You've got two or three agency proposals on your desk, each with a polished deck and recognizable logos, and a discovery call coming up. Your first action: before that call, write down the four things you can't afford to get wrong (live work, code ownership, tenant isolation and a founder reference) and ask about those first.
The stakes are about runway more than fees. CB Insights' March 2026 analysis of 431 VC-backed startups that shut down since 2023 found "ran out of capital" cited in 70% of the 385 failures with an identifiable reason, with a median of 22 months from the last fundraise to shutdown. CB Insights notes that running out of money is usually the final cause, not the root problem, so I wouldn't blame agencies for startup deaths. It does suggest that a build that burns six months and leaves you without usable code is a cost you can't easily absorb.
Below are twelve questions you can ask on one call, grouped by topic, plus red flags that justify walking away at any price. I'm an AI-augmented full-stack engineer who builds SaaS MVPs for founders, so this list comes from the builder's side of the table. If you haven't decided on an agency at all yet, read solo developer vs agency vs in-house and the agency vs freelancer comparison first.
What should you ask a SaaS development agency about its live work and team?
Ask to see three live products you can open in your own browser, then ask who specifically wrote them and whether you can talk to the engineers who'll be in your repository before you sign.
Live work
- Can you show me three live products I can use right now? Not screenshots, PDF case studies or Figma prototypes. An agency that builds SaaS has shipped SaaS, and shipped software has a URL. If everything is under NDA, that excuses one project, not a whole portfolio.
- Which of these did your team build, and which did it only design or maintain? A landing-page redesign or a short maintenance contract can end up listed as a product. Ask what they wrote, from what starting point and over what period.
- Tell me about a technical decision you got wrong on a past build. Teams that have shipped under pressure have specific answers. Teams that only sell the idea of it give polished, generic ones. That's a heuristic, not a guarantee.
Team
- Who will write my code, and can I talk to them before signing? You want named engineers. If the sales call can't connect you to the person who'll be in your repository, you're buying through a layer that adds cost and dilutes accountability.
- Is the work in-house or subcontracted? Neither answer disqualifies them, but you need to know. If they subcontract, ask who owns code review.
- What happens to my project if the lead developer leaves mid-build? A serious answer involves documentation, shared repository access and overlapping knowledge.
- How does your team review AI-written code? This one's new. The Stack Overflow 2025 Developer Survey reports that 84% of respondents use or plan to use AI tools, so assume your agency does too. What you want to hear is a process: types, tests and a human read on anything touching money or access. I cover one version of that in AI code review and quality gates for solo developers.
Which commercial terms protect you when you hire a SaaS agency?
Get written IP assignment, milestone-based payments tied to working software, and infrastructure accounts in your own name from day one. These three terms decide whether you can leave the agency without losing your product.
- Is IP assignment clean and written into the contract? You should own the code, design assets and infrastructure accounts on final payment. In the US, for example, 17 U.S.C. 204(a) says a transfer of copyright ownership is not valid unless it's in writing and signed by the owner. Rules differ by country and by contract type, so this isn't legal advice, but it's a good reason never to accept a vague handshake on ownership. Some shops keep ownership and license the product back to you, which quietly traps you.
- What is the payment schedule tied to? Prefer milestones you can verify over calendar dates. As an illustration, not a standard: a split tied to working auth and billing, feature-complete and handover aligns their money with your outcome, while "a deposit, then monthly" rewards slow work.
- Who owns the infrastructure accounts during the build? Your payment processor, database, domain and email service should be in your name from the start, with the agency given access. If you skip this, moving accounts at handover can turn into a billable extra. To sanity-check the whole engagement's cost, run the numbers through the cost to outsource SaaS development guide and the app cost estimator before you negotiate.
Here's how strong and weak answers usually look on these terms:
| Topic | Strong answer | Weak answer |
|---|---|---|
| Code ownership | You own code and accounts on final payment, in writing | "We'll sort that out in the contract later" |
| Payments | Milestones tied to verifiable software | Calendar dates regardless of progress |
| Accounts | Created in your name, agency has access | Agency-owned accounts you migrate later |
| Handover | Documentation and repository access included | Handover priced as a separate project |
Which technical questions separate real SaaS builders from sales fronts?
Ask how they isolate one customer's data from another's, how they'll know when your product breaks, and whether they've answered a customer security questionnaire. You don't need to be technical, only to listen for concrete answers.
- How do you handle multi-tenancy and data isolation? A concrete answer names an approach and its trade-off. Two well-documented examples: Firebase Security Rules can read custom claims through
request.auth.token, and Supabase's docs warn that a table in an exposed schema without Row Level Security is readable and writable by any role with a grant on it. An answer like "our architecture handles that" is a signal they haven't built it. Callidus, a React, Firebase and Stripe Connect SaaS for UK aesthetic clinics, keeps everything undertenants/{tenantId}/…with JWT claims carryingtenantIdandrole, per its case study. For the wider patterns, see multi-tenant SaaS architecture. - What does your observability look like, and have you answered a customer security questionnaire? A real answer names error tracking, logging and uptime monitoring, and describes what happened the last time a client's security team sent questions. Agencies that never operate what they ship often skip both. If you later sell to larger customers, a team that has seen a questionnaire can build with it in mind, and a team that hasn't may design you into a corner.
Why do these matter more now? That's my observation, not a measured trend: AI tools make a convincing demo cheaper to produce, so a polished prototype tells you less than it used to. Operating software for paying customers is harder to fake, which is why these questions lean on live products, isolation and operations.
Which red flags mean you should walk away from an agency?
Walk away if they offer only a logo wall instead of a founder reference, quote before asking about your data model, or stay vague on code ownership. Each of these predicts trouble regardless of price.
- No founder reference. Curated logos are marketing. A founder who'll take a fifteen-minute call and describe what working with the agency was actually like is evidence. If every reference request is deflected, assume the references aren't good.
- The estimate arrives before the questions. A fixed price for a SaaS platform before they understand your data model, tenancy needs and integrations means they're guessing or planning to change-order you. Real scoping produces questions first and numbers second.
- Evasive answers on code ownership. If you can't get a straight written answer on whether you own the code on final payment, nothing else matters. This one overrides a strong portfolio and a low price.
You don't need to fire all twelve questions like an interrogation. Pick the four that matter most, usually live work, code ownership, multi-tenancy and a founder reference, and let the conversation breathe. The goal isn't to catch anyone out. It's to find the agency that answers naturally because it has nothing to hide. For a starting shortlist, the best SaaS development outsourcing companies roundup is a place to begin, and hiring SaaS developers covers sourcing and managing the relationship.
I've shipped BookBed (bookbed.io), the Callidus clinic platform (callidusos.co.uk) and Pizzeria Bestek, and I work founder-to-builder with no account manager in between. If you're comparing proposals now, send me the one you like best and the list of questions it didn't answer. I'll reply at info@duskolicanin.com and tell you honestly whether the answers add up.