Product and technology partner to CEOs
I work with CEOs as their product and technology lead. We decide together what’s worth building, I build the first version with you, and we take it to customers and keep growing it.
You’ll leave with the three things I’d do first, whether or not we work together.
One path, four stages
Each stage is a way in. A founder with an idea starts at Shape. A company with a live product starts at Launch or Grow.
We work out what to build first, who it’s for and what it should cost, before you spend on a team.
I build the first version with you and show you working software every week.
We bring in the first customers, test the pricing, and get the company ready to sell it.
I run product and technology with you: the roadmap, the hires and the pace.
Weighing an agency? Twelve questions to ask firstWorking together
You’ll see working software every week, not a status report. You reach me directly whenever you need me, and you hear about every decision that matters before it’s made, in plain language. The code, the accounts and the documentation are in your name from the first day, so what we build is yours.
Who you’d be working with
Twenty years running product and engineering, as the executive accountable for both, with teams from two engineers to more than a hundred.
Datassential
At Datassential I built the product team and launched a major new product in my first year. I also ran the numbers on every product we sold, which is how we decided to retire two that were losing money.
Seamless.AI
The products my teams built at Seamless.AI are still core to what the company sells. I pushed us beyond data into workflow, because workflow is what keeps customers renewing, and I put AI into the product itself.
Along the way: SOC 2 Type 2 in under eight months, which made enterprise deals closable.
RainKing → DiscoverOrg → ZoomInfo
I built the product and the engineering team at RainKing, starting with four engineers. The company grew through two acquisitions, by DiscoverOrg and then ZoomInfo, into a public company.
Along the way: diligence with no surprises, both times.
Built this year · CoachMantis
CoachMantis puts everything a job candidate needs to prepare in one place: a brief on the company and role, a resume review against the job, and practice interviews graded on a clear rubric. I built it from a blank page to a live product with AI coding agents.
Live at coachmantis.com
Why build with me
The usual alternatives are a development agency, a freelancer or a full-time CTO, and each is right at some point. Before the product is working, you usually need a CTO’s judgment and a builder’s output in the same person.
Customer conversations, a first-version scope and a budget, settled before anyone spends on a team.
The first version, with AI coding agents, myself or alongside your team. You see working software every week.
No team of mine to sell and no hours to fill. You pay for the work, against an estimate and a ceiling I won’t cross without asking.
Code, cloud accounts and documentation in your name. You reach me directly, with no account manager in between.
How the alternatives compare
With me
The spec gets questioned before anyone builds it. Keeping your agency? I can sit on your side of it.
Agency oversight →With me
The product decisions, the architecture and the code, owned by someone who has run all three for twenty years.
With me
The same seat, part time, without the search. When it’s time to hire, I help you do it.
When you outgrow part time
When the product is working, the team is growing and the job fills every week, you should have one. When we get there, we decide together what comes next. That can be me, full time. Or it’s a leader we hire together: I write the role, run the interviews with you and stay long enough to hand over properly, because the hire isn’t the outcome. The leader working out is.
This is for you if you have something to build or grow, want one senior person who owns product and technology with you, and would rather see working software than slides.
The work behind my new consultancy goes back twenty years, inside companies, as the person accountable for product and engineering. The entire record of my career is on LinkedIn.
Ask me for references. I’ll put you on the phone with CEOs I’ve reported to and founders whose engineering I’ve run. They’ll tell you what I’m like when it’s going badly, which is the part worth knowing.
You’ll leave with the three things I’d do first, whether or not we work together.