Work · Client engagement · a serial startup founder
Fractional CTO for a serial startup founder
One senior technical owner across about eight ventures over five years: hands-on Grails engineering on the web products, and delivery management for 5+ offshore contractors.
Technical leadership across a founder’s portfolio of about eight ventures.
The context
A serial founder was launching several ventures at once and needed one senior technical owner for all of them. That person had to build where it counted, direct outside specialists, and keep scope and timelines honest.
The ventures
- An FDA/biotech trading-alert engine: scheduled jobs watch sponsor news feeds and the ClinicalTrials.gov API, and flag phase and status changes.
- Clinical-trials search: the forerunner of Discoveria.
- A photo-licensing marketplace: Instagram import, collections, a cart and PayPal payouts.
- Crypto gaming products.
- An Instagram-connected iOS app.
- AI trademark-logo similarity search, where I was the delivery and project manager.
What I did
- Hands-on Grails engineering on the web platforms: domain models, payments, integrations and admin tools.
- Managed and reviewed 5+ offshore contractors across mobile, blockchain and ML work. I kept scope, timelines and code quality on track, and reviewed and merged their work. The iOS app, smart contracts and ML similarity model were contractor-built.
- Acted as the founder’s technical decision-maker: what to build, who should build it, and when it was done.
Results
- About eight ventures under one technical owner, over five years.
- Delivery management across specialties I didn’t build myself (mobile, blockchain, ML), with clear scope and review.
- Trust that became a partnership: the relationship led to co-founding Discoveria.
My role
Fractional CTO: architecture and hands-on Grails development on the web products, plus project and delivery management for the offshore contractors.