The most common project rescue I get hired for goes like this. A founder pays an agency $25,000 for a Shopify build. The pitch was given by a senior partner with twelve years of experience. The kickoff call was with a project manager. The Looms came from someone they’ve never met. The codebase, when I open it, looks like it was written by someone who has been doing this for six months.
That’s because it was.
This isn’t a slight on juniors. Every senior was a junior once. The problem is the bait-and-switch. The pitch deck shows the partner’s portfolio. The work is done by someone half their experience, paid a fifth of their day rate. The margin in between is the agency’s business model.
If you want to filter for this in your discovery call, ask one question:
“Who, specifically, will be writing my code, and can I see the last three projects they personally shipped?”
Watch what happens. A serious agency will name a person and send portfolio links within a day. A wobbling one will talk about “our team approach” and “our standardized methodology.” That’s the answer.
The freelancer side has the opposite problem — sometimes the person who pitches is the only person who codes, which is great, but you also need to know whether they’re still actively shipping or have drifted into reseller mode, subcontracting to overseas teams without telling you. Same question, same filter: show me the last three things you personally shipped.
The answer to that question costs nothing to ask, and it’s the cheapest insurance policy in the buying process.