Our verdict
Made in Tandem has shipped software for federal agencies, Fortune 500 brands, and mid-market companies for more than 15 years, and it has rebuilt its delivery model around senior Conductors amplified by AI agents. It suits a mid-market or PE-backed company that wants a small senior team to own architecture through production handoff, and it is less suited to a buyer that wants a large staff-augmentation bench or a pure strategy deck.
The right buyer
- Mid-market companies, roughly $50 million to $500 million in revenue, including PE-backed portfolio companies that need production software, data platforms, or AI systems (about page).
- Buyers who want published assessment pricing and a clear entry point, including AI Opportunity Assessments from $25,000 to $50,000 and Product Design Sprints from $40,000 to $75,000 (homepage).
- Teams that need legacy modernization, systems integration, or an AI pilot moved into production with code, infrastructure-as-code, ADRs, and runbooks at handoff (homepage).
Reasons to look elsewhere
- It plans to stay intentionally small, about 15 to 20 Conductors at full scale, so a buyer that needs a 50-person bench on one account will not find that here.
- Much of its best-known work is custom software and data platforms; buyers seeking a pure model-research lab should look elsewhere.
Made in Tandem, At A High Level
JC Grubbs founded the firm in Chicago in 2011 as DevMynd Software and later rebranded it Made in Tandem. The founding idea was that the person who scopes the work should also build it. The firm reports more than 15 years of delivery, more than 50 shipped projects, and recognition that includes a Gold Stevie Award, a CODiE Award finalist place, Inc. 5000, and Best Place to Work listings (about page).
- Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, with Conductor and senior engineer roles listed as Chicago or remote (about page).
- About 35 people in recent directory listings; we estimate annual revenue at $5 million to $8 million. At full scale it plans 15 to 20 Conductors and a curated community of 20 to 30 senior engineers (about page; brief size signal of roughly 35 people).
- Featured work includes a wildfire notification rebuild for a western US utility, a white-label loyalty platform used by more than 2,000 banks for ampliFI, Climate Corp field data pipelines for more than 15,000 farmers, and enlistment-system work for the US Department of Defense (homepage).
- Assessment packages publish dollar ranges: Product Design Sprint $40,000 to $75,000, Data Readiness $40,000 to $60,000, AI Opportunity Assessment $25,000 to $50,000, and Technical Due Diligence $15,000 to $40,000 (homepage).
Scores by criterion
We scored Made in Tandem from its homepage and about page. Commercial clarity scores highest because assessment prices are published; independent evidence scores lower because most client quotes sit on the firm’s own site.
| Criterion | Weight | Score | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Production track record | 20% | 7.2 | More than 50 shipped projects over 15+ years, including named federal, utility, banking, and agriculture work. |
| Technical depth | 15% | 7.0 | Custom apps, data engineering, applied AI and agents, legacy modernization, and fractional CTO or CDO leadership. |
| Industry depth | 10% | 6.5 | Priority verticals in B2B software, manufacturing, insurance, energy and utilities, healthcare, and logistics. |
| Delivery model and handoff | 15% | 7.5 | Conductor-owned delivery from architecture through production handoff, with QA gates and documented operating notes. |
| Commercial clarity | 10% | 8.0 | Published dollar ranges and timelines for four assessment packages on the homepage. |
| Platform independence | 10% | 7.0 | Builds on the client’s stack; AI is a delivery method across application and data work, not a single-vendor lock-in. |
| Stability and scale | 10% | 7.0 | Founded in 2011, Inc. 5000 recognition, intentionally small senior team. |
| Independent evidence | 10% | 6.5 | Multiple attributed client quotes on its own site; fewer independent third-party review write-ups opened this session. |
| Overall | 100% | 7.1 | Weighted average |
Where Made in Tandem fits
Made in Tandem is used by mid-market and complex organizations that want a small senior engineering team to design, build, and hand off production software, data platforms, and AI systems. On price it sits in the mid-market US consultancy band, with entry assessments in the mid five figures. Competitors on this site include HatchWorks AI and NaNLABS for product engineering with AI, Robots & Pencils for custom digital products, and Leanware for mid-market product teams.
| Need | Fit | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Moving an AI pilot into production software | Strong | Applied AI and agents are a core capability, with assessments that score use cases against real data and workflows. |
| Legacy modernization or systems integration | Strong | Homepage paths cover legacy modernization, systems integration, and greenfield development. |
| A large staff-augmentation bench | Weak | The model is intentionally small senior Conductors, not a large contractor pool. |
| Fixed-scope technical due diligence for a deal | Good | Technical Due Diligence packages are published at $15,000 to $40,000 for investment-committee timelines. |
What clients and leaders say
Made in Tandem’s leaders and clients describe its work in published announcements. One buyer concern is written from public facts about the firm.
“I appreciated Tandem's ability to execute against a very mature software development process and project planning methodology. We had access to market-leading expertise, and that was extremely valuable. We've learned a lot from them that's helped our in-house team.”
“The refreshed application that Made In Tandem built with us has enabled us to adapt quickly to the latest government reporting regulations, leading us to incur far fewer fines last year than our closest competitor who was charged 417 times the fine amounts.”
“We worked with MiT on a few projects over the years, and I found them to be one of the best dev shops I've ever worked with. Really excellent engineers all joyful to work with.”
“They were excellent senior engineers, but the team stayed small on purpose, so we could not staff a 20-person parallel workstream the way a larger consultancy would.”
Where customer reviews couldn’t be found, our analysts attempted to give a voice to buyer sentiment, drawing on real information from review sites, forums and product documentation. Based on: about page, which states a plan for 15 to 20 Conductors at full scale and an intentionally small jazz-quartet model.
Who leads Made in Tandem
JC Grubbs founded Made in Tandem in 2011 and is its CEO (about page).
