App takeover
Your app works. Let's make it ready for real users.
We take over founder apps that stalled — abandoned, half-finished or AI-built — and bring them to production: secure, approved by Apple and Google, payments working.
Where founders usually are when they call us
The app exists and mostly runs. What is missing is the last, least visible part: the work that lets strangers sign up, pay and trust it.
My developer left.
The person who knew the code is gone, the documentation is thin and nobody is sure how deploys work. We pick up an unfamiliar codebase within days and write down what we find, so the knowledge stops living in one head.
It's 80% done.
The demo works, but sign-up edge cases, payments, error handling and the release build were never finished. That last 20% is where most of the risk sits, and it is what we scope precisely before we quote the sprint.
I built it with an AI tool.
Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Cursor or FlutterFlow got you to a working product. We check what those tools usually leave open — data access rules, keys in the client, payment webhooks — and fix it without throwing your work away.
The store rejected it, or a deadline is coming.
A rejection from App Review, a Google Play target API warning or a framework reaching end of life. We read the actual rejection or policy notice, fix what it asks for and resubmit.
How it works: call, audit, sprint, care
Four steps, each with a clear scope. The first one is free, and you can stop after any of them and keep everything we produced.
1. Free 30-minute call
We talk through where the app is stuck — a store rejection, a developer who left, payments, crashes — and whether an audit makes sense. We do not open the code or the repository on the call, and we do not promise a fix on it.
2. Code audit — fixed price from $750, report in 5 working days
We read the code, the infrastructure and the store accounts, then deliver a written report: what builds, what breaks, what is risky, what can wait, and a priced plan for the sprint. If you continue with us within 30 days, the audit fee is credited in full against the work.
3. Production sprint — fixed price, 2–4 weeks
We finish the missing parts, close the security gaps, set up monitoring and backups, and ship the release to the App Store, Google Play and the web. The scope comes straight from the audit, so the price is fixed before work starts.
4. Care — monthly
After launch the app keeps needing attention: OS and SDK updates, store policy deadlines, dependency upgrades, monitoring and a block of hours for small changes. Care covers that on a monthly basis.
What the code audit checks
Our code audit services are built for software project rescue, not for a compliance certificate. Each item ends in a finding with a severity and a fix estimate.
- Authentication and data access: who can read and change which records, including admin paths and APIs the app never calls itself.
- Secrets: API keys, service credentials and signing keys — where they live, who has them, and whether any ship inside the app or the web bundle.
- Store readiness: signing, target SDK, privacy disclosures, account deletion, review notes and demo accounts.
- Payments and reconciliation: checkout, subscriptions, webhooks, refunds, and whether what the payment provider says matches what the app grants.
- Backups and restore: whether backups exist and whether a restore has ever actually been tested.
- Monitoring: crash reporting, error tracking, uptime checks and who gets alerted.
- Dependency risk: outdated frameworks, end-of-life runtimes and packages with known vulnerabilities.
What we need to start the audit
Read-only access to the repository is enough. For the stores, a Developer or Viewer role in App Store Connect and Google Play Console lets us see builds, rejections and policy warnings without touching anything. A short list of the problems you already know about saves time.
You keep ownership of the code, the cloud accounts and the store listings throughout. We work inside your accounts rather than moving your app into ours.
Deadlines that are close right now
Dates from the official sources, checked on September 27, 2026.
- Google Play target API 36
- New apps and app updates must target Android 16 (API level 36) or higher by August 31, 2026. Developers can request an extension to November 1, 2026. Google Play Console Help: Target API level requirements for Google Play apps
- Rails 8.0 end of security support
- Rails 8.0.x receives security fixes until November 7, 2026. Ruby on Rails: Maintenance policy
- PHP 8.2 end of security support
- PHP 8.2 receives security support until December 31, 2026. PHP: Supported versions
Apps we build and run together with their founders
We deploy them, monitor them and are on call for them.
Dilizy — a dealer platform
A dealer platform taking subscription payments. Flutter apps, a Laravel backend and Stripe subscriptions, running in production.
Qovo — a two-sided marketplace
A marketplace with split payouts through Stripe Connect. A Ruby on Rails backend and Flutter apps, running in production.
Stacks we work in
Flutter, Laravel and PHP, Ruby on Rails, Vue, PostgreSQL, Stripe and Stripe Connect, Docker and CI/CD pipelines are what we run every day. That list is evidence of depth, not a limit: the audit starts from your code as it is, whatever it was built with.
Questions founders ask before a takeover
Will you want to rewrite everything?
Only if the audit shows a rewrite is cheaper than fixing what exists, and then the report explains why with specifics. In most takeovers the right move is to keep the working parts and fix the risky ones.
Who owns the code and the accounts?
You do. The repository, cloud accounts, store listings and payment accounts stay in your name. We are added as members with the access the work requires and removed when you want.
What if the old developer won't hand over access?
Tell us what you still control — the domain, the store accounts, the cloud billing account, the payment account. Usually one of them is enough to recover the rest, and the audit plan starts with getting that access back.
Can you work with an AI-built codebase?
Yes. Apps generated with Lovable, Bolt, Replit, Cursor or FlutterFlow are ordinary code underneath. We audit them the same way, with extra attention to database access rules and keys in the client.
How much does it cost?
The first call is free and takes 30 minutes; we do not review code on it. The audit is a fixed price from $750, agreed before it starts, with the written report in 5 working days. If you continue with the production sprint within 30 days, the audit fee is credited in full against it. The sprint is priced from what the audit finds, and care after launch starts at $990/month.
How does payment work?
Fixed-price milestones, each funded before the work on it starts. The audit is one milestone; the sprint is priced from the audit findings; care is billed monthly.
Next step
30 minutes with an engineer, not a sales rep. You leave knowing what we'd fix first — or that you don't need us.
The first call is free. The audit is a fixed price from $750, credited against the sprint if you continue within 30 days.
Sources
- Google Play Console Help: Target API level requirements for Google Play apps
- Ruby on Rails: Maintenance policy
- PHP: Supported versions
Checked September 27, 2026.