I advise early-stage, non-technical founders on product and technical decisions — from idea to shipped product to your first engineering team.
The decision guides on this site are free and complete on their own. This page is for the founders who want a second brain in the room while the decisions are being made.
The path: Discovery → Prototype → Build decisions → First team → CTO handoff
- 1
Discovery
We pressure-test the idea before it costs real money: who has the problem, what they do about it today, and what the smallest honest test of demand looks like. You leave knowing whether to spend on a prototype — and if not, what to test instead.
- 2
Prototype
If the idea earns it, we scope the cheapest thing that can be put in front of a real user. Not a lesser product — an instrument for learning. We decide together what it must prove and what it's allowed to fake.
- 3
Build decisions
This is where the expensive commitments happen: build vs. buy vs. no-code, custom vs. platform, which agency or freelancer, what the quote should say and what it shouldn't. I sit on your side of the table for each one.
- 4
First team
When the product proves out, the question becomes people: first engineering hire vs. continuing with outside builders, what to interview for when you can't judge the code, and how to structure the early team so it survives growth.
- 5
CTO handoff
The last decision I help with is hiring the person who makes me unnecessary. I help you find and evaluate your full-time technical leader, hand over the context, and leave.
The Lab Sprint — how engagements start
Every engagement begins with a fixed-scope sprint of 2–3 weeks. You leave with three things, whatever we decide about working together afterwards:
- A discovery readout — the problem, the users, and the evidence for demand, written down plainly enough to share with a co-founder or investor.
- A working prototype — something a real user can touch, scoped to prove the one thing that matters most.
- A decision roadmap — the technical decisions ahead of you in order, with my recommendation and reasoning for each.
Fixed scope, fixed price — ask me for the current number.
Exit by design
Every engagement is designed to end. I take you from idea to shipped product to your first engineering team — and then I hand off to your full-time technical leader and leave. Success is you no longer needing me.
Who this is for — and who it isn't
This works for AI-forward, non-technical founders who want to understand their own product's technical decisions — not delegate them blindly. If you want it “just built cheap,” an agency will happily take that brief; I'm the wrong fit.
I'm not an agency. I have no developers to resell, and I don't take payments or kickbacks from any vendor, agency, or tool I recommend. When I tell you a quote is fair or a platform is right, the only thing I'm selling you is the judgment itself.
Start the conversation
Send me a LinkedIn message with one line about your idea and the decision you're stuck on. I read all of them.