App Rescue

App Rescue is an emergency service for software projects that are failing but contain valuable IP, code, or business logic worth saving. You need app rescue when you've spent $50k-$500k but can't launch, your previous team abandoned the project, customers are experiencing critical bugs, or technical debt is preventing any forward progress. We triage your situation in 72 hours with a brutally honest assessment: what's salvageable, what needs rebuilding, realistic timeline, and total cost. Most rescues stabilize critical issues within 2-6 weeks, with full modernization taking 2-4 months depending on complexity. Our senior-only teams have rescued 40+ failed projects across 18 industries, with a 95% success rate. We fix production-blocking bugs first, patch security vulnerabilities, stabilize architecture, add test coverage, and prepare your app for launch—all while being transparent about what's worth saving versus rebuilding.

Hire app rescue when you're: (1) unable to launch despite significant investment ($50k-$500k), (2) experiencing production issues causing customer churn or revenue loss, (3) inheriting codebases from departed developers or failed agency projects, (4) facing technical debt preventing any forward progress, (5) dealing with flaky builds and broken CI/CD blocking deployments, or (6) needing honest assessment of whether to rescue or rebuild. The ideal time is before you've burned through all runway or lost critical team members. Early intervention saves money and preserves team morale. If you're asking 'should I rescue or rebuild?', that's the perfect time for our Emergency Triage service ($5k-$10k, 72 hours) to get an honest assessment with ROI analysis.

App Rescue typically costs 30-50% of rebuilding equivalent functionality from scratch. Emergency Triage: $5k-$10k (credited toward rescue if you proceed) for 72-hour assessment and recommendation. Sprint Rescue: from $15k for stabilization and critical fixes over 2-6 weeks. Complete Rescue: from $25k for full modernization over 2-4 months. Pricing depends on complexity and scope. Rebuild estimate: $200k-$1M+ depending on complexity and team. Real example: rescuing a failed SaaS MVP cost $85k over 10 weeks. Rebuilding would have cost $250k+ and taken 12-18 months, plus lost time-to-market. Hidden costs of continuing to struggle: $50k-$200k/year in lost engineering productivity (40% time on technical debt vs. features), customer churn from bugs and poor UX, inability to hire quality developers, and opportunity cost of delayed launches. The decision isn't just rescue vs. rebuild cost—it's rescue vs. rebuild vs. eventual total failure. We quantify all three scenarios in your triage report.

Typical deliverables include: (1) Emergency Technical Audit with salvage vs. rebuild analysis and prioritized issue list, (2) Critical Bug Elimination Sprint fixing production blockers and security vulnerabilities, (3) Architecture Stabilization with refactored code and improved maintainability, (4) Test Coverage & CI/CD Rescue with reliable deployment pipeline, (5) Performance & Security Hardening with optimized performance and remediated vulnerabilities, (6) Growth-Ready Handoff with documentation, knowledge transfer, and support plan, (7) Technical Debt Roadmap for remaining items with prioritization, and (8) Post-Rescue Support Plan with flexible arrangements for ongoing development. All deliverables are production-ready, fully documented, and include knowledge transfer to your team. You own all code and IP even if rescue is incomplete.

App Rescue typically takes 2-8 weeks for stabilization, 2-4 months for complete rescue depending on scope and complexity. Emergency Triage: 72 hours for assessment and recommendation. Sprint Rescue: 2-6 weeks to stabilize critical bugs, patch security, and reach deployable state. Complete Rescue: 2-4 months for full modernization including architecture refactoring, comprehensive testing, and launch preparation. Timeline depends on codebase size (100k+ lines extends timeline), documentation availability (missing docs extend timeline), infrastructure complexity (microservices extend timeline), regulatory requirements (HIPAA, SOC2, PCI extend timeline), and scope (stabilization only vs. full modernization). Factors that shorten timeline: well-scoped problem area, some documentation exists, current team available for knowledge transfer, or focused on stabilization only. We provide realistic timeline estimates in the triage phase—no overpromising. Most rescue clients care more about certainty (will it actually be done in 8 weeks?) than speed (could it be done in 6?). We deliver on our estimates.

