Mangrove root system
PLATE. M / FIELD REFERENCE · RHIZOPHORA v.2026 · METHOD
A senior AI engineering studio · healthcare · fintech · legal · logistics

We build & ship
production AI.
Software you own.

Method Data Science is a senior AI engineering studio. We turn the proprietary expertise that makes your company valuable into production software you own. We take over stalled builds, ship new AI products, and embed as your engineering team across regulated, data-heavy domains where most shops can't operate: clinical AI on live EHRs, legal and fintech SaaS, underwriting and logistics systems.

20+
Production platforms shipped
15
Years in regulated AI
10+
LLM systems in production
4
Regulated verticals
FIG. 01 / WHAT WE DO v.2026
BUILD × RESCUE × EMBED LIVE
BUILD 0→1 · FULL-STACK EMBED FRACTIONAL CTO + TEAM RESCUE TAKEOVER · DEVOPS
DIRECT ENGAGEMENTS / AI engineering and fractional CTO, 2011–2026
GoodRx CVS Deloitte The Mather Group ListReports Photopharmics Flagright Hiatus Wicker Park Group Spyglaz EstateCo Provenance Vrolio Bonus Homes Sage Capital Skin Research Institute Syncro Monitoring GoodRx CVS Deloitte The Mather Group ListReports Photopharmics Flagright Hiatus Wicker Park Group Spyglaz EstateCo Provenance Vrolio Bonus Homes Sage Capital Skin Research Institute Syncro Monitoring

What we do.
Build, rescue, embed.

Method is a senior AI engineering team. We ship new AI products, take over stalled software, and embed as your engineering team inside regulated, data-heavy domains, end to end.

01 / BUILD IT
Build it

Ship new AI products. From an idea or a half-built app to production. LLM pipelines, agents, full-stack, cloud. We have taken products from barebones to App Store and from concept to demo-day.

LLM · FULL-STACK · 0→1
02 / RESCUE IT
Rescue it

Take over stalled software. Offshore team stalled, vendor underdelivered, or an AI app held together with tape. We stabilize production, own the roadmap, and ship. You own the code, end to end.

CODEBASE RESCUE · VENDOR TAKEOVER · DEVOPS
03 / EMBED
Embed

Be your engineering team. A senior, AI-native team that runs as your fractional CTO plus engineers inside regulated, data-heavy domains. We hold the roadmap and ship alongside you.

FRACTIONAL CTO · HIPAA / SOC2 · EMBEDDED TEAM

Who we build for.

One pattern runs through every engagement we love. A domain expert with a proprietary edge, an existing business that funds the work, and no senior engineering team in-house. Three versions of the same person.

01 /the founder
The expert productizing 20 years of judgment

You run a profitable, specialized firm. What makes it valuable is a process only your best people can do. We codify that process into software you own, so it scales past the hours in your day.

PATENT · LEGAL · VALUATION · WEALTH
02 /the operator
The operator whose build stalled

You hired an offshore shop or a contractor, and it stalled or they walked. The software is now business-critical and half-finished. We take over, stabilize production, and ship, inside your compliance constraints.

CODEBASE RESCUE · VENDOR TAKEOVER
03 /the principal
The expert approaching an inflection

A raise, a roll-up, or a new partner is on the horizon. Owned, defensible infrastructure raises the multiple and de-risks the transition. We build the engine, and often stay on to run it.

FRACTIONAL CTO · OWNED IP

One engagement.
Four visible phases.

Start anywhere. The phases are designed to compose. Most engagements run Phase 0 → 1 → 2 over the first months. Phase 3 is for taking over a stalled vendor or offshore team without losing production.

