Loopt: AI for container terminal operations
Loopt's AI product replaces manual yard planning. According to Loopt, the result was −27% unproductive moves and +21% productivity.
Fractional Founding Engineer
Ship your product without hiring a team. One senior product engineer, accountable end to end.
For founders without a CTO. I take your product from scope to production at a fixed price, and you talk directly to the person building it.
- Scoping call
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Free
- Product Sprint
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US$ 3,000
- MVP Core
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from US$ 15,000
You have a product to ship and no one to own the build.
Hiring a founding engineer takes months and a real slice of equity. Agencies quote by the hour and staff your project with whoever is free. You need one person who owns it.
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You need a v1 before the next raise.
Investors want usage, not a deck. I take your idea from scope to a product real users log into.
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You don't have a CTO yet.
I own the build until you're ready to hire, and help you hire your first engineer when it's time.
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Your prototype won't survive real users.
AI prototyping tools (Lovable, Bolt and the like) got you to a demo. Production needs security, monitoring and an owner.
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Agencies put layers between you and the code.
No account manager, no handoffs. You talk to the person writing the code, every week.
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You want AI where it moves a metric.
LLMs, RAG or agents, scoped to a measurable outcome, not bolted on for the pitch deck.
Public pricing. Fixed scope. One step at a time.
You know the price before you sign. Every step ends with something you own, and you decide whether to take the next one. The first call is free and may end with "don't build software yet."
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Scoping call
Free
A call to understand the problem and whether it's worth building now.
What's included
- Your goal, users and constraints
- Which step fits, with a price range
- What I'd build first, and what I'd skip
- A straight answer if you shouldn't build yet
Payment: No cost, no commitment.
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Product Sprint
US$ 3,000
A build-ready plan for your v1, with a fixed price attached.
Fully credited to your MVP
What's included
- Problem and success metric, agreed in writing
- MVP scope with acceptance criteria and exclusions
- Technical architecture
- Clickable prototype of the core flow
- Milestone plan with a fixed MVP price
Payment: 100% upfront.
Fully credited toward your MVP if you sign within 30 days. The deliverables are yours either way.
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or Production-Ready
US$ 7,000
For when you already have a prototype and need it in production.
What's included
- Security audit: auth, row-level access, secrets
- Critical fixes and tests for the core flow
- CI/CD, staging and production in your cloud
- Monitoring, alerts and backups
- Handoff documentation
Payment: 50% at kickoff, 50% on delivery.
No rewrite and no new features; those go into an MVP or Evolution.
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MVP Core
from US$ 15,000
Your product in production, built to the scope from the Sprint.
What's included
- 1 core user journey, end to end
- Up to 2 user roles and 2 integrations
- Responsive web app with auth and admin
- Deployment, monitoring and alerts
- 60-day bug warranty
Payment: 40% at signing, 30% at staging beta, 30% at go-live.
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or MVP Plus
Custom quote
Everything in Core, plus more roles, more integrations and one big feature.
What's included
- Everything in MVP Core
- Up to 3 user roles and 4 integrations
- Plus one: AI (LLM, RAG or agent), payments or analytics
- 60-day bug warranty
Payment: 40% at signing, 30% at staging beta, 30% at go-live.
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Product Evolution
from US$ 1,500/mo
After launch, the same engineer keeps owning your product.
What's included
- Monitoring, fixes and security updates
- New features from a prioritized backlog
- Capped monthly hours, no surprise invoices
Payment: Monthly, 100% upfront.
| Plan | Hours/mo | Price/mo |
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| Essential Monitoring, fixes, security updates and one monthly call. | ~10 h | US$ 1,500 |
| Evolution Essential plus a shipped feature every two weeks. | ~25 h | US$ 4,000 |
| Technical partner Evolution plus roadmap, fundraising support and your first hire. | ~45 h | US$ 7,000 |
Billed monthly in advance, 3-month minimum. Unused hours don't roll over. Extra hours: US$ 160/h.
The rules, written into the contract.
Software projects fail on scope that grows without a price, on dependence on whoever built it, and on payments that don't track delivery. These rules exist for that.
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60-day bug warranty.
After go-live, I fix anything that doesn't meet the acceptance criteria at no cost. New features aren't bugs: they go to Evolution or a change order.
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Fixed scope, exclusions in writing.
The Sprint defines what's in and what's out. Changes mid-project become a priced change order, or a one-for-one swap at no cost.
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Your code and cloud from day one.
The repo, database and infrastructure live in your accounts from the start. IP transfers to you on final payment.
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Paid by milestone.
You pay per delivered stage. The next stage starts once the previous one is paid. No surprises on either side.
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One MVP at a time.
