Get from Demo to Product.
There’s a treacherous gap between a cool demo and a delightful user experience built on a scalable technical foundation. I’ve been bridging that gap for 30 years as a CTO, engineering manager, and hands-on engineer. Let me help you get there.
30 years building and shipping software 3× startup CTO Engineering leadership at AWS and Walmart
Two ways to work together
Assess the gap and cross it, or bring me in for ongoing technical leadership.
Demo to production
Starts with a 1–2 week assessment, fixed price
I review your product, code, and current setup to find what stands between your demo and a release customers can rely on. You get:
- A prioritized risk list. What could break, and what needs attention first.
- Clear launch criteria. What “ready” means for your product, and how to check it.
- A practical build plan. What to do next, in what order, and what your team needs.
Then I can help you build through the first release and hand it over to your team.
Fractional CTO
1–2 days a week, 3-month minimum
For founders who need someone to own the technical direction and work with the people building the product. You get:
- Decisions you can move on. Architecture, priorities, and tradeoffs, explained clearly.
- A team building the right thing. Direction for your developers or outside dev team, plus help hiring.
- Hands-on help. I get into the code where it matters and help move the product forward.
Engineering Leader.Hands-on, AI-augmented Builder.
In 30 years of shipping software, I’ve been a startup CTO three times, an interim CTO, and the only engineer in the building. I’ve led engineering teams at AWS and Walmart, including teams responsible for payment experiences handling about $70B a year.
Most recently, I co-founded Accordli and built its legal-AI product on the Claude API. We shipped the MVP and wound the company down in 2026 when the market wasn’t there. The work gave me firsthand experience with the reliability, evaluation, and product decisions it takes to get AI past the demo.
- 2025–2026Co-founder & CTO, Accordli Agentic contract review on the Claude API
- 2022–2024Software Development Manager, AWS Wickr messaging; Chime SDK machine learning
- 2018–2022Sr. Engineering Manager, Walmart / Jet.com Payments, Walmart Wallet, checkout
- 2012–2014Co-founder & CTO, Salido Restaurant point-of-sale; later acquired
- 2010–2011CTO, RedRover Wireframe to shipped mobile and web in six months
Let’s get you across.
Tell me what you’re building and where you want to take it. Thirty minutes is usually enough to see a useful next step.