Charleston, SC · Remote across the US
Software project rescue.
Honest assessment, then the hard calls.
The MVP shipped, the money went in, and the product stopped moving. I find out why, make the rebuild-or-repair call with evidence, and build the team that makes me unnecessary.
I'm Parris Varney. Twenty-plus years at startups, and my last two engagements were rescues: Source, after two teams and two years hadn't launched, and BusinessLoans.com, where an offshore MVP needed to become a product. I'm currently co-founding Source.
01 / Symptoms
How you know.
It's a rescue if
- →Releases need constant human intervention, and nobody can say why it broke
- →The agency or offshore team shipped an MVP, and every change since has taken longer than the last
- →You've spent a year and a seven-figure budget and still haven't launched
- →Infrastructure costs climb with every customer instead of flattening out
- →The engineers who understood the system have left, and the documentation is a Slack channel
What a rescue is not
It's not a rewrite by default. Rewrites are how projects stall in the first place. Rebuild versus repair is a decision made in your codebase, with evidence, after I've shipped in it.
It's also not quick. Stopping the bleeding takes months; a team that runs without me takes about a year. Anyone promising the second in the time it takes to do the first is selling you the next rescue.
02 / Rebuild or repair
The call, made with evidence.
Most rescues are repairs with a few targeted rebuilds. The exception is when the shape of the system is wrong for the job.
Repair when
- →The architecture fits the problem
- →The team knows the system
- →The cost is in process, tooling, or a few bad subsystems
- →Customers are using it, and it mostly works
Rebuild when
- →The shape is wrong for the workload, like a CRUD app doing heavy reporting
- →Every feature costs more than the last
- →Costs scale per customer and the math never works
- →Nobody left understands it
03 / How it works
About a year, in three phases.
Full-time at the start, tapering as your team takes over. Nothing moves before your team understands why, and nothing ships without them.
- 01
EmbeddedMonths 0–3
I start in the backlog, shipping with the team you have. You can't make the rebuild-or-repair call from a slide deck, and the first quarter is where the real picture emerges.
- 02
Course correctionMonths 3–9
The plan, agreed on together, then executed: subsystems replaced, monitoring added, process installed, hiring only where it brings clear value. The roadmap keeps shipping while it happens.
- 03
TaperMonths 9–15
A team that runs without me. My days go down as theirs go up, and I hand the reins to someone I hired.
04 / Pricing
$1,000 per day.
Prorated for partial days. A rescue is a full-time commitment at the start, five days a week, which comes to a bit over $21,000 a month, then tapers as your team takes over. Scoped in phases and quoted up front, so you know the number before we start.
5 days / week · $1,000 / day · tapering from month 9
05 / Where
In the room, then remote.
Based in Charleston, South Carolina. Rescues benefit from time with the team, so Charleston companies, from downtown to Mount Pleasant, Daniel Island, North Charleston, and Summerville, get me in person. For everyone else, I travel regularly and run the rest remote over the video platform of your choice.
06 / Three rescues
One rebuild, one repair, one consolidation.
Source
Rebuild · 2025
Two teams and two years in, the platform couldn't handle more than a few clients and cost thousands per client per month. The shape was wrong for heavy reporting, so I rebuilt it: feature parity in about four months, then back to the roadmap.
“Two years, two development teams, and over $1M and Source still hadn't launched. Parris came in, assessed the code honestly, and led a rebuild from the ground up. We shipped in just a fraction of the time and cost.”
BusinessLoans.com
Repair · 2021
An offshore-built MVP that needed constant intervention and lost leads. I replaced the broken subsystems, including a homemade database, added monitoring and alerting, and built a form builder the conversion team could run themselves, all while the roadmap kept shipping.
“Taking it from MVP to a product we could grow on was a different challenge, and that's where Parris came in. Within a month or so the app was stable and reliable, and he put processes in place that gave everyone confidence in what was shipping next.”
SnapCap by LendingTree
Consolidation · 2018
A post-acquisition integration stalled across two stacks and two engineering cultures. After a year of trying to integrate the app as it was, I made the call to replatform onto the acquirer's stack and delivered it in just over a quarter.
“Parris took ownership: he made the call to consolidate onto one platform, aligned both teams behind the plan, and delivered it. He's been my go-to technical advisor ever since. He sees the business problem behind the technical one, and he makes the hard calls.”
07 / Project rescue questions
FAQ.
Will you tell me to rewrite everything?
Probably not. Rewrites are how projects stall in the first place. Most rescues are repairs with a few targeted rebuilds, and the call is made in your codebase, with evidence, after I've shipped in it.
Do we keep shipping during the rescue?
Yes. The roadmap keeps moving while the subsystems get replaced. That's the whole trick, and it's why the course correction takes months rather than weeks.
What happens to the current team?
They stay unless there's a reason not to. Churn is usually a symptom of the system, not the people. When hiring is needed, I hire for the company's next stage and hand the reins to one of them.
Our app was built by an agency or an offshore team. Can you take it over?
Yes. More than one of my engagements started with an offshore-built app. The code is rarely the main problem; the missing monitoring, process, and ownership usually are.
How long does a rescue take?
About a year, including the taper. Three months embedded, three to six months of course correction, then the hand-off. Faster is possible; durable usually isn't.
What does it cost?
$1,000 per day. A rescue is a full-time commitment at the start, five days a week, tapering as your team takes over. It's scoped in phases and quoted up front, so you know the number before we start.
Do you only work with Charleston companies?
No. Rescues benefit from time in the room, so Charleston companies get me in person and everyone else gets regular visits. The rest runs remote over the video platform of your choice.
What if the codebase is a mess?
It usually is, and that's fine. I'd rather have a mess with customers than clean code without them.
08 / Get in touch
Tell me where it stalled.
What was promised, what shipped, and what it costs to run. I'll reply within a business day with next steps, or an honest referral if I'm not the right fit.
Or write to [email protected].