Phase 00
Build / Rescue Diagnosis/ system · gaps · build plan
We map the system, the data, the gaps, and the fastest path to shipping. Whether it's a new build or a stalled one, you get a clear technical assessment and a sequenced plan. Not ready for the full diagnosis? Start with a paid scoping session: a focused call plus a short written build-plan sketch.
$12K–$25K 1–3 weeks · fixed fee or a scoping session from $1K READ MORE →
Phase 01
Embedded Engineering/ fractional CTO + engineers
A senior AI engineering team embedded in your company, fractional CTO plus engineers, building and shipping production software. You own 100% of the IP.
$20K–$75K / mo month-to-month · 30-day notice READ MORE →
Phase 02
Compounding AI/ LLM · agents · knowledge systems
LLM pipelines, agentic workflows, and knowledge systems anchored in your proprietary data. AI that amplifies your advantage instead of eroding it. Runs inside your VPC. No data retention by us.
Fixed-fee modules or embedded retainer READ MORE →
Phase 03
Takeover & Scale/ replace vendor / offshore team
Replace an offshore or vendor team without losing production. We stabilize in the first 60 days, own the roadmap, and ship. If an exit comes, the infrastructure transfers cleanly.
Phase-1 fixed then retainer READ MORE →

Shipped. Not slideware.

Firm-voiced, anonymized summaries, published with client knowledge. The throughline of every one: a domain expert's edge, turned into software they own.

3 Months from a half-built repo to a live, paying app on the App Store
CONSUMER PLATFORM MOBILE PAYMENTS

A stalled build, shipped in three months.

Outcome: Inherited a half-finished codebase and shipped a full consumer streaming app, auth, streaming, search, Stripe payments, and creator payouts, live on the App Store. Full-stack build, owned end to end by the client.

FLUTTER · NESTJS · STRIPE CONNECT · AWS
CLINICAL / HIPAA

Commercial expertise, put into production. Codified a neuro-therapeutics team's targeting judgment into a treatment-ecosystem data layer and a physician-scoring system their commercial team runs on.

HIPAA · SNOWFLAKE · ML SCORING
RIA / MULTI-BILLION AUM

Advisor instinct, turned into a model. Codified which client relationships were at risk into a churn-prediction system, plus the data platform behind it, for a multi-billion-AUM advisory.

PYTHON · XGBOOST · SF DATA CLOUD
REAL ESTATE TECH

The backbone their product runs on. Built the data-engineering and analytics platform across 300M+ rows of property data, owned in-house, on a multi-year engagement.

AWS · DBT · ANALYTICS
ENTERPRISE HEALTHCARE

Clinicians' documentation judgment, productized. Took over from an offshore team and scaled a clinical AI scribe from pilot to enterprise platform. Embedded as fractional CTO plus a dedicated engineering team.

LLM PIPELINE · EHR INT · HIPAA
LEGAL TECH / LAUNCH

A consultant's methodology, now a SaaS product. Codified a legal-industry advisor's client-feedback method into a relationship-intelligence platform for law firms. Full product, security, and roadmap ownership.

LLM · RAG · AGENTIC WORKFLOW
FREIGHT / OPTIMIZATION

A freight operator's playbook, made software. Turned a broker's sales process into an AI-native CRM with voice capture and LLM next-step recommendations. Fixed Phase-1 build, then ongoing roadmap ownership.

PYTHON · OPTIMIZATION · ROUTE ML

How we think about
your business.

Method is run by technologists who came up through field ecology. That lens changes what we look for in your company, and what we refuse to optimize for. Four principles that govern every engagement.

01 Fitness > efficiency

Specialists win the era. Generalists win the extinction.

Dinosaurs dominated the planet for 165 million years. When the environment shifted, the lineages that survived were not the most specialized ones. They were the ones carrying redundancy they didn't strictly need in the good times: dietary flexibility, metabolic range, behavioral plasticity. Companies optimized purely for efficiency are fragile to environment change. Method invests in redundancy and resilience where it matters: data, IP, and institutional memory.

Applied in → Phase 00 / Build / Rescue Diagnosis
02 Moats as ecosystems

A moat is an ecosystem, not a wall.

Walls fail at a single breach. Mature ecosystems keep functioning even when individual species are lost. The remaining web re-routes flows around the gap. We build resilient systems as a network of interdependent assets: proprietary data, codified expertise, hardened infrastructure, institutional workflows. Remove any one and the others still hold.

