If this is useful to you, say so.
I am not selling anything here. This is what I know how to do, written down. If you are building something where that is useful, or you are stuck on a decision and want another read on it, write and tell me about it. Some of those turn into working together and most of them turn into a useful hour and an introduction.
That button opens your own mail client with the four questions already in it. If nothing happens when you click it, your browser has no mail app set up - the address is ernie@tettrafoundation.org, copy it straight into whatever you use. Nothing is submitted through this site - there is no form here, and no list holding your details.
What to put in the message
What you are building
One or two sentences. Assume I know the domain.
The constraint that makes it hard
Budget, physics, a regulator, a deadline, a team that does not exist yet. This is the part that determines the answer.
The decision you are stuck on
The reason you are writing rather than carrying on.
Your timeframe
So I can say honestly whether I can be useful inside it.
What I actually know how to do
Five things, and all of them happen alongside your engineers rather than instead of them. If what you need is a firm to own delivery outright, say so early and I will point you at one that does it properly. There is no version of this where I talk you into something.
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Research support
A technology choice backed by evidence rather than a vendor deck. What the literature actually says, what is disputed, what the failure modes are, and whether the claim survives contact with your constraints.
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Rapid prototyping
Some arguments are only settled by something running. A fast, deliberately narrow build that proves or kills the idea. A prototype that kills it early is worth as much as one that confirms it, and costs far less than finding out in production.
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Hands-on engineering
When the team needs another experienced pair of hands rather than another opinion. I take a defined piece of the build, usually the hard part, and work it with your engineers. Scoped and budgeted up front, never open-ended.
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An outside opinion
A direct read on a design, a roadmap or a vendor proposal, from someone with no stake in the outcome and nobody to protect inside your organization. Including when the answer is that you are already right.
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Introduction only
You know what you need and want the right firm for it. I make the introduction and step back - no fee from you, and none taken from them.
One practical note so nobody is surprised later. Anything substantial gets scoped and budgeted before it starts, and the number comes before any commitment rather than after. This is senior engineering time and it is not a favor. A conversation, though, is just a conversation, and plenty of them end with an introduction and nothing else.