StepInsight differentiates through: (1) senior-only teams (10+ years experience) who've seen every disaster pattern, (2) brutal honesty in triage—we'll tell you if rebuilding is smarter than rescuing, (3) proven rescue process refined over 40+ rescue projects with 95% success rate, (4) focus on business outcomes not perfect code—we ship something working, not something perfect, and (5) long-term relationships—70% of rescue clients continue with us for ongoing development. We deliver production-ready apps with proper documentation and knowledge transfer, not quick fixes that create new technical debt. Regular developers are great for feature development. Rescue requires battle-tested experience with code disasters. We've rescued apps built with outdated technologies, apps with no documentation, apps in production with active users, and apps where the original developers are gone. We know how to stabilize disasters quickly without making them worse.

Most 'disaster' apps are salvageable if 50%+ of the codebase, architecture, or business logic is sound. Red flags that suggest rebuild: fundamentally wrong architecture (built as monolith but needs microservices, or vice versa), <30% code quality score, impossible to test or deploy, or shifting business model makes current approach obsolete. Green flags that suggest rescue: valuable IP or integrations worth preserving, core business logic is sound even if implementation is messy, architectural problems are localized not systemic, or time/budget pressure favors incremental improvement. Our Emergency Triage service ($5k-$10k, 72 hours) gives you honest assessment with ROI analysis: rescue cost and timeline versus rebuild cost and timeline. We'll tell you if rebuilding is smarter—we'd rather lose a project than waste your money on a doomed rescue. In 15 years, about 70% of apps we've evaluated are worth rescuing, 20% are borderline (could go either way), and 10% should be rebuilt. The triage audit clarifies which category you're in.

Regular developers haven't seen the disaster patterns we have. App rescue requires different skills than greenfield development. Our team is senior-only (10+ years experience), has rescued 40+ failed projects, and knows every disaster pattern: tight coupling and no separation of concerns, flaky tests and broken CI/CD, performance problems and N+1 queries, security vulnerabilities from inexperienced developers, infrastructure held together with manual processes, and missing documentation and departed teams. We triage systematically: identify critical versus important versus nice-to-have, fix root causes not just symptoms, and balance speed with quality (don't create new technical debt). We're brutally honest: tell you what's salvageable and what isn't, explain tradeoffs clearly (rescue vs. rebuild vs. phased approach), and admit when something is outside our expertise. Most importantly, we've done this before—we know how to stabilize a disaster quickly without making it worse. Regular developers are great for feature development. Rescue requires battle-tested experience with code disasters.

Yes, with caveats. Our team has experience with legacy and modern stacks: Frontend: React, Angular, Vue, jQuery, old ASP.NET, PHP, Ruby on Rails. Backend: Node.js, Python, Java, .NET, Go, PHP, Ruby. Databases: PostgreSQL, MySQL, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle. Mobile: React Native, Flutter, native iOS/Swift, native Android/Kotlin, old Cordova/PhoneGap apps. Infrastructure: AWS, Azure, GCP, Heroku, old VPS/bare metal setups. If your tech is truly obscure (old Cold Fusion, Visual Basic, proprietary frameworks), we'll tell you in triage whether rescue makes sense or migration to modern stack is smarter. Sometimes the right answer is gradual migration: rescue the immediate crisis in current tech, then migrate incrementally to modern stack while maintaining uptime. We've done lift-and-shift migrations from old frameworks to modern equivalents (Rails to Node, Angular to React, monolith to serverless) as part of rescue projects. The technology matters less than the business logic and architecture quality. We can work with most tech stacks, and we'll be honest if yours is too exotic or unsupported.

Most rescue clients continue with us for ongoing development—about 70% retention rate. Post-rescue options: Ongoing Feature Development: transition rescue team to building new features and improvements (most common path). Retained Advisory: part-time CTO advisory, architecture reviews, quarterly planning, emergency on-call. Team Training: train your internal team to maintain and extend the rescued codebase independently. Phased Handoff: we gradually reduce involvement as your team gains confidence over 3-6 months. Emergency Support: on-call support for production issues while your team handles day-to-day development. What's included in post-rescue support periods: bug fixes for rescue work (not new feature bugs), emergency production support, answers to questions about rescued codebase, and minor tweaks or adjustments. We don't rescue and disappear. Building long-term relationships is how we operate—many clients have worked with us for 5+ years after initial rescue. You're not locked in, though. We document everything thoroughly so you can transition to internal team or another vendor if needed. But most clients find it easier to continue with the team that rescued them.

