Nerd/Noir
Nerd/Noir is a bootstrapped, remote-first consulting firm founded in 2015 and based in Atlanta that helps Fortune 500 product and engineering organizations accelerate delivery through structured workshops, embedded coaching engagements, and its proprietary Dojo immersive-learning methodology.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2015
- HeadquartersAtlanta, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Nerd/Noir does
Nerd/Noir is a remote-first, bootstrapped professional services firm founded in 2015 by David Laribee and Alexandra West and headquartered in Atlanta, USA. The company specializes in transforming large-scale product and engineering organizations, primarily serving Fortune 500 enterprises such as Target, Kroger, Microsoft, Capital One, Fiserv, Fannie Mae, Travelers, Volkswagen, Exxon Mobil, and Shutterstock. Its work focuses on three stated areas of expertise: aligning product and engineering teams to accelerate innovation and reduce time-to-market, modernizing legacy systems and processes via continuous refactoring and platform engineering, and integrating AI capabilities effectively by identifying where AI adds real value.
The firm's service portfolio comprises six structured workshops (Change Vision & Strategy, Organizational Design, Product Discovery, Outcome-based Roadmaps, Technical Investment, and Architectural Modernization), an Improving Developer Experience workshop, ongoing hands-on consulting engagements branded as Collaborator Subscriptions, and 1-hour Internal Talks or whiteboarding sessions. Its core proprietary assets are methodologies and frameworks rather than software products — notably the Dojo Challenge Model (co-developed at Target's DevOps Dojo and evolved through multiple Fortune 500 engagements), the Technical Investment Playbook (with ROI calculator and stakeholder scripts), the open-source Immersive Learning Playbook Framework (Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0), and the Developer Experience Insights program built on DX's DevEx 360 platform via an exclusive channel partnership announced in January 2024.
Nerd/Noir generates revenue entirely through professional services. Engagements are custom-quoted with no publicly disclosed pricing; workshops are typically 10-20 hours of total delivery (remote over 2-3 weeks or in-person over 1-2 days) and Collaborator Subscriptions are multi-year contracts where the firm's ~10-11 senior collaborators are embedded with client teams. The go-to-market motion is consultative and enterprise-field-sales driven, supplemented by community-led demand generation through conference speaking (QCon, DevOps Days, Agile India, Build Stuff, DevNexus, Agile Prague), a Substack newsletter ('Hard Boiled Software'), a podcast, free downloadable guides, and open-source playbook templates. The firm has remained founder-owned with no external institutional funding, venture capital, or private equity backing.
Nerd/Noir firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Nerd/Noir
- Legal name
- Nerd/Noir, LLC
- Website
- https://nerdnoir.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2015
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Nerd/Noir is a bootstrapped, remote-first consulting firm founded in 2015 and based in Atlanta that helps Fortune 500 product and engineering organizations accelerate delivery through structured workshops, embedded coaching engagements, and its proprietary Dojo immersive-learning methodology.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Nerd/Noir industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Engineering Consulting Services
- NAICS
- Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services (54169), Computer Training (611420)
- SIC
- Services-Management Consulting Services (8742)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Technical Bootcamps & Accelerated Reskilling (Full-time/Part-time) (BPAEANAE)
Keywords
Where Nerd/Noir is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Atlanta
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Nerd/Noir business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others
Revenue model
- Workshops: Fee-for-service workshops addressing specific organizational challenges (Change Vision & Strategy, Organizational Design, Product Discovery, Outcome-based Roadmaps, Technical Investment, Architectural Modernization, Improving Developer Experience). Workshops are 10-20 hours each, delivered remotely or in-person over 1-3 weeks, and are customized to the client's context and real problems.
- Collaborator Subscriptions: Ongoing hands-on consulting engagements where Nerd/Noir collaborators work directly with client teams on product/team improvement or large-scale change initiatives. Engagements include Org Design & Change Management, Upskilling & Shift Left, Validating New Product Ideas, and Platforms & Enablement. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed.
- Internal Talks & Whiteboarding Sessions: Limited-time offering of 1-hour internal talks or whiteboarding sessions given by Nerd/Noir collaborators. Topics include Adopting & Adapting a Product Model, Change Strategy, Platform Engineering, Developer Experience, Managing Technical Debt, and Immersive Learning (Dojos). Sales motion involves a 30-minute discovery call followed by customization.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Other | Multi-year contract | Custom workshop engagements priced by scope and duration |
| Other | Multi-year contract | Collaborator Subscriptions — ongoing consulting engagements |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels9 records
Nerd/Noir product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Nerd/Noir is a remote-first consulting firm that sells topic-specific workshops (10–20 hours each, delivered remotely or in-person over 1–3 weeks) and longer-term collaborator subscriptions (hands-on consulting engagements) to help enterprises align product and engineering teams, modernize legacy systems, and integrate AI capabilities. Its flagship program is the 6-week Developer Experience Insights offering, which bundles DX's Developer Experience Index (DXI) survey across 25 drivers (benchmarked against 120,000+ samples) with consulting support to produce a customized action plan.
