About BinaryScaler
A refraction of one problem into its parts
We are a technology and digital engineering partner for companies where the next release genuinely matters. Around sixty people across San Francisco, London and Singapore.
BinaryScaler was founded in 2016 by four engineers who had spent the previous decade being brought in to rescue projects. The pattern was consistent enough to be depressing: the technology was rarely the problem, and by the time anyone called, the expensive decisions had already been made.
So we built the firm around being there earlier and saying the difficult thing sooner. Discovery is a fixed-price engagement precisely so we can afford to conclude that you should not build the thing. It happens more often than the industry admits.
We work in squads, we ship in small batches, and we treat handover as a phase with deliverables rather than a final email. That last part costs us renewal revenue, which is the clearest evidence we mean it.
People
Across three offices
Founded
By four engineers, still involved
Client extension rate
Engagements continued beyond initial scope
Offices
San Francisco, London, Singapore
Values
What we hold ourselves to
Specific enough that you could catch us failing at them, which is the only kind worth publishing.
Say the difficult thing early
If an estate is worse than the brief suggested, or a use case will not pay back, we say so in week one. Delivering a project we know is wrong is the more expensive kind of politeness.
Leave nothing hostage
Documentation, runbooks and pairing are contractual deliverables. Our commercial interest in being hard to replace is real, and we have decided not to act on it.
Measure, then argue
Opinions about performance, quality and cost are cheap. We instrument first, so the disagreement is about what the number means rather than what it is.
Boring where it counts
Novel technology in the parts that make money is a decision that needs defending. We save the interesting choices for where they change an outcome.
Small batches, always
Large releases concentrate risk and hide causation. Everything we build ships in pieces small enough to reverse without a meeting.
The work is the credential
We would rather show you a system in production than a certification. Every claim on this site is one we can point at.
Evidence
The work behind the claims
Come and see whether we are right for this
Thirty minutes with an engineer. We will tell you on the call if the answer is no.