OPERATIONS BRIEF · 26-04 / SOFTWARE FACTORYCLASSIFICATION: PUBLICEFFECTIVE 01 MAY 2026

MISSION

Two Forward Deployed Engineer leads — 10+ years combined in industry. Ship production software. Engineers earn for the code they ship; project margin funds the program.

UNIT: VWC SOFTWARE FACTORY
ESTABLISHED: 2014 · FACTORY 2022
CO: JEROME HARDAWAY · USAF
STATUS: BOOKING Q3 2026
POSTURE: 1 FIRE TEAM · 2 ENGINEERS AVAILABLE

We ship
production
code.

Two Forward Deployed Engineer leads with 10+ years combined in industry, embedded inside a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Hire us for the work; fund the mission as a side effect.

Book Discovery Download Capabilities Brief (PDF)

SECTION 02 / CAPABILITIES

What we deploy.

8 capability areas · led by staff engineers

Web App Development

Production-grade React, Next.js, TypeScript. Greenfield products through platform rebuilds.

API & Backend Systems

Node, Python, Go services. Postgres, queues, auth, billing — the unglamorous spine that holds up.

AI / ML Integration

RAG, agents, model orchestration. We separate what AI can ship today from the demo-ware.

UX / UI Design

Research, IA, design systems, pixel-precise interfaces. Design that respects the user's time.

DevOps & Cloud

AWS, GCP, Vercel. CI/CD, observability, IaC. We hand back ops you can actually run.

Discovery Sprints

Two-week scoping engagements. Walk away with a prototype, a roadmap, and a fixed-bid proposal.

Code Audits

Independent review of architecture, security, and team practices. Findings ranked by what to do Monday.

Embedded Engineer

One Forward Deployed Engineer. Agentic workflows. Team-scale output. T+30 to first PR.

SECTION 03 / OPERATIONS CADENCE

Recon · Plan · Build · Hand off.

We borrowed our cadence from the military. Weekly demo, daily SITREP, AAR at sprint close. Commander’s Intent is documented before kickoff, so the team adapts without waiting for a permission slip. BLUF on every update. Code lives in your repo from day one. No surprises, no scope-creep theater, no two-month silence.

Phase 01

Recon

Discovery call, then a paid two-week sprint. We walk your problem space, talk to your users, produce a working prototype with a fixed-bid scope.

2 weeks · fixed bid

Phase 02

Plan

Architecture decisions, milestones, and the "definition of done" — written down before any code. You see the whole map; nothing is held back.

1 week · async

Phase 03

Build

Two-week sprints, demo every Friday, async daily SITREP in your Slack. Code lives in your repo from day one. Pull requests, not handovers.

sprints · 2 weeks each

Phase 04

Hand Off

Documentation, runbooks, and a 30-day warranty. We can stay on retainer or train your team to take it from here. Your call.

30 days · warranty

Deliverables

Per Engagement

SCOPE.md

Fixed-bid scope statement

ARCH.png

System architecture diagram

BACKLOG.csv

Sprint-ready backlog

RUNBOOK.md

Hand-off runbook

SECTION 04 / SELECTED ENGAGEMENTS

What we’ve shipped.

Live URLs and full case studies on request. Most of our work sits behind NDAs; public examples below give you the shape of what we ship.

ENG/01 · PUBLIC SECTOR2025

Veteran Resource Locator

A nationwide directory of vetted veteran services, built in 12 weeks for a state VA office.

Next.js · Postgres · MapboxREAD AAR

ENG/02 · NONPROFIT2024–25

Cohort Management Platform

Application, interview scheduling, and curriculum tracking for a workforce-development partner.

Remix · Prisma · AWSREAD AAR

ENG/03 · STARTUP2024

AI-Assisted Resume Translator

Turns military OERs into civilian resumes. Open-sourced after launch — used by 11k vets.

Next.js · OpenAI · VercelREAD AAR

ENG/04 · OPEN SOURCEOngoing

HashFlag VS Code Theme

Distributed via the official Marketplace. 40k+ installs across the developer community.

TypeScript · VS Code APIREAD AAR

SECTION 05 / WHO WE SHIP FOR

The clients we know how to serve.

We’ve found our fit. Three kinds of organizations, three kinds of problems we’ve solved before.

Veteran-Owned Startups

You vibe-coded your way to a demo and now you need an MVP that won't collapse under real users. We've taken founder-built prototypes and turned them into production software customers actually pay for — without throwing away the work that got you here.

Veteran-Owned Small Businesses

Something is broken and it's costing you money. A checkout that double-charges. A scheduling system that lost last Tuesday. A platform the original developer ghosted on. We've walked into catastrophic-error situations and shipped the fix — fast, documented, and with a runbook so it doesn't happen again.

Nonprofits

You don't need another deck about digital transformation. You need engineers who can train your team, ship the tool, and leave you running. We've done both — built the software and trained the staff at some of the largest nonprofits in America.

Not on this list?

Book Discovery anyway. We’ll tell you straight whether we’re the team.

SECTION 06 / LEADERSHIP

The chain of command.

Every engagement is led by VWC leadership. No surprise resumes, no offshore subcontracting, no junior-only teams.

Founder · Executive Director

Jerome Hardaway

USAF Security Forces · 2004–2009
Google Developer Expert · GitHub Star · White House honoree

Jerome is a working software engineer first and a founder second — the rare nonprofit leader who still ships code on Monday and teaches it on Tuesday. An Air Force Security Forces veteran with 15+ years of production AI experience at Microsoft, Vista Equity Partners, and now Accenture Federal Services, he runs Vets Who Code the way he runs engineering teams: in the work, not above it. He's a Google Developer Expert, GitHub Star, and White House honoree, with courses on LinkedIn Learning and Frontend Masters. Since founding VWC in 2014, he's trained over 300 veterans and military spouses, unlocking $20M+ in graduate earnings — and personally mentored many of them.

Technical Program Manager

Ayumi Fukuda Bennett

Vanderbilt · Founder, Startup Southerner · Nashville, TN

“Your wisdom is too important to evaporate with the rest of the noise.”

That belief shapes everything Ayumi brings to Vets Who Code. Born in Japan, raised in the southern Appalachians, and educated at Vanderbilt, she's built a career across business journalism, UX design, and visual storytelling — and founded Startup Southerner along the way. As VWC's Technical Program Manager since 2021, she translates the organization's mission into the words, visuals, and systems that move it forward. She runs sponsor relations, content strategy, and program operations from Nashville, where she lives with her family.

SECTION 07 / THE STANDARD

What every engagement ships with.

VWC Leadership Owns Every Engagement

Two Forward Deployed Engineer leads — VWC leadership — own every project end-to-end. Cohort engineers contribute under their direction. No surprise resumes, no offshore subcontracting, no junior-only teams.

Code in Your Repo, Day One

Pull requests, not handovers. You see the work as it's written. No two-month black-box phase ending in a zip file.

Fixed Scope, Written Down

Definition of done lives in SCOPE.md before any code is written. Change requests are change requests, not surprises on the invoice.

Documentation Is a Deliverable

RUNBOOK.md, ARCH.png, and a 30-day warranty ship with every engagement. Your team can run what we hand back, or we'll train them to.

SECTION 09 / CONTACT

30 minutes.
No deck. No pitch.

Tell us what you’re trying to build. We’ll listen, ask hard questions, and tell you whether we’re the right team — straight up. If we’re not, we’ll tell you who is.

· Currently booking Q3 2026
· 2 squads available
· Average response time: 1 business day
· Or email: factory@vetswhocode.io

We shipproductioncode.