Tech Advisor

Advisor

Your startup is struggling to execute.
The tech isn't the problem.

You've raised funding. You have a product vision. But somehow, engineering feels like a black box. Deadlines slip. Features take forever. Your technical team and business team speak different languages.

The gap between engineering and business is where startups die.

Which CTO problem do you have?

After 15+ years working with startups at every stage, I've seen the same patterns. See if any of these sound familiar:

The Strategy CTO

1. The Strategy CTO

Background: Consulting, MBA, product management

Great at decks, roadmaps, and architecture diagrams. Knows all the "best practices." But somehow, nothing ships. The engineering team respects them politically, but not technically.

Symptoms: Lots of planning meetings. Elaborate documentation. Slow delivery. Engineers quietly frustrated. "We're building it the right way" while competitors ship.
The First-Time CTO

2. The First-Time CTO

Background: Technical co-founder who learned on the job

Built the MVP. Knows every line of code. But hit their ceiling. Can't scale systems or teams. Defensive about technical debt they created. Struggles to hire and evaluate senior talent.

Symptoms: Codebase is a mess but "only they understand it." Can't retain senior engineers. Founder knows they need to let go but doesn't know how.
The Absent CTO

3. The Absent CTO

Background: Strong technical founder pulled into other roles

Was the technical leader, but fundraising, sales, and CEO duties took over. No longer hands-on, but hasn't built a leadership layer. The team lacks direction.

Symptoms: Engineers spinning on unclear priorities. Product stalls. Everything is "waiting on CTO" who's in investor meetings all day.
The Big Tech Transplant

4. The Big Tech Transplant

Background: Senior IC or manager from FAANG, first startup role

Impressive resume. Deep technical skills. But used to infrastructure, tooling, and support systems that don't exist at a startup. Over-engineers everything. Doesn't understand startup pace.

Symptoms: Building "scalable infrastructure" for 10 users. Runway burning while they set up "proper CI/CD." Team of 3 using enterprise patterns.
The Outsourced Tech

5. The Outsourced Tech

Background: No technical co-founder; dev shop built the MVP

Founders can't evaluate quality. Don't truly own their codebase. Vendor relationship is transactional. No internal technical judgment or leadership.

Symptoms: Product is a black box. Iteration is slow and expensive. Can't pivot quickly. No one internally knows what's actually possible.

The real problem isn't technical. It's translation.

Every one of these situations has the same root cause: a gap between what the business needs and what engineering delivers.

It's not about code quality, tech stack, or hiring. It's about alignment. Communication. Shared understanding of priorities. Someone who can sit in both worlds and translate.

That's what I do.

How I help

I've been on both sides. Built products at Meta, Instagram, and TikTok. Also been engineer #1 at multiple startups and scaled teams from founder-mode to Series A and beyond.

15+ years in tech FAANG + Startups Engineer #1 (multiple times) Director of Engineering Technical Co-founder

I work with founders to:

  • Diagnose what's actually broken (often not what you think)
  • Bridge the gap between your technical team and business goals
  • Coach your existing CTO/tech lead to level up
  • Hire the right technical leaders when you're ready
  • Build processes that actually work at your stage

I'm not here to replace your team or sell you a dev shop. I help you build the internal capability to execute, then get out of the way.

Let's talk

30-minute diagnostic call. No pitch, no pressure.
Tell me what's happening. I'll tell you what I see.

Book a conversation