Yes—this is one of our most common rescue scenarios. We've rescued dozens of projects from offshore or agency disasters. Common patterns we see: unusable deliverables (doesn't work as specified, crashes constantly, basic features broken), security nightmares (hardcoded credentials, SQL injection, no authentication), no tests or documentation (impossible to modify without breaking things), ghosting after payment (team disappears, no handoff, no access to infrastructure), technical debt bombs (works barely but any change breaks everything), and missed requirements (built wrong thing, doesn't solve actual business problem). Our rescue approach: honest assessment of what's salvageable (sometimes 70%+ is usable, sometimes 20%), fix critical bugs and security issues first, add tests and documentation that should have existed, refactor messy code and architecture debt, and train your team so you're not dependent on the rescue team forever. Real example: startup paid $120k to offshore agency, received broken MVP with 38 critical bugs and zero tests. We rescued it for $65k over 8 weeks—less than finding new agency and starting over. The MVP launched successfully and the startup raised funding. We don't bash previous teams publicly—mistakes happen, communication fails, skill mismatches occur. But we will privately explain what went wrong and how to avoid it next time (better vetting, clearer requirements, milestone-based payment, code reviews throughout).

Yes—this is actually preferable to rescuing a pre-launch app. Production apps with active users give us real data: error tracking shows what's actually breaking, performance monitoring identifies real bottlenecks, user feedback prioritizes what to fix first, and production traffic reveals scalability limits. Our production rescue approach: zero-downtime deployments (blue-green, rolling updates, feature flags), fix critical bugs in hotfix releases while planning larger refactors, implement comprehensive monitoring first so we see impact of changes immediately, gradual rollouts of risky changes (1% → 10% → 50% → 100% of traffic), and rollback procedures tested before every deployment. We've rescued apps handling millions of dollars in transactions, supporting thousands of daily active users, and operating 24/7 with SLA requirements. Risk mitigation strategies: staging environment that mirrors production for testing changes, synthetic monitoring and load testing before deploying to production, on-call support during critical deployment windows, gradual migration approaches (run old and new systems in parallel, validate equivalence), and communicate with users about planned improvements (turn bugs into features—'we're improving performance'). The presence of active users actually makes rescue easier because we have clear success metrics: error rate decreases, performance improves, customer churn reduces, and support ticket volume drops. We know immediately whether our fixes are working.

Honesty and transparency are core to how we operate. If we discover the situation is worse than the triage assessment revealed, we'll tell you immediately with updated options. Discovery scenarios: triage was surface-level, deeper work reveals more technical debt (common—some problems only appear when fixing others), scope creep from stakeholders adding requirements mid-rescue, infrastructure or third-party integration problems not visible in code audit, or departed team had knowledge that's more critical than we realized. How we handle surprises: stop work and reassess (don't just keep billing while costs spiral), present updated situation honestly with evidence (screenshots, metrics, specific examples), provide updated options with costs and tradeoffs (continue rescue with higher cost, pivot to partial rescue, recommend rebuild), and explain what we should have caught in triage and why we didn't (learn from mistakes). Financial approach: fixed-price triage means surprises discovered there don't increase triage cost. For sprint/complete rescue, we typically work time-and-materials after initial estimate, with weekly updates on spend versus estimate. If we hit the estimate with significant work remaining, we stop and replan—no surprise invoices. Client protection: you can pause or stop rescue at any time, you own all code and IP even for incomplete rescue, and we document remaining work clearly if you decide to stop. Real example: assessed MVP as 70% salvageable, $60k rescue. After 3 weeks discovered database architecture was fundamentally broken (not fixable, needed rebuild). We stopped, charged only for 3 weeks of work, and honestly recommended database rebuild. Client appreciated honesty—many firms would have kept billing.

