How we actually manage engineering teams. Operator-led, not consultant-led. Every rule on this page exists because we hit the wall without it — shipping broken releases, watching teams grind against brittle code, losing senior engineers to burnout. This is what we wish someone had handed us ten years ago.
Zero
Technical Debt Tolerated
2024/25
Stack By Default
AI Copilot
Standard On Every Desk
Hiring great engineers is half the job. The other half is the system around them — how work gets defined, paid, and made visible. These four mechanisms are built into every Timofi engagement.
Break work into paid stages. Escrow protects both sides — engineers know they will be paid before they start, clients know nothing ships before it is accepted.
Two-minute daily videos keep clients in the loop without ten-minute meetings. Engineers earn bonuses for keeping the cadence — clients earn confidence.
Transparent time tracking with AI activity classification. Designed to build trust, not surveil — every hour logged is an hour the client can see and the engineer is paid for.
Automatic bonus payouts when KPIs are hit. The right incentive structure is the most effective long-term productivity tool we know — and it is built into the platform.
AI-classified
screenshot activity
10–30%
performance bonus pool
Escrow
protects both sides
You cannot hire your way out of a bad culture — and you cannot out-process a great one. These eight practices are how we actually keep engineers who could work anywhere.
Pay through Timofi (10%) and get the full management suite. Or manage your own way — we don't lock you in.
A milestone is a project. Stages are deliverables within it, each with a percentage of the total. They propose. You approve. They deliver. You only pay when satisfied.
Describe what you need. Min $50 per milestone, $10 per stage.
They propose their approach. You approve. They deliver.
Release payment only when satisfied. Escrow protects both sides.
Impressed? Add more stages or hire full-time. If not, you're out $10.