Push on what's stuck.

We embed with your team, ship what's blocked, and mentor the org to carry it forward. For PE portfolios and growth-stage companies.

20 years in tech. 8 years across PE portfolios. 250+ engagements.

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Track record

Momentum reveals what planning can't.

Why this works

Diagnostic discipline

Started in CRO. 10,000+ tests taught us that the gap between what teams report and what evidence shows is where every real problem lives.

20 years building and leading teams

8 years building and scaling agencies (employee #4 to COO, 4 to 50 people, 200+ clients). 8 years embedded in PE portfolios (15 companies as Head of Product Tech). 250+ total engagements.

Still in the code

We use AI tooling in production every day. Your engineers trust embedded leadership that codes alongside them.

What you get

New teams built and shipping
Trust earned by doing the work alongside the team
Root causes from evidence, not summaries
Exit criteria: the org keeps improving after we leave

What this isn't

Consulting that relies on status reports
Oversight that stays above the work
"Fractional" who's really part-time

How we work

Embed

Embedded with your existing team. Architecture, code review, sprint planning. Embedded leadership that earns trust by doing the work.

Embed + Augment

Everything above, plus sourcing and managing specialists. You approve budget. We handle execution and quality.

Embed + Build

Recruit, hire, and build the internal team. Knowledge transfer every week. Exit criteria: the team owns it and keeps shipping.

$15-25k/month retainer 3-4 days/week embedded 3-month minimum Independence is the goal

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Recent Work

"The team was debating how difficult a solution would be to execute. Tom had been quiet. Someone asked. Silence. Then: 'I just pushed it to production.' That's Tom."

Erin Young
Founder, Slide UX

"A tremendous team, eminently capable and poised for continued success because of his efforts."

Chris Neumann
CEO, CROmetrics

"Tom will multiply the efforts of a team in a leadership role. His knowledge, confidence, and transparency make him a natural leader."

Zac Bogart
SVP Digital, Guitar Center

Signal

Nobody Adopts Anything Without Being Coached Through It Adoption is a behavior change, not a tool purchase. The method is always the same: pair, show, step back. The Roll-Up Integration Problem Roll-up integration stalls on organizational gaps, not stack choices. Build decision-making authority before standardizing tools. AI Is the Accelerant, Not the Strategy AI adoption is a CTO problem, not an AI problem. If you can't ship without AI, you won't ship with it. The org has to be ready to absorb change first. Independence as the Exit Criteria Every fractional CTO engagement needs a definition of done. Ours is when the team's motivation flips from external to internal. The Rotation Problem What happens when the person who diagnosed the problem isn't there to see the fix through. The gap between assessment and execution is where reports go to die. What PE Ops Teams Actually Need from a Fractional CTO Operating partners don't need another assessment or dashboard. They need someone who can tell them what's actually happening inside the portfolio company. When a Fractional CTO Is the Wrong Answer Honest take on when you don't need one, from someone who's done it 250+ times. Sometimes the answer is coaching, a hire, or just making one decision. Ship, Then Strategize User-facing changes drive results. Strategy documents don't deploy themselves. If your team produces more documents than deployments, the ratio is wrong.

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