You need someone who can put your technology at the center of your market and keep it there.
When you rely on me, whether it's for a single project or as your long term fractional CTO, you get someone who has been in the trenches of technology, and who has a proven track record of success. I have a breadth of experience in building and scaling SaaS companies. I have overseen massive growth, successful refactoring of whole product offerings, navigated the COVID lockdowns and post-COVID rebound, integration of AI into process and products and the due diligence and integration of acquisitions from $1M to $20M ARR.
An effective fractional CTO helps you build product and engineering excellence, create and maintain an evolvable technology foundation, and navigate critical situations like raising a round, acquiring a company, or a surge in business. I can engage on a project basis or long-term, and I can help you build the right team and culture to support your growth.
About Me
Track Record
Founder. SaaS Expert. Former Chief Architect of Teamworks.
Overseeing Growth
I grew Teamworks' product & engineering departments from 10 people in one room to over 150 around the globe; and our products from 25k daily active users on one product to over 1 million daily active users across 10 products.
Fostering Culture
I believe in engaging engineers directly with the market they serve, and have experience creating an atmosphere of trust and collaboration between product and engineering functions and also cross-company to sales, marketing, and customer service.
M&A and Due Diligence
I have overseen technical due diligence and the post-acquisition integration of 9 SaaS companies ranging from $1M to $20M ARR. I can find problems and opportunities, and I can create an integration plan that can cover every angle.
Software Architecture
I focus on Evolvability as a SaaS platform's key architectural trait. I have spent decades in the trenches as a software developer and architect, re-engineering platforms that won't scale into ones that will, and creating sustainable engineering practices that let companies scale quickly and indefinitely.
Global & Remote Productivity
I have a decade and a half of experience coordinating engineers across multiple timezones and continents, and most recently I managed the transition from a fully in-office department to one distributed globally with a primarily remote workforce, and grew productivity even through the COVID lockdowns.
Founder
As a former founder of a SaaS company, I understand the struggle of getting a startup off the ground. I have worked a little of everything from software development to market research to sales to customer support. I speak the language, and I understand how to get the technical side of the house to give the rest of the company what it needs.
Who I Help
I focus my work on companies across a variety of sectors undergoing the massive changes that come with scale.
Startups
Growth Stage Companies
Engineering and Product Leaders
Investors in Tech Companies
How I Help
I engage in individual coaching, fixed-scope projects, and as a long term fractional executive.
Coaching
Building leaders who excel at technology and communication. We'll work together on how to make effective technical decisions, scale, keep technical functions coordinated with non-technical ones, and avoid burnout.
Sample Scope
You're a VP who wants hands-on experience on how to prioritize tackling technical debt, even as you enable growth.
You're trying to figure out how to coordinate technical teams spread around the globe.
You're a non-technical founder who wants technical guidance and to learn how to communicate with your engineering team.
Project Engagement
Fixed-scope or time boxed engagements aimed at delivering a key result.
Sample Scope
You want an audit of where your company stands technically and a list of actions you can take to bring your company to the next level.
You're looking to make a C-level technical hire or promotion and want expert help with job scope and description, or someone technical to fill out the search panel.
You are looking to raise a round of capital and need to prep your technical organization for due diligence.
You or one or your portfolio companies are making an acquisition and want someone experienced and with a deep network of experts to conduct technical due diligence.
You need a AI strategy that cuts through the hype either for supercharging your business processes or for incorporating into your products or both.
Fractional CTO
Hire an experienced executive on a fractional basis to build and lead the technical functions of your organization, in a way that's always ready for scale.
Sample Scope
You want someone who can provide product development oversight, and who can grow your R&D organization and culture in the right way to set you up for success when you're ready for a full-time CTO.
Technical debt or other problems are starting to prevent you from being able to scale. You want someone experienced to set you on the right path, and follow through until the problem is cleared.
Featured Posts
From my blog, "The Ecology of Great Tech."
Your SaaS's most important trait is Evolvability.
In the world of commercial SaaS, your technology is always on a trajectory to become generic. Competition catches up. Broader trends change the way software is meant to look, feel, and be used. The longer your product stays static the less it stands out.
What this means for your technology organization is that good software architecture is not some fixed set of principals from a textbook, but the practice of building adaptive strategies into your software, your infrastructure, and your team.
Click to read more...
What I talk about when I talk about Technical Debt.
Communicating technical debt to people other than engineers is essential to getting work on that debt prioritized and valued alongside bugs and product roadmap work, and it’s not easy at all. One key quality distinguishing a good engineering leader from a great one is the ability to bring engineers and non-engineers to agreement about technical debt and its priority.
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So you wanna buy a tech company.
I've run the tech side of the M&A playbook now I think 10 times. I want to talk to fellow tech executives who are looking at acquiring a company about tech diligence and what it's for.
In 2021 we bought a 30 acre hobby farm. Our house was built in 1947, and it was maintained largely by DIYers for the last quarter century. When we had our home inspection done it wasn't to decide whether or not to buy the house, but to lay out for us clearly what work would likely need to be done, and to help us prioritize it.
As the technical executive running diligence – whether you do it yourself or you contract it out to a company that specializes in it – what you're ultimately doing is the same thing. You need to know how to get the new acquisition incorporated cleanly and quickly and at what cost.
Click to read more...