1 slot open in Q4 2026
The team for your hardest problems.
Rubric is a small team of founder-level engineers with our own research lab. We join your team, learn your problem, and build it with you all the way to production.

Trusted by
From Fortune 500 retail to Series A startups
What we do
What teams hire us for.
Complex software with AI at its core.
Agents in production
AI assistants and agents that do real work for your users, with the testing and guardrails to trust them.
Built forAlbertsons · Cal.com · Sligo AI
Products, end to end
New products and major features, built full stack from the first commit to launch, in your codebase.
Built forGumloop · E2B · Graphite
Model work
Evals, fine-tuning, and small, fast models for when a frontier model is too slow, too costly, or not accurate enough.
Built forA Series B company in stealth
Client work
What we’ve built.
For Fortune 500 retail, developer platforms, and the startups in between.
- Grocery shopping, by conversation22grocery brands, from Safeway to Vons
- A dashboard, from backlog to production2 daysfrom kickoff to our first release
- A marketplace for creators1 monthfrom kickoff to launch
- A personal film for every developer100×less storage, keeping scripts instead of video
How it works
Built to hand off.
We move fast, work directly with your team, and leave you with a system you own and run without us.
Call
Thirty minutes with a founder. If we’re not the right team, we’ll tell you.
Scope
We research your problem and write a scope of work with you that sets expectations on both sides.
Build
We join your repo and your Slack, work alongside your team, and ship from the first week.
Hand off
Docs, tests, and a walkthrough. Your team runs it without us.
Pricing
An acquihire, for one project.
One flat monthly price, with no hourly billing or change orders.
| Rubric | Typical agency |
|---|---|
| Founder-level engineers | A rotating team behind an account manager |
| Shipping in your codebase within days | Weeks of discovery decks |
| A research lab testing what’s next | Last year’s playbook |
| Built to hand off | Optimized to keep you on a retainer |
- Founder-level engineersA rotating team behind an account manager
- Shipping in your codebase within daysWeeks of discovery decks
- A research lab testing what’s nextLast year’s playbook
- Built to hand offOptimized to keep you on a retainer
Every engagement
$40kper month
- A lead engineer, full time, in your codebase
- A second engineer on architecture, review, and planning
- A shared Slack channel, with both of us in it
- Code, docs, and tests that you own
1 slot open in Q4 2026
Book a callLab
Our lab is our edge.
We test new models and methods on our own systems first. What works goes into client work before it’s common practice.
Inside the LabWhat clients say
In their words.
Bring us your hardest problem.
Tell us what you’re working on. You’ll talk with a founder, and we reply to every request within a day.
Book a callAvailability
- Q4 20261 slot open
- Q1 20272 slots open
Newsletter
The Grid
What we’re learning about building with AI. Two short emails a month.