The Chai Call: Why We Never Start With a Proposal
Before we write a single line of code — or a single line of a proposal — we have a conversation. Here's why that one habit changes everything.
Most agencies lead with a proposal. We lead with a question.
Not a form. Not a questionnaire with twenty fields. A real conversation — usually 30 minutes, usually over a video call, always with chai on our end. We call it the Chai Call, and it's become the most important part of how we work.
Why proposals come second
Here's the thing about proposals: they answer questions you haven't asked yet.
A client comes to us and says "I need a mobile app." That tells us almost nothing useful. Is it a consumer app or an internal tool? Do they have users today or are they starting from scratch? Is the bottleneck really the app, or is it something further upstream — a workflow problem, a data problem, a team problem that an app won't actually solve?
If we write a proposal before we understand the answers to those questions, we're essentially guessing. And expensive guesses aren't fair to either side.
So we talk first.
What actually happens on a Chai Call
We ask a lot of "why." Not in a confrontational way — genuinely curious.
"Why now? What's changed that makes this feel urgent?" Sometimes the answer reveals a constraint we need to know about. Sometimes it reveals that actually, this isn't urgent at all, and a slower, more considered approach would serve them better.
We ask about the people who'll use the thing. Not just the buyer, but the end user — the customer, the employee, the person who'll be staring at this interface for eight hours a day. What do they already know? What frustrates them right now? What does success look like for them specifically?
We ask what's been tried before. Most problems we're brought in to solve have been attempted before. Understanding why those attempts didn't work is often more valuable than anything else in the call.
The part that surprises people
Sometimes, by the end of the Chai Call, we recommend something other than what was initially requested.
Not always. But often. A client who came in wanting a full web platform might leave the call with a plan to validate their idea with a simple landing page and a waitlist first. A company that wanted a custom internal tool might realize that an existing SaaS product, configured properly, would do the same job at a fraction of the cost and time.
We've talked ourselves out of projects this way. We're fine with that.
Because the alternative — building something that doesn't actually solve the problem — costs everyone more in the long run. Time, money, trust. All of it.
Why we think this matters more now
The tools to build software have gotten remarkably powerful. Things that used to take months take weeks. Things that used to require a large team can now be built by a small one.
That's mostly great. But it also means the failure mode has shifted. The risk isn't usually "we can't build this." The risk is "we built the wrong thing very efficiently."
The Chai Call is our answer to that risk. It's a small upfront investment in understanding before we start executing.
If you want to have one
We're not precious about format. Some Chai Calls are 20 minutes, some run an hour. Some people come with a detailed brief, some come with just a rough idea. Both are fine.
What matters is that we both leave the call with a clear sense of the actual problem, a shared understanding of what success looks like, and — if we're a good fit — a rough idea of where to start.
No commitment required. Just a conversation.
We make good chai.