Do you ever take equity instead of payment?

No. We work for cash, billed against milestones or on a retainer, the same as any other vendor. That’s not a judgment on equity deals in general. It’s that we’re a services business with engineers and marketers to pay every month, not an investment fund, and taking equity in a pre-revenue company in exchange for real engineering hours is a bet we’re not set up to make responsibly.

If budget is the actual constraint, say so. We’re generally far more flexible on scope — building less, shipping a real MVP instead of the full vision — than we are on how we get paid for the work we do take on.