No — we are not GoC-cleared (Reliability or Secret) at the studio level, and we do not handle Protected B / classified information. Our value to Ottawa-based founders is the pilot phase: the pre-RFP working demo, the BCIP submission asset, the innovation-fund proof-of-concept. Once the federal procurement cycle requires cleared personnel, the engagement transitions to your in-house cleared team or to a cleared prime — and we hand off the source files clean.

Yes — BCIP submissions need a working pilot, technical documentation, and an evaluation framework. Our sprint format produces all three: the working software (sprint deliverable), the architecture and decision documentation (always included), and a documented test/evaluation plan (we add this for BCIP-targeted engagements). We've delivered toward BCIP submissions before; we're not the prime, we're the team that ships your demonstrable pilot.

Yes — when an Ottawa engagement needs a cleared prime for the production phase, we collaborate as a pre-prime sprint partner: we ship the pilot, the prime takes the production contract. Several Ottawa-based primes engage us this way. We're not a competitive threat to the prime's contract — we're the team that gets their bid demo ready in 8 weeks instead of 8 months.

Yes. We are async-first by default — every engagement runs identically whether you're in Ottawa, MTL, Toronto, NYC, or anywhere else in North America. The Ottawa-specific advantages above (local tax credits, industry awareness, time-zone alignment) are bonuses for Ottawa founders, not constraints on who we'll work with.

Most Ottawa founders start with an Ideation Sprint ($4,995, 1 week) or HTML Demo Sprint ($9,995, 3–4 weeks) before committing to a Full Stack build. The smaller sprint validates fit and credit applies to your next sprint within 60 days. No retainers, no minimum spend.