Tell me about the system.I'll tell you if I'm the rightperson for it.
Sometimes the honest answer is that you need two backend engineers, not an architect. You'll get that answer within two working days either way.
I take one substantial client at a time. Nairobi-based, working GMT+3 — most of the European working day in overlap, afternoons into US East mornings.
Six-week minimum. Fixed price where the scope genuinely is fixed, day rate where it isn't — I won't pretend the second is the first.
A written reply within two working days, with the awkward question about your data model.
A 45-minute call — no deck, no discovery workshop, just your architecture on a screen.
A one-page proposal: scope, price, what I'll leave behind, and what I won't do.
Staff augmentation, ticket-queue work, anything under six weeks, and rewrites whose real problem is organisational. I'll say so quickly rather than take the money.