// 01 / Origin
Cardinal SEO was founded in early 2024 by two senior engineers who'd spent the previous decade in machine-learning roles at marketplaces, fintechs, and a healthcare data company. We'd watched too many "SEO strategy" engagements end in PDFs and zero shipped code. We wanted to build the opposite.
// 02 / How we work
Six engineers. We cap the active roster at ~12 simultaneous engagements. The senior engineer on your project is the same person writing the eval, building the prototype, and pushing to prod. We don't subcontract.
Most engagements run a quarter. Retainers are month-to-month with 30 days notice. We'd rather lose a client than keep one we're not delivering for.
// 03 / Who we work with
- Mid-size SaaS and B2B platforms (20–500 engineers, $5M–$200M ARR)
- Ops-heavy startups with real data and real constraints
- Mid-size consultancies looking to add ML capabilities to a delivery
- Occasionally: small enterprise teams with a skunkworks budget
// 04 / What we won't do
- "SEO strategy" deliverables that are decks, not code
- General-purpose chatbots with no specific workflow
- Long discovery phases (we cap at 1 week)
- Percent-of-savings or revenue-share pricing (creates wrong incentives)
- Engagements without a real eval set
// 05 / Where we are
Operating address: 5907 Kit Cove Ct, Las Vegas, NV 89131. Most of the team is distributed across the US (Seattle, Austin, Brooklyn, Las Vegas) and one engineer is based in Lisbon. We work async-first via Slack and Loom. We meet quarterly somewhere reasonable, usually around an industry event.
// 06 / The numbers
- 38 production models shipped to client repos (rolling 24 months)
- 12 active engagements at time of writing
- 99.7% median uptime across deployed systems (12-month rolling)
- Median engagement duration: 11 weeks
- Client retention: 87% (12-month rolling)