Applied in → Phase 01 / Embedded Engineering
03 r vs K strategy

Most experts scatter their edge. The job is to concentrate it.

r-strategists spread thin: ship fast, reproduce everywhere, protect nothing. It's the right strategy early. But the value in an expert-led business is concentrated in a few assets: the proprietary process, the data, the judgment. K-conversion is the move that follows. Concentrate investment in the two or three assets that actually compound, codify what's proprietary, and retire the busywork that no longer serves the thesis.

Applied in → Phase 02 / Compounding AI
04 Roots > canopy

Compound the root network, not the canopy.

Canopies get defoliated. Root networks regenerate. Method invests engineering hours in infrastructure, data architecture, and proprietary models that compound quietly over time. The marketing surface, the shiny app, the sales motion all regrow from a healthy root system.

Applied in → Phase 03 / Takeover & Scale
15YRS
Regulated-industry depthHealthcare · Fintech · Wealth · Legal
10+LLM
LLM systems in productionShipped across client products
HIPAABAA
Active covered engagementsRuns inside your VPC · no retention
20+PLT
Production platforms shippedOperator-led & growth-stage

Answered plainly.

Q.01 Who is Method for? +
Operators and domain experts who run an established business and want to turn their proprietary process, the thing that actually makes them valuable, into software they own. You have the expertise, the data, and a business that funds the build. What you don't have is a senior engineering team in-house. That's us. We work primarily in regulated, high-trust verticals: healthcare, legal, fintech, wealth, insurance, and logistics.
Q.02 How is this different from a fractional CTO? +
A fractional CTO gives you technical leadership. Method gives you that plus an embedded team that actually builds: LLM pipelines, data infrastructure, and full-stack product, shipped. Most fractional CTOs advise; we lead and build, because that is how the studio is staffed.
Q.03 What's the smallest way to start? +
Two doors. The lightest is a paid scoping session, from $1K: a focused call plus a short written build-plan sketch. The fuller step is a $12K–$25K Build / Rescue Diagnosis over one to three weeks, where we map your system, the gaps, and the fastest path to shipping, and hand you a sequenced build plan. Stop after either, or continue into embedded engineering with 30-day notice.
Q.04 What does a full engagement cost? +
Month-to-month retainers run $20K–$75K depending on team size and scope: embedded CTO plus dedicated engineering, scaled to the engagement. 30-day notice. Scope adjusts monthly. Phase 0 diagnostics and Phase 3 takeovers are fixed-fee. Method prices transparently and publishes ranges publicly, so you never have to ask.
Q.05 Who owns the IP you create? +
You do. In every case. Method retains zero ownership over client software, methods, or derivative IP. Assignment is executed at kickoff. This is a non-negotiable part of how we work.
Q.06 Do you work under HIPAA / BAA? +
Yes. Multiple active HIPAA-covered engagements with executed Business Associate Agreements. Method operates comfortably inside regulated-data environments and will run inside your VPC if required. No data retention outside your environment by default.
Q.07 Can you replace an offshore or vendor team? +
Yes. Phase 3 Takeover & Scale is designed for exactly this. We stabilize production in the first 60 days, then own the roadmap. Method has replaced a large offshore vendor and two domestic teams without a production incident.
Q.08 Who is on the team? +
Each engagement is led by a senior operator backed by the studio's bench: dedicated LLM, data, and ML engineers assigned per engagement, not subcontracted, plus 15+ years of combined delivery in regulated industries. You work with the same team from kickoff through completion. Team composition is disclosed in the engagement letter.
Q.09 What happens if the lead is unavailable mid-engagement? +
Every engagement letter names a successor with equivalent authority, all IP and documentation is escrowed in your environment as the work happens, and the embedded team is built to continue delivery without lead involvement for up to 30 days. Continuity is a contract term, not a promise.
SHIPPED. NOT SLIDEWARE.
NOW BOOKING BUILD & RESCUE WORK

Tell us what you're
trying to build,
rescue, or ship.

A 30-minute call. No pitch deck. If we can help, we'll tell you. If we can't, we'll tell you that too.

or email contact@methoddatascience.com Newport Beach, CA