Engagement & Pricing

Two models.
One standard of work.

Nearly everything we do runs on a scoped engagement: specified with you, planned, estimated, executed, and settled against the plan. When an objective is binary, we offer a second model. You pay for the outcome, and the price is written before we start.

Model I

The scoped engagement.

Assessments, investigations, standing coverage, training, builds, and any work where the adversary sets the tempo. Five stations, in order, every time. You see the whole line before we leave the first.

  1. Specify

    A private consultation, then a written specification. What the objective is, what it is not, the constraints, the rules of engagement, and how we will both know it is done. You sign it before anything else happens.

    You hold a signed specification.

  2. Plan

    The specification becomes a plan of work. Phases in sequence, the capabilities each phase draws on, the people assigned, the timeline, and what we need from your side to keep it moving.

    You hold a phased plan with named leads.

  3. Estimate

    Every line of the plan carries a rate, and the assumptions behind each are written next to it. Where scope is fixed we quote a fixed fee. Where it cannot be, we quote time and materials under a cap you set. The number is complete before we begin.

    You hold an itemized estimate and its assumptions.

  4. Execute

    Work proceeds against the plan under a single engagement lead who reports to you on a cadence you choose. Nothing outside the specification happens without a written change, priced the same way, approved by you first.

    You hold a standing line to the lead and a running ledger.

  5. Deliver

    Findings, evidence, hardware, code, or people in place: whatever the specification named, handed over and walked through in a closed-door debrief. Nothing is summarized that you would rather see in full.

    You hold the deliverables and the debrief record.

Fixed fee

When the scope can be drawn tight. One figure, no drift.

Time & materials, capped

When the adversary sets the tempo. Rates per capability, a ceiling you set.

Retainer

Standing coverage and priority response, at rates fixed for the term.

Some objectives are binary. Either we got in or we did not. Either the asset came home or it did not. For those, you can pay for the result.

Model II The Mercenary Model

The outcome model.

No hourly rates. No line items. No change orders. One schedule of outcomes and the figure attached to each, signed before we start. The invoice depends on what we deliver and on nothing else.

Priced by depth

Red team and adversary emulation

Before the engagement we agree what would count as getting in, and how far in is worth what. Each rung on the ladder carries its own figure. You pay for the deepest rung we reach. If we are stopped at the door, you owe nothing, and you have learned that the door holds.

  1. 0 Held at the door Every attempt defeated within the window. Nothing owed
  2. I Perimeter breached Past the first control you were relying on. Set at signature
  3. II Foothold A first system held, physical or digital. Set at signature
  4. III Inside the network Free movement between internal systems. Set at signature
  5. IV Privileged control Administrative authority over the estate. Set at signature
  6. V Objective taken The named data, system, or room, in hand. Set at signature

Base plus mission complete

Asset recovery, delivery, and location

Putting people and equipment in motion has a cost whether or not the mission closes. A base rate covers that deployment. The larger share, the mission-complete rate, is released only when the outcome is verified against the standard we agreed in writing.

Complete means
The asset in your custody, the delivery signed for, the person located to the standard of proof you named.
If it does not close
You have paid the base rate and nothing more. Our time past that point is ours to absorb.

Outcomes we have priced under this model

  • Perimeter breached
  • Objective data taken
  • Asset recovered
  • Device delivered
  • Personnel located
  • Leak traced to source
  • Footprint erased

Work on the outcome model is accepted at our discretion after a feasibility assessment, and, like everything Starling Intel does, is conducted under appropriate authority and lawful mandate. The definition of complete, the verification standard, and every figure on the schedule are agreed in writing before signature and do not move afterward.

Side by side

Which model the work belongs to.

Model I Scoped Model II Outcome
What you pay for The work, against a plan you approved. The result, against a schedule you signed.
How the price is set Itemized per capability at the estimate. One figure per outcome, fixed at signature.
Who carries the risk Shared. Scope shapes cost, and you steer both. Ours. Effort without outcome is billed to no one.
Best suited to Open-ended, advisory, standing, and build work. Binary objectives with a verifiable end state.
Share of our work Nearly all of it. By exception, after feasibility.

Bring us the problem.

We will tell you which model it belongs to, and what it will cost to run it there.

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