I never run two MVPs at once. When I take your project, it has my full attention.
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A demo every week.
Every week you see working software, not slides. Course corrections happen early.
Out of scope on every project, unless agreed separately
- Native iOS/Android apps (I build web or PWA; native is extra)
- Regulated compliance (PCI, HIPAA) and formal security audits
- Migrating more than one legacy data source
- Content, marketing and SEO
- 24/7 support
- Cloud, API and license costs (billed to your own accounts)
- Training custom ML models (MVP Plus uses APIs and RAG)
Who builds it: Henrique Pett
Since 2021 I've worked across almost every role in a data and AI product: ML research, full stack, data science, ML engineering and product management. On an AI product for container terminal operations, I built the model as the ML engineer, then took on the PM role while still writing production code.
I'm a generalist by design. I go deep enough in each layer to ship it and keep it running, and I know when a problem needs a specialist. I've worked remotely, in English, at a consultancy serving European companies. I'm in São Paulo (UTC−3), which overlaps US and European hours.
What I've built
Credit at Bom.Capital
In my own account, as the fintech's first data hire, I built the credit analysis model: a process that took 48 hours on average dropped to under 2 hours.
My own account
My own product: Ascende
An app with an AI advisor that logs money, workouts and sleep from one sentence. Built by me, end to end.
I wrote "How to Build ML Model Training Pipeline" for the neptune.ai blog (2023).
"My own account" marks a result I measured or followed myself, with no external publication.
How one engineer covers the whole product
I work AI-native: coding agents write and review alongside me, and tests and infrastructure are automated from week one. That frees my time for the decisions that need judgment.
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Coding agents, human review.
I use AI agents to write, test and refactor. Every line that reaches production goes through my review and the test suite.
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Automated tests and deploys.
From the start: tests on the core flow, automated deploys, staging separate from production, monitoring with alerts.
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Decisions in writing.
Architecture decisions, runbooks and handoff docs live in the repo. Any engineer can pick up where I left off.
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Specialists when the project needs one.
Pentesting, brand design, native mobile or legal: I bring in a specialist, quoted separately and agreed with you first.
You always talk to me. No account manager, no handoffs.
When I'm not the right fit
Better to say it now than halfway through the project.
- You need native iOS and Android apps as the core product.
- You're in regulated compliance (PCI, HIPAA) without a domain specialist on board.
- You want staff augmentation or developers billed by the hour.
- You're choosing on the lowest hourly rate. Others will win that, and I don't compete on it.
- You expect any product done in 2 weeks. Reliable software takes the time its scope needs.
Frequently asked questions
How long does it take?
The Sprint takes 2 weeks and Production-Ready 2 to 3. An MVP Core goes live in 6 to 7 weeks, an MVP Plus in 8 to 10. The milestone schedule comes out of the Sprint, along with the fixed price.
Who owns the code?
You do. The repo, database and cloud live in your accounts from day one, and IP transfers to you on final payment. Sprint deliverables are yours even if you don't continue to the MVP.
You're one person. What if you become unavailable?
Your code, repo and cloud live in your accounts from day one, and documentation is written throughout the project, not at the end, so any senior developer can take over. Schedules carry a 15–20% buffer. And if the project can't continue, you get a pro-rata refund for anything paid and not delivered.
Why not hire an agency, or a full-time engineer?
An agency makes sense if you need a large team for the long haul. A full-time hire makes sense once the product has traction. Before that, you get one senior engineer who owns the build, at a fixed price set after the Sprint.
AI prototyping tools (Lovable, Bolt and the like) already do this. Why pay you?
They get you a prototype, and that's often a great start. I deliver production: protected data, auth, integrations, deployment, monitoring, and someone accountable when it breaks. If you already have the prototype, that's Production-Ready.
Will you sign an NDA and a DPA?
Yes to both. I can sign the NDA before the first call. In your project, you are the controller of your product's data and appoint your own DPO where required; I act as your processor, under your instructions, and the DPA puts that in writing. Personal data stays in infrastructure under your accounts.
How does billing work outside Brazil?
I invoice in USD from my Brazilian company, and you pay by international bank transfer. I work B2B only: EU companies need a VAT ID (reverse charge applies), and US companies receive a W-8BEN-E from me.
What happens after launch?
For 60 days I fix bugs at no cost. After that, you can carry on with the docs in your repo, or keep me on through Product Evolution, with capped monthly hours.
Start with a 45-minute call.
Tell me what you're building. I'll tell you honestly whether to build it now, which step fits and what it costs. If the answer is "not yet", you'll hear that too.
- Prefer email? Write to henriquepett@gmail.com
- Or message me on LinkedIn