What does the Second Opinion cost?

$5,000, fixed, for one decision. Delivered in two weeks as a written verdict plus a call.

A written verdict covering the decision, the evidence, the options, a recommendation, the risks and the next actions, and a call where Giacomo defends it against your CFO, your CTO or the vendor.

Do you also implement the recommendation?

No. Giacomo sells no software and no development. If the verdict is build and you want oversight during the build, that is scoped afterward as a separate fixed engagement.

The Second Opinion

You are about to commit real money to a software build, an AI initiative, an app, a platform, or a vendor. Everyone advising you is paid if you say yes. The Second Opinion is an independent read of that one decision, from someone with nothing to sell behind the recommendation, delivered before the money moves.

$5,000 Fixed fee. One decision.
Delivered in two weeks.

Bring me one of these

A proposal, or three of them Which one is right, what each vendor assumed about you to get to its number, and what happens to the price when the assumption is wrong. Build, buy, or neither Custom, configure, or change the process so you need neither. The third option pays nobody, so nobody proposes it. An AI initiative Which part of it actually needs AI, what changes in the business when it works, and what a $20 a month tool would have done. An app Whether you need one at all, and if so the smallest version that proves it. This one has its own page. A project that is late or over budget Fix it, cut scope, replace the team, or stop. Decided against what runs on your data, not against a status report. A contract Data ownership, portability, the API, termination assistance, who holds the credentials. What you are locked into and how you leave.

What happens in the two weeks

Read everythingThe proposals, the contract, the architecture, the plan, and the emails where the assumptions live.
Talk to the peopleYour team, the vendor, the developers. I ask the questions you cannot ask without tipping your hand.
Challenge and compareI test each assumption, price the alternatives including doing nothing, and work out what I would do with my own money.
Deliver and defendThe verdict in writing, then a call where you push back and I defend every line.

What you get

A written verdict

Decision. Evidence. Options. Recommendation. Risks. Next actions. Short enough to read before the board meeting, specific enough to act on the same day.

A call where I defend it

Bring your CFO, your CTO, or the vendor's proposal. I explain what I found, why, and what I would want to see before signing.

Who this is for

Owner-operated businesses where one person carries the decision and there is no internal technology leadership to check it. You are signing something you cannot evaluate, recommended by people who are all paid if you say yes. If you have a CTO, a delivery office and a board committee already stress-testing this proposal, you are better covered than most of the people who call me, and you should probably keep your money.

Why my read is worth paying for

I do not build what I recommend. I do not resell software, take referral fees, or keep a preferred implementer. If the answer is “do nothing”, that is the answer, and I have given it more than once. Software and mobile since 2010, one of the first developers Apple featured, an MBA, and a portfolio of more than forty live apps of my own where I pay for my own wrong calls. I have been the developer quoting the work, the vendor's engineer, and the buyer. That is how I know what each one leaves out of the proposal. I have also shipped into a market that turned out not to exist, and paid for it myself, which is the cheapest way for you to buy that particular lesson.

Where I am deepest, and where I say so

Software products and apps, AI initiatives, agency and vendor proposals, and application security are where I have spent fifteen years. ERP and CRM selections I review as the buyer's advocate: the assumptions, the contract, the migration, the exit. Where a decision needs a specialist beside me, I say so on the first call, before you have paid for anything.

Common questions

What does it cost?

$5,000, fixed, for one decision. If the decision is bigger than one, I tell you before we start, and you decide.

Why would I trust one person with this?

Not because of a website. Ask for two things instead. The first is who sent me. Most of this work arrives through a CPA, a fractional CFO, or an attorney who already has your trust and who gains nothing whichever way your decision goes. The second is the verdict itself: it is yours, it names its evidence, and any engineer you hire afterward can check every line of it against your own systems. I am not asking you to take my word for it. I am handing you something you can test.

What if the decision is small?

Size it by consequence, not by the invoice. If being wrong would set you back a year, or force you to change the plan for the year, it is worth an outside read. For most of the owners I work with that starts somewhere around $50,000. If you are not sure, ask. I will tell you either way and it costs nothing.

Can you stay for the build?

If the verdict is build and you want me at the table while it happens, we scope that afterward as its own fixed engagement. Nothing about the review depends on it.

Do you sign an NDA?

Yes, before I read anything. Nothing you send me reaches a vendor, and I have no vendor to send it to.

Tell me what you are about to spend, what it is for, and who recommended it. I reply within a day with whether a Second Opinion makes sense, or that it does not.

Bring me the decision