01
Cash
You fund it, you keep everything.
- The capital stays 100% in your hands
- Scope and budget set from discovery
- Code and intellectual property fully transferred
Dev for equity
Pitch us. Convince us. We build it.
A CTO, a product designer, a full product team for a fast go-to-market: Krafter partners with founders who want more than a contractor, and builds their product in exchange for a share of the capital. A few projects a year, no more. The pitch is on you.
01
The principle
We don’t bill your product. We invest in it.
Dev for equity is simple: Krafter designs, builds and operates your product in exchange for a share of the capital, alongside or instead of cash. No man-days sold, no running meter: a shared bet on the product’s success.
This setup changes everything: a contractor wins when the project drags on, a partner wins when the product ships and finds its market. When the studio holds a share of the capital, every technical trade-off, every week of delay, every euro spent matters to us as much as to you.
Three setups exist, from the most standard to the most committed. All of them are put in writing before the first line of code: shareholders’ agreement, scope, milestones, governance.
The setups
From contractor to partner: three levels of commitment.
The right setup depends on your cash position, your stage and what you expect from the studio. In every case, the split is put in writing before we start.
02
Cash + equity
The invoice goes down, the alignment goes up.
- The studio takes a minority stake
- Billing reduced in proportion to the stake taken
- Our revenue depends on your traction, not on days sold
03
Equity
Krafter becomes your technical team.
- On the cap table from the company’s incorporation
- CTO, product design and development handled by the studio
- The studio only wins if the product wins
Pitch your project
The 100% equity setup is the rarest: it’s also the most selective. See the next section.
Pitch us. Convince us. We build it.
02
What you get
Not an agency to manage. Partners who build with you.
A CTO who lays out the architecture, makes the technical calls and owns the run. A product designer who shapes the journeys, the interfaces and the onboarding. A team that has already launched its own products, and knows what separates a demo from software people actually use.
The result is a fast go-to-market: an MVP in production within weeks, weekly releases, a roadmap driven by real usage. Melimelo, Trottr, Kascade and Smashr shipped exactly that way, with the same team that will work on your product.
The split of roles is clear: you own the business, the market and the sales. We own the product and the tech. Everyone does what they do best, no one manages anyone.
03
The selection
A few projects a year. Yours has to make us want in.
Equity commits the studio’s founders for years, on their own time. Every project we accept is time we can no longer spend elsewhere. So we choose like investors: a few projects a year, the ones we believe in enough to put our own work on the line.
What we look at: a real, painful problem, not an app idea. An accessible, solvent market. Founders who know their field, know how to sell, and want partners, not order-takers. And an obvious complementarity: you bring the business, we bring the product.
What a good application contains: the problem, proof that it exists (potential customers, letters of intent, first sales), your go-to-market plan, and what you expect from us. Pitch deck optional. Lucidity mandatory.
Products
Four products born like yours: from a bet.
Melimelo
#1Household organization, consumer-grade. Thousands of families every day, on iOS and Android.
Discover
Trottr
#2Field service management, used daily by technicians on the move.
Discover
Kascade
#3Project management that sticks to the essentials, born from our own sprints.
Discover
Smashr
#4AI-augmented sales CRM: call prep, summaries, enrichment.
DiscoverSkin in the game
“When we take equity, we don’t sell days: we commit years. That’s why we pick few projects, and why we pick them like investors, not like contractors.”
Fabien Maquin
Co-founder & CEO, Krafter
How it works
From pitch to agreement, from agreement to product.
The process is demanding both ways: you assess us as much as we assess you. Everything decided ends up in writing.
01 / 05
The pitch
30 minutesYou present the problem, the market and your proof to both founders. A straight answer within a week.
If the project doesn’t fit our criteria, we tell you right away, with the reasons. A fast no beats a maybe that drags on.
Mutual due diligence
2 to 4 weeksWe dig into the market, the problem and your ability to execute. You verify ours.
Our products are open for anyone to try, our clients reachable, our way of working transparent. You commit to partners, not to a brochure.
The agreement
Capital split, scope, milestones, governance, exit clauses: everything in writing.
The shareholders’ agreement is signed before the first line of code. Everyone knows what they bring, what they own, and what happens in every scenario: if the product stops, the technology we built remains Krafter’s property.
Build and go-to-market
8 to 12 weeksMVP in production, weekly releases, iterations driven by real usage.
The same method as for our own products: tight scope, fast launch, metrics from day one.
What comes next
long termKrafter stays on the cap table and at the keyboard: run, evolutions, scaling.
A partner doesn’t ship and vanish. The studio operates the product for the long run, the way it operates its own.
FAQ
You think your project holds up? That’s exactly what we want to verify together.
Pitch your projectBefore you pitch us your product.
It depends on what the studio brings, the stage of the project and the risk taken. In most cases the stake is a minority one: you stay in control of your company. The exact split is set in the shareholders’ agreement, before the first line of code.
You own the business, the market and the sales. We own the product and the tech, with you. Structural decisions (roadmap, budget, future dilution) follow the governance defined in the agreement: nothing implicit, nothing vague.
Yes, it’s actually the most common setup. The invoice goes down, the studio takes a stake in exchange, and interests align: we win if the product wins, not because days were sold.
The risk is shared, that’s the whole point. The agreement includes milestones and clear exit clauses for both parties: no one stays trapped in a venture that isn’t working. One protection is always in there: if the venture stops, the technology we built remains Krafter’s property. We take the risk of backing a product that never finds its market, not the risk of losing our tech on top of our time.
Because equity commits the studio’s founders for years, on their own time. We take on few projects so we can honor our commitments on every single one. And when it’s not the right time or the right setup, we tell you straight: the door stays open for a standard engagement.
Optional. A real, demonstrated problem, market proof and a lucid go-to-market plan weigh more than 50 slides. Come with what you have: if the substance is there, the form will follow.
Your product. Our craft. → your move
A 30-minute call with both founders. Come with the problem, the market and your proof. Pitch deck optional.