Expert help by the minute
Stuck? Talk to someone who’s shipped it.
RubberDuck connects hobby makers, first-time developers and vibe coders with seasoned software professionals for on-demand, time-metered help. Describe what you’re stuck on, get matched with an engineer who’s done it before, and pay by the minute with tokens.
100 tokens = £1 · billed per second · 3-minute minimum charge · 50-token (£0.50) connection fee per call, waived on your first
Priya Nair
AI/ML · Expert rate
Time remaining
Rate
200 /min
Used so far
1,800Billed per second — the server clock is the source of truth.
The core loop
Three steps between stuck and shipped.
Submit your challenge
Two hundred words, max — the limit is the point. Technical, design or commercial: tag it, attach a screenshot, tell us when you're free.
Get matched and book
We shortlist vetted engineers by specialty, locality and rating. Pick a real slot from their calendar — booking needs a minimum balance, but nothing is charged upfront.
Talk it through
A browser video call with a live meter. Billing starts when you're both in the room and stops the second it ends. You pay for the time you use, plus a small connection fee on each call after your first.
Live metering
Both of you watch the same clock.
Time remaining is your balance divided by the engineer’s rate. The countdown is driven by the server — never a client clock — and every second is settled against your wallet ledger when the call ends.
- 5:00first warning, announced to both parties
- 2:00the chip turns signal — unmissable
- 1:00warning repeats
- 0:30final countdown, alert red with a pulse
- 0:0060 seconds of grace, then the call ends cleanly
You’re never charged for a call that never connects, and your wallet can never go negative.
Demo loop — watch the chip escalate at 2:00 and 0:30, exactly as it does in a real call.
Tokens
One currency: tokens.
100 tokens = £1. Buy a bundle once, spend it by the second with any engineer. Every call also carries a 50-token (£0.50) connection fee, waived on your first. Every movement lands in a ledger you can read.
Taster
£10.00
1,000~10 min at Standard
Starter
£20.00
2,000~20 min at Standard
Builder
Most popular£50.00
5,000~50 min at Standard
Pro
£100.00
10,000~100 min at Standard
Approximate time at the Standard rate (100 tokens/min), before the 50-token connection fee (waived on your first call).
Who uses it
Makers on one side. Engineers on the other.
“Sorted my Stripe webhooks in fifteen minutes flat. Worth every token.”
Maya
Maker · e-commerce side project
“Clear answer in twenty minutes: web first, App Store when retention proves itself. I'd been flip-flopping for a month.”
Jess
Maker · vibe-coding a habit tracker
“Evenings free, twenty-minute chunks, paid out through Stripe. I get to be the expert without the agency overhead.”
Dev
Engineer · senior full-stack, 12 yrs
For engineers
Someone is stuck on the thing you’ve shipped twice.
Pick a rate band, open your evenings, and turn spare capacity into paid, low-commitment consulting. You see every challenge before you accept it; payouts land via Stripe Connect.
- Standard£60/hr · 100 tokens/min
- Senior£90/hr · 150 tokens/min
- Expert£120/hr · 200 tokens/min
Worked example
20-minute call · Standard rate
- Maker pays
- 2,000
- Platform commission (25%)
- −500
- You earn
- 1,500
£45/hr equivalent · paid out via Stripe Connect after the hold window.