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.

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.

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.

What if the decision is small?

If being wrong would cost you less than about $50,000, you probably do not need me. Ask anyway. I will say so, 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