This is what you own. This is what it costs. This is why the shape matters.
| Asset | Ag Express owns | We retain |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | Purchased in your name | Specify and install |
| Corpus, ontology instance, all derived data | Outright. No claim. | No claim |
| Models fine-tuned on your corpus | Outright. No claim. | No claim |
| Delivered system: apps, orchestration, code | Outright | Right to reuse general non-client-specific components and know-how in other engagements |
| Runbooks and documentation | Own | Author |
| Our methods, doctrines, delivery process | No claim | Own |
Hardware at cost. No margin on hardware. Taking a spread on the asset is the small thing that makes the ownership story look insincere. The ESOP board will ask what happens if we go away. The answer: you own the hardware, the data, the models, and the code. We hand you the runbooks.
The tiers are capacity, not scope. Same program, same matrix, different velocity. The client chooses how fast, not what. Blended rate: $250 per agent hour. Delivery leverage: 3.88×.
Conventional cost assumes $150-200 per hour for senior engineering delivery. That is what they would actually pay a regional shop. Stated once, without adjectives.
The winter trough is when corpus capture, technician interviews, and reference machine recording must happen. Those three things are prerequisites for everything else. Five months at Program tier gives us 600 agent hours — enough for all of Phase 1 and roughly 70% of Phase 2.
Stepping to Build tier in March finishes Phase 2 around May, putting bench Rungs 1 and 2, cross-site triage, and intake transcription in place before planting.
Telling you to pay us less starting in March is the most credible thing we can do in this conversation. We are optimizing your calendar, not our revenue. Nearly every vendor tries to lock the highest tier for the longest term.
| Line | Amount | Nature |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and corpus assessment | ~$15,000 | One time. Credited on proceeding within 30 days. |
| Retainer, Oct to Feb, Program tier | $150,000 | Operating |
| Retainer, Mar to Sep, Build tier | $140,000 | Operating |
| Hardware (T0 to T1) | Low-to-mid five figures | Capital asset, purchased in your name, at cost |
| Delivered | ~$305k + hardware | Phases 1 and 2, 46 features, ~768 agent hours, ~3,276 human-equivalent hours — owned outright |
A comparable conventional build of the same 46 features at $150-200/hour is roughly $490,000 to $655,000, before accounting for the fact that you would have to hire the team first. Stated once, without adjectives, and moved on from.