Departed developers are common in rescue situations—about 60% of our rescues have no original team available. Our reverse-engineering approach when documentation is missing: code archaeology (read the code, trace execution paths, document business logic as we discover it), automated analysis tools (code quality scanners, dependency analyzers, security audits, call graph generators), infrastructure documentation (log into servers/cloud, document architecture, export configs and settings), git history analysis (commit messages, author patterns, when things changed and why), and customer/stakeholder interviews (understand business rules, expected behavior, known issues). We recreate documentation as we go: architecture diagrams showing system components and interactions, key business logic and decision points, deployment procedures and infrastructure setup, third-party integrations and API usage, and known issues and workarounds in current implementation. Challenges with missing teams: tribal knowledge is gone (workarounds, design decisions, gotchas), infrastructure access may be difficult (credentials lost, no runbooks), technical decisions lack context (why did they build it this way?), and blame is easy but unhelpful (we focus on fixing, not judging). Real example: acquired company, single developer left, zero documentation. We spent first 2 weeks pure reverse-engineering: mapping architecture, documenting business logic, extracting infrastructure knowledge. Then 8 weeks of actual rescue. Client now has comprehensive documentation that didn't exist before—rescue improved their situation beyond just fixing bugs.

95% of our rescue engagements successfully stabilize and launch. That 5% failure rate includes: clients ran out of budget mid-rescue (3%)—we scoped correctly but business realities changed, underlying business model was broken (1%)—code rescue won't fix product-market fit problems, and client decided to rebuild instead (1%)—discovered during rescue that rebuild was smarter. How we define rescue success: app is stable and deployable (core features work, crashes eliminated, security patched), team can maintain and extend it (documented, testable, reasonable code quality), launched to production or ready for launch (passes pre-launch checklist), and client is satisfied with outcome and timeline. Our success is high because: honest triage phase filters out unsalvageable projects (we turn down 10% of inquiries after triage), senior-only teams with 10+ years experience each, proven rescue process refined over 40+ rescue projects, transparent communication and early warning if issues arise, and focus on business outcomes, not perfect code (ship something working, not something perfect). What success doesn't mean: zero remaining technical debt (not realistic), perfect code quality (good enough is good enough), every feature the client ever wanted (scope control is critical), or team never needs outside help again (some clients continue with us, that's fine). Red flags we watch for: client keeps changing requirements mid-rescue, budget is unrealistically low for scope, stakeholders have unrealistic expectations, or business fundamentals are broken beyond code. We'll pause or exit rescues that are headed toward failure—better to stop early than waste your money.

Yes—we prefer it. Collaborating with your existing team makes knowledge transfer easier and builds their capabilities. Collaboration models: pair programming and mentoring (our senior developers work alongside your team, teach better practices, and transfer knowledge in real-time), division of responsibilities (rescue team handles critical stabilization, your team maintains ongoing features or less critical work), review and advisory (your team implements fixes, we review and guide, building their confidence), or onboarding for new hires (rescue team onboards your new developers while fixing the app). Benefits of team collaboration: your team learns better development practices from senior developers, knowledge transfer happens naturally during the work (not in separate training sessions), your team gains confidence in the codebase (demystify the scary parts), and smoother transition when rescue completes (they're already ramped up). Challenges we navigate: pace differences (rescue team may move faster, can frustrate junior developers), skill gaps (some problems require senior expertise your team doesn't have yet), blame and morale (existing team may be defensive about previous work), and time allocation (your team's time split between rescue and other responsibilities). How we handle team dynamics: no blame culture (focus on fixing problems, not assigning fault), celebrate quick wins (build team morale and momentum), clear communication (daily standups, transparent progress tracking), and recognize contributions (your team's context knowledge is valuable). Real example: worked with burned-out 3-person team on failed SaaS rescue. First 2 weeks they shadowed us, learning. Weeks 3-6 they took on more responsibility with our review. By week 8 they were confidently maintaining the rescued app. Team morale transformed.

