Product
What to build, what to kill, and how to tell the difference before you have spent few months finding out.
Twenty years, in order.
The parts that changed how I think - and what each one cost me to learn.
Drag sideways
I've built six companies. Now I help founders build theirs.
Founder, CEO, CTO and CPO six times over. Three exits. Today I'm the experienced operator founders keep on speed dial.
$80M+ Raised · $400M+ Valuation · YCombinator, Techstars, MAMRAM · Zero to One through $50M+ ARR
Most founders don't have an idea problem. They have a focus problem.
The problems founders actually call about.
They rarely stay inside one discipline. A go-to-market problem is usually a product problem wearing a disguise.
Go-to-market
Who actually buys this, what budget do they use, why they haven't yet, and the honest diagnosis of why it isn't selling.
Technology and AI
Architecture, build versus buy, an AI strategy that survives contact with reality, and a straight read on your team.
Fundraising
How investors will read your company before you walk in, and whether the story holds up when they push on it.
The org
Hiring, executive search, and turning startup chaos into a company that runs without you in every conversation.
Whatever's on your mind
Ten competing priorities and nobody experienced enough around you to push back. That's the gap I fill.
Technical enough to argue with your CTO. Commercial enough to convince your board.
Operator across SaaS, AI, marketplaces, consumer, hardware and security. Close to $100M raised, past $50M ARR, teams from only me to four hundred, three companies taken through to an exit.
Three ways in.
Prices up front so you can decide before you book. No complicated proposals, free 30 mins complimentary discovery call
One-time 60 minutes session
“We're stuck on this. What would you do?”
- One hard problem, gone through properly
- A point of view, not a summary
- Written follow-up you can send around
$45060 minutes, plus preparation
Book a sessionOn-going advisory
“We're going through several big changes at once. I need someone in it with me.”
- Regular calls, plus access in between
- Product, go-to-market, tech and hiring
- Introductions where I can genuinely help
$1,000–$2,500 a monthBy stage and involvement
Book a Discovery CallFractional CPO or CTO
“We need this position filled, and we need it now.”
- In the work, not adjacent to it
- Roadmap, architecture, hiring, fundraising
- Handover to your permanent hire
Scoped to the workBy time and remit
Discuss scopeInvestors: I also work with VCs, PE firms and family offices evaluate technology businesses, validate ideas, or give a portfolio company real operating support rather than a report.
Get in touchWhat I'll probably say to you.
- Spend more time talking to customers than talking about customers.
- Something technically impressive is worthless if nobody urgently wants it.
- Early companies need clarity, not process. Process is what you add once clarity stops scaling.
- If I only ever agree with your plan, I'm expensive company.
- Strategy is deciding what not to do. The rest is a to-do list.
What founders say afterwards.
Tell me what you're working on.
Thirty minutes, and a straight answer about whether I'm the right person.
Worth having ready:
- What you're building, in a sentence
- Where it's stuck right now
- What you'd want out of the call
Two ways in.
Grab a slot and we'll talk it through, or write to me first if you'd rather explain it in your own words. I read everything myself.