Pricing
Why We Don’t Do Fixed-Price Bids (And Why That’s Better For You)
Most clients come to us hoping for a single, fixed number for their entire project. This is understandable because you want certainty. But in 14 years of developing over a hundred products, we’ve learned that fixed-price bids are often a trap for both the client and the engineer.
The Problem with Fixed Bids
In the early stages of a project or product development, there are too many unknowns. For a firm to give you a fixed price early on, they have to price it exorbitantly just to cover their own risk. Worse yet, once a fixed bid is signed, the relationship often becomes adversarial.
If a technical issue arises, like a component running too hot or a connector not fitting through a housing, a fixed-price contractor will often point to the requirements document and say, “It meets the spec, so it’s your problem.” You end up with a product that technically meets a requirement in the fixed priced bid, but is completely unusable in practice.
The EES Way: Transparent, Iterative Billing
We believe the best results come from a Time and Materials model. This keeps us aligned with your goals, not a rigid requirements document.
1. The Real-World Estimate
We start with a detailed estimate based on our experience. Whether your project looks like $10,000 or $500,000 worth of work, we provide an order-of-magnitude ballpark estimate early on so you can plan your investment or fundraising accordingly.
2. Approved "Chunks" of Time
We don’t ask for 50% upfront. Instead, we work in approved blocks of time, typically starting with something like 80 hours (two full-time weeks). This is enough time for our senior engineers to produce meaningful output and for you to see progress and the value we provide.
3. Bi-Weekly Transparency
We invoice every two weeks for actual time spent. This allows you to:
- See Progress in Real-Time: You always know exactly what you are paying for.
- Pivot Quickly: If we identify a new technology or a necessary trade-off 10% into a phase, we can change course immediately without a mountain of “change order” paperwork.
- Control the Burn: We can work within a fixed bi-weekly budget (e.g., “don’t exceed $10k every two weeks”) to help you manage cash flow or R&D cycles.
4. Zero Markup on Materials
We never mark up hardware, parts, or equipment. If we buy custom boards or components for your project, you pay what we pay. Furthermore, you retain 100% ownership of everything purchased for your project.
The Result: You Get the Product You Actually Want
Our pricing model is designed for flexibility. If you need to pause work for a funding round, you can. If you realize mid-development that a smaller battery is worth the trade-off for a lower unit cost, we make that adjustment on the fly.
By the end of the project, our goal is for you to feel you’ve received maximum value for your investment. We don’t want to argue about something written on page 60 of a requirements document nine months ago; we want to efficiently build a product that works and will have the best potential for driving revenue.