→ STUDIO PROFILE
FY2026 / EDITION V
EST. READ — 8 MIN
A FEATURE
→ THE STUDIO
A small studio,
built around an unusual idea —
that judgment is the product.
Tech House is a veteran-led design and engineering studio based in the DMV, serving clients nationwide. We work with five clients per year — by design — on the systems they cannot afford to get wrong.
→ 01 / THE THESIS
WHY THIS STUDIO EXISTS.
Tech House was founded on the conviction that the best work happens when the practitioner and the engineer are the same person.
Most agencies separate the people who understand the problem from the people who build the solution. That separation is the source of nearly every failed project — the requirements doc that mistranslates the brief, the developer who solves the wrong problem elegantly, the post-launch realization that the tool no one uses cost six figures.
We work the way the studios that produced the best work of the twentieth century worked — small, founder-led, high-context, deliberately limited in roster. Five engagements per year, chosen for fit. The studio does not scale because the studio is not supposed to scale. Judgment does not scale.
→ 02 / OPERATING PRINCIPLES
FOUR RULES.
Non-negotiable. They are how we know whether the work is finished.
01
FEWER, BETTER.
Five engagements per year.
A roster small enough that every engagement gets the founder's direct attention. We turn down more work than we take.
02
DOCTRINE BEFORE TOOLS.
Strategy is a precondition, not a deliverable.
No engagement begins until we agree on what success looks like, what the work is for, and what we are willing to leave out.
03
SHIP TO LAST.
Production-grade or not at all.
Every system we ship is built to be picked up, audited, and extended by whoever inherits it. We optimize for the next operator, not the current sprint.
04
DISCRETION IS A FEATURE.
What we ship is the work. What we say about it is the client's call.
A meaningful share of our work is unattributable. We measure the studio's success in client outcomes, not portfolio screenshots.
→ 03 / THE FOUNDER
A PROFILE
In his words.
“I started this studio because the work I cared about — the kind that holds up under pressure — was almost always built by people who had been the user first.”
— ERIC, FOUNDER
FOUNDER
ERIC
Practitioner, engineer, founder.
→ DOMICILE
DMV — MD / VA / DC
Serving nationwide
→ DISCIPLINES
Intelligence,
full-stack engineering,
product strategy
→ CREDENTIALS
FY27 + READY
SDVOSB-TRACK
CAGE / SAM
I came to this work the long way around. After nearly two decades in service — most of it at the intersection of intelligence analysis, digital forensics, and the kind of tactical engineering you only learn by doing it under deadline — I started writing software because the tools I was being handed kept failing in ways that mattered.
I built Tech House because I wanted to apply that same operational discipline to commercial work. The brands and founders I work with now share something with the people I served alongside: they cannot afford for the system to fail at the moment they need it. The aesthetics are different. The standard is the same.
My background gives me an unusual perspective on what makes software actually work in the field. It also gives me a strong opinion about what a small studio should never do — overcommit, overstaff, overpromise. The work I am proudest of is almost always the work I said no to first, and only took on once I understood exactly what was being asked.
If you have a system you cannot afford to get wrong, I would like to hear about it.
→ 04 / THE TIMELINE
A BRIEF HISTORY.
How we got here, and where we are headed.
MMXIV
FOUNDED
Tech House established.
Founded as a digital practice serving small commercial clients while the founder remained on active duty.
MMXIX
EXPANSION
From projects to partnerships.
The studio expands from one-off project work into recurring engagements and long-term advisory across hospitality, industrial, and SaaS clients.
MMXXIII
ENTERPRISE
First enterprise engagement.
A CTO equity role at Valet Technologies anchors the studio's move into product and platform work at scale.
MMXXV
REPOSITION
Studio narrows to five engagements per year.
Roster intentionally reduced. Pricing repositioned. Studio rebrands around the editorial-luxury thesis. SDVOSB and CAGE / SAM registration completed in preparation for cleared work.
MMXXVI
→ CURRENT
Active duty concludes. SleuthNet enters private beta.
The founder transitions out of active service. SleuthNet — an intelligence platform built for Arc Light Technologies — opens to a private beta cohort. The studio centers operations in the DMV.
MMXXVII +
FORWARD
Cleared engagements open.
SDVOSB-track contracting opens to federal primes and defense partners. Studio continues to operate at five engagements per year, with cleared and commercial work running on parallel tracks.
→ 05 / THE COMPACT
What you can expect when you work with us.
A founder who answers his own email. A response within forty-eight hours. A first conversation that ends with either a clear yes, a clear no, or a clear referral to someone better suited. We do not write proposals to win work; we write proposals to do the work.
→ INITIATE
If you have a system you cannot afford to get wrong —
we should talk.