The Handover Heist

An American client. A shady dev team. A codebase that looked like it was copy-pasted from Stack Overflow. And a contract negotiation that turned into an 8-year hostage situation.

CTO takeaway

The lesson, minus the scar tissue.

Always audit the existing codebase AND the team's process before signing a handover contract.
If the team can't show you their Git history, walk away. Or charge triple.
Long-term contracts are good. But make sure you have an escape clause. 8 years is a long time.

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