Dev Shop's New AI Agent Cuts Client Discovery From Weeks to Minutes

The core of the product is an AI agent named Lucius. A prospective client describes the project – product need, scope, requirements – and Lucius summarizes the scope, pressure-tests the idea, flags potential risks, and generates a quote. The whole process takes minutes. Gratton called it "outcome-based pricing." A customer can choose from three predefined tiers or build a custom quote by selecting individual components.

Discovery conversations between agencies and clients can stretch across weeks or months. Launchpad compresses that into a single session. The platform is initially aimed at small and medium-sized businesses. "Today, it's zero to one," Gratton said. "We're serving someone who has nothing and wants to build something." He added that Launchpad also suits existing companies looking to spin up new product lines without splitting the focus of their internal teams.

The market for low-code AI developer tools has grown quickly as "vibe coding" enters the mainstream. Gratton said those tools fall short for businesses that need a product they can actually put into production. "These tools hit a limit. You build something, it's cool, it looks like it works, you are not confident enough to actually put this live in production and have real customers using it, because you have no idea what's under the hood."

Launchpad is designed to offer a different level of accountability. Chrono's developers remain responsible for what gets delivered, including testing, documentation, security review, and ongoing managed DevOps support. "We won't accept poorly designed code or security flaws that an AI would not necessarily consider on its own," Gratton said.

Gratton believes software agencies are entering a period where speed alone will not be enough. As AI tools level the playing field for founders to produce early prototypes independently, agencies will need to prove they can match that speed while delivering a product people can trust. He said AI has already quadrupled the velocity of Chrono's own team, while also reinforcing the importance of experienced engineers who understand how real products break, scale, and get maintained.

"We use this tool. We understand the reality and the complexity of working with multiple tech stacks, multiple customers, different constraints," Gratton said. "I think the mix of our internal expertise bundled into a product will be hard to replicate."