Product overview
Nerd/Noir is a consulting firm specializing in transforming large-scale product engineering organizations. Their offering is structured as a portfolio of workshops combined with hands-on consulting engagements. The core product is the Developer Experience Insights program, which leverages the DX Developer Experience Index (DXI) survey platform. This is complemented by six structured workshops covering change vision and strategy, organizational design, product discovery, outcome-based roadmaps, technical debt management, and architectural modernization. Additional offerings include collaborator subscriptions (hands-on consulting), Internal Talks (speaking engagements), and their Immersive Learning Playbook Framework (open-source). The dojos represent their immersive learning methodology applied through consulting engagements.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Developer Experience Insights A six-week discovery program that helps engineering organizations measure and improve developer productivity by surveying teams across 25 drivers of developer experience using the DX Developer Experience Index (DXI), benchmarking against 120,000+ data samples, and producing a customized action plan. Targeted at enterprise product and engineering leaders.
- Change Vision & Strategy Workshop A workshop helping leaders develop a shared vision for change, craft strategies connecting vision to daily decisions, and produce a roadmap and communications plan ready for action. Targeted at enterprise and mid-market transformation leaders.
- Organizational Design Workshop A workshop helping organizations map current team structures, dependencies, and value streams, and design a future-state topology that reduces dependencies and enables independent delivery. Targeted at senior engineering and product leaders.
- Product Discovery Workshop A workshop helping product teams build a repeatable discovery system using techniques like Collaborative Framing, Opportunity Solution Trees, Story Maps, and Assumption Mapping to uncover customer needs and drive measurable outcomes. Targeted at product managers and product teams.
- Outcome-based Roadmaps Workshop A workshop transforming feature-based roadmaps into outcome-centered planning tools that communicate impact and align product and engineering teams around shared measurable goals. Targeted at product and engineering leadership.
- From Tech Debt to Strategic Investment Workshop A hands-on workshop teaching teams to discover, sell, and execute incremental technical investments, including ROI calculators, stakeholder scripts, and debt classification guides. Targeted at engineering leaders and their finance/business stakeholders.
- Architectural Modernization Workshop A workshop applying Wardley Mapping, Domain-Driven Design, and Team Topologies to visualize technology landscape, align teams with target architecture, and create a phased modernization roadmap. Targeted at enterprise engineering leaders and architects.
- Improving Developer Experience Workshop A six-week workshop-style program combining DX Developer Experience Index surveys with expert guidance to identify friction, benchmark against industry data, and develop a customized action plan for improving developer productivity. Targeted at enterprise engineering organizations.
- Collaborator Subscriptions Ongoing hands-on consulting engagements where Nerd/Noir's experienced collaborators work directly with client teams on org design & change management, upskilling & shift left, validating new product ideas, and platforms & enablement. Custom-quoted, multi-year contracts.
- Internal Talks One-hour internal talks or whiteboarding sessions delivered by Nerd/Noir collaborators on topics including product models, change strategy, platforms, developer experience, technical debt, and immersive learning (dojos). Sold as a limited-time entry-point engagement via a 30-minute discovery call.
Quantifiable outcome
- 500+ new products created in 60 days via new APIs — validated architectural patterns for a nascent platform
- +10 more outcomes
Companies that use Nerd/Noir
Customer profileNamed customers16 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Nerd/Noir technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
Feature4 records
Nerd/Noir partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Two partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- DX (Developer Experience)coreNerd/Noir is an exclusive partner for DX's Discovery License of the DevEx 360 platform. DX is a research company founded by leading developer productivity researchers including DORA founders and SPACE framework co-authors (Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey, Michaela Greiler, Alberto Bachelli). The partnership enables Nerd/Noir to offer a 6-week Developer Experience Insights program that combines DX's DXI survey (25 drivers, 120,000+ benchmark data samples) with Nerd/Noir's consulting expertise to deliver actionable, customized improvement plans for engineering organizations.
- Dojo AcademyminorNerd/Noir's Immersive Learning Playbook Framework is described as an integral part of the 'Ready to Coach' course offered through Dojo Academy. The playbook framework is open-source under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Nerd/Noir co-developed this framework with Dojo Academy and uses it as a teaching tool in their coaching and enablement practice. The relationship appears to be educational/co-developmental in nature.
Scale indicators10 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Nerd/Noir competitors and assessment
Company assessmentMarket position
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Nerd/Noir social profiles
Digital presenceNerd/Noir financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Nerd/Noir leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles11 records
Nerd/Noir funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Nerd/Noir M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Nerd/Noir
What does Nerd/Noir do?
Nerd/Noir is a remote-first consulting firm that sells topic-specific workshops (10–20 hours each, delivered remotely or in-person over 1–3 weeks) and longer-term collaborator subscriptions (hands-on consulting engagements) to help enterprises align product and engineering teams, modernize legacy systems, and integrate AI capabilities. Its flagship program is the 6-week Developer Experience Insights offering, which bundles DX's Developer Experience Index (DXI) survey across 25 drivers (benchmarked against 120,000+ samples) with consulting support to produce a customized action plan.
Is Nerd/Noir a public or private company?
Nerd/Noir is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Nerd/Noir founded?
Nerd/Noir was founded in 2015. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Nerd/Noir based?
Nerd/Noir is headquartered in Atlanta, United States, in the North America region.
How does Nerd/Noir make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Workshops are the primary driver. The others are collaborator Subscriptions and internal Talks & Whiteboarding Sessions.
Does Nerd/Noir have an API?
No public API is recorded for Nerd/Noir.
What industry is Nerd/Noir in?
Nerd/Noir's product category is Engineering Consulting Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAEANAE, Technical Bootcamps & Accelerated Reskilling (Full-time/Part-time). Its NAICS code is 54169 and its SIC code is 8742.