right when the capability is adjacent to your core but you need specific tuning. Many vendor-selection requests are actually build/buy questions in disguise. I challenge the framing first — sometimes the right answer is 'don't hire a vendor; this shouldn't exist.'
Contract terms I push back on
Vendor contracts have standard traps. Data rights: default contracts often grant vendor rights to your data for 'service improvement.' Push back for pure-service-delivery-only rights. SLAs: default 99% = 7+ hours downtime/month. Negotiate 99.9%+ for production. Auto-renewal: some contracts auto-renew with 90-day notice required; negotiate 30-day notice. Exit clauses: 'you get 60 days of export on termination.' Negotiate 90 days plus assistance with migration. Liability caps: many vendors cap liability at 1-month fees; for mission-critical systems (payments, auth), push for 1-year fees. Termination for convenience: some vendors forbid it; always negotiate for it. I review contracts with a checklist of 15–20 red-flag clauses.
TCO modeling
Headline price rarely equals total cost. TCO components often missed. Implementation: vendor charges (weeks of onboarding at $2–20k/week), internal time (weeks of your team's engagement), integration work (engineering hours or second-vendor fees). Ongoing: per-seat fees escalating with growth, overage charges (API calls, transactions, users), add-on modules that turn out essential. Migration: exit costs when you eventually leave. Opportunity cost: what your team isn't doing while integrating. I build a 3-year TCO model per vendor. Usually the cheapest headline vendor isn't the cheapest TCO; sometimes the 2x headline vendor is 50% cheaper TCO when onboarding and integration costs are real.
Case study: bolttech 40+ vendor integrations
At bolttech — $1B+ unicorn, 15+ markets, 40+ payment providers integrated — vendor selection was a continuous process. Each market required local payment providers, each regulator required specific partners, each product required build/buy decisions. The framework I apply to vendor selection engagements comes from that experience: structured evaluation beats sales-team-persuasion every time, total cost of ownership is more important than headline price, contract red-flag discipline saves pain later. Unicorn-scale vendor management and SMB vendor selection share the same principles; volume differs, discipline doesn't.
Fixed-scope deliverable
Vendor selection work fits the Fractional CTO service at $4,500/mo, delivered as a 2–3 week fixed-scope engagement for single-decision reviews. Larger vendor programs (category-wide vendor strategy, multi-vendor RFPs, enterprise procurement support) fit the ongoing retainer. Deliverable: shortlist document, evaluation matrix, TCO model, contract red-flag review, negotiation strategy. 14-day money-back if the deliverable doesn't change your decision. Work Made for Hire on all written deliverables.
When to skip vendor consulting
Not every vendor decision warrants independent review. Under $5k/year vendors: probably not worth consulting overhead. Category where you have strong internal expertise (e.g., a developer picking a Node framework): trust the expertise. Vendor recommended by 5+ peers at similar-stage companies: social proof often sufficient. Consulting adds value above $20k/year per vendor, high-stakes decisions (CMS, core infrastructure, primary analytics), and cases where contract terms have long-term exit implications. I'll tell you honestly if your decision is small enough to skip this engagement.
Recent proof
A comparable engagement, delivered and documented.
Unified payment orchestration across Asia and Europe
Delivered the payment orchestration platform at bolttech, a $1B+ unicorn, with 40+ integrations across multiple regions.
Frequently asked questions
The questions prospects ask before they book.
- Can you be in the sales calls with vendors?
- Yes — often the highest-leverage part of the engagement. Vendor sales teams flex differently when a technical person is in the room. I ask questions your team doesn't know to ask, catch claims that deserve scrutiny, and translate sales language to technical reality.
- Do you have relationships with specific vendors?
- No affiliate or referral relationships. Independent read means no incentive to recommend one vendor over another. I have technical familiarity with major vendors in web dev, payments, analytics, and AI — knowledge comes from building with them, not from selling their products.
- How long does the review take?
- 2–3 weeks for single-decision reviews (one vendor category, 3–5 shortlisted vendors). 4–6 weeks for larger programs (multiple vendor categories, enterprise RFP). Week 1: requirements and framework. Week 2: vendor engagement, evaluation. Week 3: analysis, TCO, contract review, recommendation.
- What if I already signed the contract?
- Review can still identify problems and negotiation leverage for renewal or amendment. Most SaaS contracts have renewal windows; flagging issues 6 months before renewal gives time to improve terms or switch vendors. Post-signature review is reactive; pre-signature is preventive but both add value.
- What about small tools like $100/mo SaaS?
- Generally not worth an engagement. Small tools: trust peer recommendations, read G2 and Capterra, accept some variance. Consulting overhead erases the value at that price point. I'm honest about engagement economics — if your decision is too small, I'll say so in the first call.
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