The technical product partner funded founders actually need.
You don’t need another advisor. You need someone who’ll get in the weeds, make decisions, and ship. That’s what I do.
Not for everyone.
I’d rather be honest upfront than waste your time.
This works if:
- You’ve raised at least £500k
- You need to ship in the next 3–12 months
- You’re building something that needs real engineering
- You want someone who can build, not someone who only advises
This probably isn’t for you if:
- You need long-term system maintenance
- You’re looking for a people manager
- Heavy governance and long approval chains
- You want someone to clear a ticket backlog
Proof.
What colleagues say. What I’ve shipped. What clients raised.
“His skills as a developer really are second to none. Always calm and collected, he could lead many different projects across several systems and languages with ease.”
— Anneka Nicholls, Digital Content Editor · 3 years at Wildgoose
[SEE IF WE’RE A FIT]Stabilised Hanover CRM through a CTO transition, rebuilt engineering ops, then took an AI program discovery platform from prototype to client demo in 11 working days.
Current engagement · Hanover CRM
“There isn’t anything Steve cannot do. He has been a true MVP with leading tech & product.”
Eugene Luke, Marketing @ Asset Bank
raised by clients on products we shipped together
“He was indispensable. Always available for questions and code reviews, providing constructive feedback without hesitation.”
Roberto D’Amico, Senior Software Engineer @ Mindstep
From week one to shipped.
When I’m embedded with a startup, this is the shape of it — three stages that move you from ‘we think we know what to build’ to ‘it’s shipped and the team can run it without me.’
Figure out what to build.
Before any code, we get clear on what’s actually worth shipping. Product decisions, architecture calls, where AI fits and where it doesn’t. The fastest way to waste runway is building the wrong thing, so we don’t start until we know.
What that looks like: a roadmap and scope you can defend to your board, a technical direction that won’t need unpicking in six months, and a clear read on which AI bets are worth making.
Build it, properly.
I write code. Not just architecture diagrams. Production code, real products, shipped to real users — Rails, Phoenix, Next.js, React Native, Swift.
This is where SCAFFOLD comes in. It’s the AI-native infrastructure I’ve built over years of shipping startup products, and it’s how I move at the pace you need without cutting the corners that cost you later. Multi-tenant platforms, API-first design, compliance-aware systems — designed for what you need now and what you’ll need at 10x.
Leave you running without me.
The goal isn’t for you to need me forever. Process documentation, technical specs, hiring support, pricing strategy, launch planning — I build the systems that let your team operate once I step back.
A good engagement ends with you shipping faster than you did before I arrived, and a team that doesn’t need me to keep doing it.
Real engagements. Real outcomes.
Built the entire SaaS platform from scratch: booking engine, operations system for high-growth during Covid, multiple consumer apps. Seven years on I’m still their technical partner. In 2026: an AI product-finder live on their site, backed by an eval suite and full conversation analytics.
Scaled to one of the UK’s largest learn-to-drive platforms. Revamped the iOS & Android apps into the sector’s leading products. Featured by the BBC, TechCrunch, The Guardian, Gizmodo, Metro and the Daily Mail.
Brought in during major leadership upheaval. CTO leaving, team leads departing, business changing hands. Stabilised the team, rebuilt development operations, then led the build of an AI-powered program discovery platform: prototype to live client demo in an 11-working-day sprint, with AI search designed to run at a fraction of the industry’s typical cost per lead.
A swamped founder with ideas everywhere and no structure. I helped shape the product roadmap, added process, reviewed code, refreshed the UI, and helped shape the v2 product.
Designed the architecture, brought in the lead developer, and advise on product direction, dropping in hands-on where it moves the needle. Recently: a full onboarding and dashboard redesign, lifecycle email automation, and the E2E test coverage that lets a tiny team ship fast.
Client work is half the story. I also ship my own products, and Stacktree is the latest: private-by-default HTML hosting built for the AI-agent era. Agents publish polished client deliverables straight from a chat; humans get a private link instead of a PDF. Designed, built, launched and grown solo. Then repositioned and repriced based on what its own analytics said.
Three ways to work together.
Scoped engagements with clear outcomes. No open-ended retainers.
Clarity Sprint
One week embedded with your team. I audit what you’re building, identify where AI fits (and where it doesn’t), and ship at least one working proof-of-concept. You walk away with a clear technical direction and something already running.
Technical Partner
I make technical and product decisions alongside you. Architecture, hiring, AI integration, and hands-on building when needed. Book a call and we’ll scope it together.
Build Sprint
A specific product or feature, scoped and shipped. Fixed timeline. You get a finished product, not a handoff document.
15 years of building products.
From award-winning product studios to scaling SaaS platforms, I’ve spent my career embedded in startups, making the decisions, building the teams, and shipping the products. I take on a small number of clients at a time so each one gets real depth, not surface-level advice.
Early days, 2011
First office, 2012
Wildgoose, shipped 2013
Mixer · TechCrunch
SXSW launch, 2014
Building Alibi, 2014
miDrive HQ
miDrive, 300k+ downloads
The merch collection 2017
Product & design talk
Founder panel, 2018
App pitch, 2018
Flow state, 2018
Keynote talk, 2019
Android workshop, 2019
EthPrague 2022
Building Flow, 2024I also build products and dev tools, and contribute to open source. It’s how I stay sharp, and I go deep so my clients don’t have to.
Let’s start a
conversation.
No pitch deck. No pressure. Just a chat about what you’re building — what’s hard, and whether I’m the right person to help.