Frequently asked.

An intro call: 30 minutes, structured. I want to understand the org, the agent ambition, the constraint (budget, regulation, talent), and the timeline. By the end of the call we'll know whether we have a fit and which of my services maps to your problem. No deck, no follow-up sequence.

Anything from a one-day executive briefing to a 10-week embedded build sprint. Most clients land in a 4–8 week range: long enough to ship something real, short enough to not turn into a slow consultancy gig.

Sometimes, by mutual agreement, when there's urgency. Default is M–F. I have a day job at MMA; my advisory hours are scheduled and predictable.

Yes. Standard mutual NDA before anything sensitive is shared. I keep an exec summary of every engagement in a sealed file for legal continuity, but I never share specifics across clients without explicit permission.

No. Rates depend on engagement type, urgency, team size, and the level of intellectual-property contribution. Most engagements land in the range you'd expect for senior strategic advisory. Ask on the intro call and you'll get a number.

For well-defined deliverables (audit report, governance framework build), yes. For build sprints or open-ended advisory, time-and-materials with caps. I do not do contingent or revenue-share work.

Sparingly. I prioritize repeat clients and warm intros. If your procurement process requires an RFP and the engagement is sized appropriately, I'll respond.

By default, you own the deliverables created for you (frameworks, code, decks). I retain the underlying methods and reusable components I bring in. I'll always flag what's reusable IP vs. bespoke at kickoff so there are no surprises.

Code, when it's the right deliverable. Slides, when stakeholder communication is the work. Most engagements include some of both. I've shipped 21 Claude Skills, full RAG systems, n8n workflows, and governance frameworks. I avoid slideware-as-product.

Always. The best engagements are where I'm pairing with your engineering team — they keep the work after I leave. Embedded build sprints are explicitly designed around this.

AI agents in marketing, responsible AI governance, regulation, and bias/fairness in production AI. See /speaking for the topic abstracts and past engagements.

Depends on event type (conference vs. internal vs. private), travel, recording rights, and prep level required. Email alec@alecfoster.com with event specifics for a quote.

Yes, but I prefer keynotes or fireside chats. Panels are a less efficient use of an audience's time when one person can deliver a tight argument in 25 minutes.

San Francisco. I travel for speaking and on-site engagements; most of my advisory work is remote.

Just me. For larger engagements I sometimes bring in trusted specialists (eval engineers, governance counsel, designers) on a per-project basis. You'll always know who's actually doing the work.

Astro 6 + Preact (islands) + Tailwind 4. Deployed to Vercel. Co-built with Claude Code over a weekend. Source at github.com/alectivism/personal-website.