Know exactly what you are buying. Before you say yes.
Two sprint tiers. One declared price each. Every role, every hour, listed here. No "request a quote" discovery call before you see a number.
$3,000/sprint vs. the alternatives.
The question is never "is $3,000 too much?" The question is "too much compared to what?"
| Option | Cost | Timeline | What you manage | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Calyber Startup Sprint | $3,000 | 14 days, defined | Nothing — PM manages the team | Low — you see results before committing to more |
| Boutique agency retainer | $5K–$10K/month | 3–6 months to see results | Ongoing scope management | High — billed whether or not results appear |
| Upwork/freelancer | $75–$200/hr (variable) | Unclear — no defined end | PM, QA, design — all on you | High — no QA, no PM, no design included |
| Hire full-time AI developer | $120K–$180K/year fully loaded | 3–6 months to hire + ramp | PM, QA, design — all on you | Very high — wrong hire = $150K+ sunk |
| Zapier / Make self-serve | $50–$200/month | Weeks to set up, months to break | Everything — you build and maintain it | Medium — ceiling reached quickly for AI workflows |
| Large AI consultancy | $250K+ minimum | 6–12 month sales cycle | Governance, steering committees | Very high — not accessible for $2M–$20M ARR |
The $3,000 startup sprint includes PM, dev, QA, and design hours — the full delivery infrastructure that none of the alternatives above include at this price point.
What does inaction cost?
For most founders, the sprint pays for itself in the first month, if not the first week.
Your SDR earns $80K. Spends 40% on prospecting.
That is $32,000/year of salary spent on work the sprint automates. The sprint costs $3,000 and takes 2 weeks. The math is not complicated.
Your recruiter screens 12 candidates/day at 35 min each.
That is 7 hours of a $70K salary on scheduling and phone screens. The voice agent handles 100+ per day for a fraction of that cost. The sprint produces the agent in 2 weeks.
Your ops lead spends 10 hours/week on manual reporting.
That is 520 hours per year of a $90K salary on dashboards that should refresh automatically. One sprint eliminates the manual work and gives the CEO real-time visibility.
Pricing questions we get every time.
Is the $3,000 price really per sprint, or is it a starting price?
It is the price per sprint. You pay $3,000 for a 2-week sprint. That sprint delivers a working system. If you want to build further (adding features, automating a second bottleneck, or expanding the first system), that is a new sprint at the same $3,000. Each sprint is a self-contained engagement.
What if I need more than one sprint to solve my problem?
We will tell you that in the Day 0 scope call. Some problems are two-sprint problems. We will not scope a 1-sprint engagement if we know it will take two. That is how agencies end up on retainer. We scope to the sprint. If your full solution is two sprints, we tell you that upfront: $6,000, 4 weeks, two defined deliverables.
Do I have to pay upfront?
Yes. Sprints are paid in full before the sprint starts. This is how we can keep the sprint price at $3,000 and avoid the billing overhead of hourly tracking. The payment structure is clean because the scope is clean.
What if I am not satisfied with what ships?
The scope is defined before the sprint starts. If what shipped matches the agreed scope and there is a bug, we fix it. That is what QA is for. If you decide during the sprint that you want something different from what was scoped, that is a scope change conversation, which may extend into a second sprint. We will not bill you for scope changes you did not initiate.
How is the $16,000 enterprise sprint different from a more expensive boutique agency retainer?
The enterprise sprint has a declared scope, a declared team, and a declared 14-day end date. A retainer does not. The enterprise sprint includes Door3 account management, a business analyst, a dedicated PM, a full QA regression cycle, and enhanced documentation, all within a defined sprint, not an open-ended billing relationship. At the end of Day 14, you have a working system and a handoff package, not an ongoing dependency.
Pick your tier. Scope your first sprint.
The scope call is 30 minutes. We will tell you which tier fits your use case and what the sprint will deliver, before you pay anything.