The Build-Off · UNBOUND 2026 · Boston
Pitch it in five minutes. Within 48 hours you hold the full Build Plan – feasibility verdict, solution architecture, risk map, phased timeline, and a page one written for your CFO. Free, no price inside it, yours to keep whoever wins. Twenty Plans, and that is the cap.
The project
The customer portal your agency declined. The LMS nobody would put a date on. The migration carrying years of organic traffic, where the honest answer to “will the numbers hold?” was a shrug.
So it sits on the roadmap. And every quarter it gets a little heavier, because the licence you are paying for is still doing a third of what it could, and your CFO has started noticing.
Meanwhile every HubSpot agency you talk to looks identical, sounds identical, and promises identical things. You have been burned before. You are not in the mood to guess again.
What you get
There is no price in the Plan. It is senior work worth over USD 1,000, and it is free, because the pitch earned it. If you later want the build priced, you ask; the Plan is yours either way, to use with us or with anyone.
Can this be built as pitched, and if not, exactly what changes. Written before anyone talks about money.
How the pieces fit on your HubSpot, drawn to be argued with. Take it to your developer and let them poke holes.
Line-itemed scope and an honest timeline, including the parts agencies habitually under-scope.
What could bite, named up front. Traffic, integrations, content debt, the migration nobody wants to own.
The business case in plain language, no jargon, on a single page you can forward without editing.
The promise
Not a sales estimate with a number at the bottom. A feasibility verdict, the solution architecture drawn on your HubSpot, line-itemed scope, an honest timeline, and the risks named before they can surprise anyone.
48 hours from pitch to Plan, freeFixed price, published scope, milestone gates. The final payment only falls due when the launch gates pass. We never meter you by the hour, and the Plan is written the same way — outcomes and line items.
Zero hourly billing, eleven years runningNobody who enters gets silence. If your project is not one for the Build-Off, we say so inside 24 hours and tell you what we would do instead. The Plan is yours to use with us or with anyone.
24 hours to a straight yes or noCost of doing nothing
Another quarter on the roadmap
The project stays unbuilt, the licence stays half-used, and the next agency conversation starts from zero, with you doing the qualifying.
Friday afternoon instead
You have the architecture on paper, the risks named before they can surprise you, a timeline someone was willing to write down, and a page your CFO can read without a translation.
How it works
Press the button, give us five minutes of honest detail about the project, and pick a time to meet us at UNBOUND if you want one.
Nobody who enters gets silence. If your pitch is not one for the competition, we say so honestly and tell you what we would do instead.
Senior architects take it into the workshop overnight and scope it properly. Not a sales estimate — a working plan, in your inbox.
Every entry read against the same bar: hardest problem, clearest thinking, most to gain from being built properly.
The winning pitch gets the build itself, free, worth $15,000, delivered as a fixed-price project in Q4.
Fixed price, published scope, milestone gates. The final payment only falls due when the launch gates pass.
One thing we will not do is meter you by the hour. Outcomes and line items, never hours.
Selected work
The work is at hermitcrabs.io/case-studies. Every logo is real and checkable.
The offer, itemised
The Build Plan, in your hands within 48 hours of pitching. Free, and there is no price inside it.
Nobody who enters gets silence. If your pitch is not one for the competition, we say so and tell you what we would do instead.
Optional: fifteen minutes with Reddy at UNBOUND, by appointment, chosen when you enter.
The winning pitch, judged Friday 12:00 to 16:00 and announced at 17:00, gets the build itself free, worth $15,000, in Q4.
This is a real competition, for websites, migrations onto HubSpot CMS, portals, LMS and custom apps. CRM admin, workflow-only work and platform training are good work, but they are not what the Build-Off is for. Your HubSpot needs to be on Pro or Enterprise hubs. Twenty Build Plans is the cap, allocated in entry order. Entries close Friday 18 September at 12:00 noon ET.
Twenty plans. One deadline.
Highlights
Client stories
Trusted by 60+ teams worldwide · HubSpot Gold Solutions Partner
“Sometimes you need to start fresh with the right partner to create something incredible.”
Alex MunroeDirector, Information Technology at Taymor Industries
EnerQualityCMS rebuild & member portal
Eleven years on HubSpot CMS, and only HubSpot. Every case study real and checkable.
“hermitcrabs makes it so easy to click, update, and go.”
Sarah KimDigital Product Manager at Angel City FC
Fork FarmsCommerce & education hub
“We went from waiting a week for website changes to making them in minutes.”
Bryan McCartyHead of Product & Product Marketing at Orum
ClaromentisMultilingual migration · 300+ pages
“We are very pleased with what our website is accomplishing.”
David RufnerDirector of Development and Relations at 1517
Questions, answered
Yes. It is senior work worth over USD 1,000 and there is no price inside it, no invoice after it, and no obligation attached to it. The pitch earned it. If you later want the build priced, you ask us. The Plan is yours either way, to use with us or with anyone.
Websites, migrations onto HubSpot CMS, portals, LMS builds and custom apps. CRM admin, workflow-only work and platform training are good work, but they are not what this is for. Your HubSpot needs to be on Pro or Enterprise hubs.
You still keep the Build Plan. That is the point. The prize is the build itself delivered free; the Plan is what everyone who enters walks away with, and it is the part you can act on immediately, with us or without us.
Because senior architects write these, not a template. Twenty is what we can scope properly in the window without cutting corners. Slots are allocated in entry order, so entering early matters more than entering perfectly.
No. We build fixed-price projects with published scope, milestone gates, and a final payment that only falls due when the launch gates pass. The Plan is written the same way: outcomes and line items, never hours.
The same senior architects who would build it. Nobody hands your project to a junior to practise on, and no account manager sits between you and the person doing the thinking.
No. You can pitch and receive the Plan entirely remotely. The fifteen minutes with Reddy at UNBOUND is optional, by appointment, and chosen when you enter.
Friday 18 September, 12:00 noon ET. Judging runs 12:00 to 16:00 that afternoon and the winner is announced at 17:00. If the twenty slots fill before Friday, entries close early.
Entry
Tell us who you are and we will send the entry brief straight back. Scored inside 24 hours, Plan inside 48, and the twenty slots go in entry order.
Prefer email? Write to hello@hermitcrabs.io · we reply within 48 hours
Enter the Build-Off
Three fields, that is all
Choose a form in this module’s settings. Forms are created in Marketing → Forms.
One reply, from the architect who would build it.
One reply, from the architect who would build it. Nothing else lands in your inbox.
The Plan has no price in it and no strings. Take it to anyone.
Allocated in entry order. If they fill before Friday, entries close early.
Eleven years, one platform. Pro and Enterprise hubs, CMS, portals, LMS and custom apps.
Published scope, milestone gates, and a final payment that only falls due when the launch gates pass.
Templates, modules, code and documentation are yours from day one, whoever maintains it next.
Nobody who enters gets silence. If it is not one for the Build-Off, we say so and tell you what we would do.
