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 · minimum session 1 minute
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 minutes you use — nothing else.
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 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
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.