Yes, with 48-hour emergency start available (50% premium). Emergency rescue scenarios: production completely down, revenue-impacting outage happening now, critical security breach or data exposure, major customer escalation threatening churn, and investor deadline or acquisition due diligence crisis. Our emergency process: initial call within 2 hours of contact to understand crisis severity and business impact, team mobilization within 24-48 hours (sometimes same-day for true emergencies), immediate triage and stabilization (stop the bleeding first, understand details later), 24/7 on-call during critical period (we're there until crisis is resolved), and transition to normal rescue after emergency stabilized. What we can do in emergency mode: restore production systems that are down, patch critical security vulnerabilities being exploited, fix data loss or corruption issues, stabilize infrastructure and scaling problems, and provide expert guidance during crisis management. What we can't do instantly: fix deep architectural problems overnight (that takes weeks), undo technical debt accumulated over years, make broken features suddenly work perfectly, or solve underlying business model problems. Emergency pricing: 50% premium for start within 48 hours, weekend/holiday surcharges may apply, and minimum engagement typically $15k-$25k for emergency work. After emergency stabilized: transition to standard rescue engagement (Sprint Rescue or Complete Rescue) with normal pricing for the ongoing work, or hand off to your team if emergency is truly resolved and no further rescue needed. Real example: SaaS app completely down during Black Friday, processing $50k/day in transactions. Emergency call Friday morning, developer on-site (remote) by Friday afternoon, production restored by Saturday, full rescue completed over following 6 weeks. Client avoided catastrophic revenue loss.

We use emergency room triage principles: life-threatening issues first, then quality of life, then cosmetic. Priority 1 - Production Blockers (fix first 1-2 weeks): app crashes or won't start, broken builds or deployments, critical security vulnerabilities (authentication bypass, SQL injection, exposed secrets), data loss or corruption, payment processing broken (if applicable), and complete feature failures (core functionality doesn't work at all). Priority 2 - High-Impact Issues (fix weeks 2-4): performance problems causing customer churn (10+ second load times, timeouts), serious UX problems making app unusable, flaky tests or broken CI/CD preventing deployments, architectural debt preventing any new development, scalability limits being hit currently, and moderate security issues (XSS, CSRF, weak authentication). Priority 3 - Quality of Life (fix weeks 4-8): technical debt slowing development but not blocking it, missing test coverage for non-critical paths, code quality issues (duplication, complexity, poor naming), performance optimizations beyond 'good enough', nice-to-have features partially complete, and documentation gaps. Priority 4 - Cosmetic/Deferred (future work): UI polish and visual improvements, minor refactoring opportunities, optimization beyond requirements, and aspirational architecture changes. Our decision framework: business impact (revenue loss, customer churn, reputational damage), risk level (security, data loss, legal/compliance), fix effort (quick wins first if equal impact), and dependencies (fix blockers before dependent work). We present priority list during triage and adjust based on your business priorities. Some clients prioritize customer-facing fixes over infrastructure; others prioritize security over features. Your business context drives final prioritization, but we provide the expert recommendations.

Perfect—that's our preferred outcome. About 70% of rescue clients continue with us for ongoing development, which makes sense: the rescue team knows your codebase deeply, has established trust and working relationship, understands your business context and goals, and has proven they can deliver. Transition from rescue to ongoing development: rescue naturally flows into feature development (finish stabilization, start building roadmap features), no need to onboard new team (rescue team already ramped up), and established communication patterns and velocity (you know what to expect from us). Engagement models for ongoing work: dedicated team (full-time developers working exclusively on your product), time and materials (flexible capacity, ramp up or down as needed), monthly retainer (guaranteed capacity, predictable monthly cost), or project-based (discrete features or improvements scoped individually). Common ongoing work after rescue: feature development (build product roadmap), maintenance and support (ongoing bug fixes, dependency updates), performance optimization (continuous improvement), infrastructure management (cloud optimization, cost reduction), technical advisory (architecture decisions, technology choices), and team augmentation (supplement your internal team). Benefits of continuity: no knowledge loss or context switching, faster development velocity (team knows codebase), consistent quality and practices, and long-term relationship and trust. You're not locked in, though: we document everything thoroughly so transition to internal team or another vendor is possible, no long-term contracts required (mostly month-to-month after initial rescue), and we'll train your team for independent maintenance if that's your goal. Real example: rescued failing SaaS MVP in 2019, client continued with us for feature development, we've built 40+ features over 5 years, and product grew from $50k to $2M ARR with our support. Long-term relationships are the most rewarding—watching rescued apps grow into successful businesses.