Almost every company evaluating a software house does the same thing: looks at the portfolio, reads a few case studies, asks for a quote.
It is the most efficient way to pick the wrong supplier.
The portfolio tells you what they built with good clients, on projects that went well. It says nothing about how they behave when the budget gets tight, when a deadline slips, or when, two years from now, you need to change supplier. You find that out later. Usually when it hurts.
Here are the right questions to ask. And what you should expect to hear.
1. Who do I talk to when there is a problem?
It sounds trivial. It isn't.
At many software houses the implicit answer is: an account manager, who passes it to the team, who replies within 48 hours via ticket. Meanwhile your project is standing still.
The answer you want to hear is different: you talk directly to the people working on the code. No intermediaries, no chain of command to respect. If there is a technical doubt or a budget surprise, it gets sorted in hours, not days.
Quinck works this way: the people who build talk directly to the client. It is a structural choice, not a sales promise.
2. What happens if I change supplier in three years?
This question makes many software houses uncomfortable. For a precise reason: their business model relies on switching being hard.
Proprietary stacks, undocumented code, obscure technology choices: these are often how a supplier makes itself irreplaceable. Not through merit, but through dependency.
What you should hear: I use widely adopted, documented technologies with a living market. If you want to switch tomorrow, you can. The code is readable, the requirements are written rigorously, another team can pick it up.
Quinck puts in writing at the start of the project which technologies it uses and why. The stated goal is for the project to outlive the relationship with us.
3. Do you have access to subsidised funding?
Most CEOs don't ask this. But they really should.
In Italy there are instruments, such as the R&D tax credit, regional calls and innovation incentives, that can cut a significant share of software development costs. The catch is that accessing them takes time, expertise and paperwork. Most software houses don't think about it, or hand it off to a paid external consultant.
Quinck handles the subsidised funding side in-house for its clients, at no extra cost. It is not an ancillary service: it is part of how we think about the budget.
4. How long until I see something working?
A software project that stays on paper for months is a high-risk project. Not because the team is slow: because nobody can validate something that doesn't exist yet.
The right answer is not "it depends on the complexity". It is: we have a workflow for fast prototyping. A working POC in a short time lets you test hypotheses, find problems before they get expensive, and decide with data instead of optimism.
Over the past few months Quinck has developed a structured approach to rapid prototyping with AI tools. Not to look good: to reduce the risk of building the wrong thing.
5. What can't you do?
It is the question nobody asks, and the one that separates a serious supplier from one that says yes to everything.
A reliable partner knows its limits. It declares them upfront, not afterwards. If your project requires skills outside their scope, they tell you, and perhaps point you towards someone who can really help.
Be wary of anyone who never gives a negative answer. A "we're not the right partner for this" is the strongest sign of solidity you can get.
We ask ourselves these questions too, before starting a project.
If the answers aren't convincing, better to know straight away: it costs everyone less.
