Contact

Tell me what is slow, fragile or frightening to deploy

I read and answer every message myself, usually within one working day. If I am not the right person for the problem, I will say so and try to point you at someone who is.

Booking now for July 2025 — two slots per quarter

Send a message

Name

Company (optional)

What is this about?

What is going on?

Roughly 40 characters minimum. Include numbers if you have them: latency, cost, incident frequency.

Budget range (optional, helps me answer honestly)

I agree that this message and my email address may be stored so Elliot can reply. Nothing is added to a mailing list and nothing is shared. See the privacy page.

What happens next

Within one working day

A reply from me, not an autoresponder

Either "here is how I would approach this" or "I am not the right person, try X". Both are useful; neither takes long.
Then, if it looks like a fit

A thirty-minute call

Plain agenda: the symptom, the constraint, and whether a paid one-week diagnosis makes sense. No slide deck, no mutual evaluation theatre.
After the call

A written diagnosis, or a polite no

If we go ahead, you get a document with the findings, three options and honest trade-offs. If not, you get a short note saying why.

hello@elliotvance.dev

Calendar

30-minute intro call

Send a message first and I will share a booking link. Keeps the calendar honest.

Where

Rotterdam, Netherlands

CET / CEST · working with teams across Europe, remote by default

Local time

CET

I do not answer email between 19:00 and 08:00, and not at weekends.

The symptom in numbers if you have them
What has already been tried, and what it changed
Whether this is urgent or merely important
Who else needs to agree before work starts
Any hard deadline you are working towards

Do you work with teams outside the Netherlands?

Yes — most of my work is remote, and has been since 2020. I am in CET, which overlaps well with the rest of Europe and gives a decent morning window with North America. I travel for a kickoff and for anything where being in the room genuinely helps.

What does the one-week diagnosis actually produce?

A written document: what is slow or fragile, what it costs you in money or engineer time, three options with trade-offs, and a recommendation. It is a fixed fee, and there is no obligation to continue afterwards. Roughly half the time the recommendation is that the client does not need me.

Do you take on greenfield builds?

Rarely, and I will push back first. In my experience most "we need to rewrite this" problems are three targeted changes and a deleted feature flag. If a rebuild genuinely is the answer, I will say so — but I would rather be the second opinion than the first hire.

What are your rates?

Day rate for diagnosis and advisory work, fixed price for defined increments. I quote after the intro call, never before, because the range is too wide to be useful. Non-profits and open-source projects get a different number — ask.

Can you sign an NDA?

Yes, if needed. Send yours with the first message and I will read it before the call rather than during it.