Yume
[ PARIS ]
Co-Founder
Marketing & Commercial
[ STEVE ]
Co-Founder
Product & Tech

Steve Smith

Fractional CTO/CPO.
I build products. I build teams.
I make them AI-native.

Co-Founder @ Yume Studios. 80+ products shipped. 9 hackathon wins. I still code every day.

[ TWITTER ][ GITHUB ][ LINKEDIN ]
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Years Building
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Hackathon Wins
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Products Shipped
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Companies Co-Founded

The Journey

👨‍💼 Co-founded Airbyte (digital product studio) in 2016 with Ross Beale. Ran it for 3 years building products for amazing clients.

🚀 We joined Wildgoose (one of our clients), built the entire tech infrastructure and ran product & tech for 4+ years.

🎨 Now building my own suite of products at Yume Studios and helping founders as fractional CTO/CPO.

🏆 Serial hackathon builder with 9+ ETH/web3 projects including 1st place wins.

⛓️ Active in web3: participant on The Graph & Livepeer networks.

What I Believe

  • 🚀 Ship this week. Not plan for six months.
  • 💻 Fractional CTOs who don't code are just consultants with better titles.
  • 🤖 Your team should be AI-native. Most aren't. It's fixable.
  • 🧠 Context engineering > prompt engineering.
  • 🛠️ The best way to learn AI tooling is to ship something with it.
  • 📊 "We have 10,000 AI users" means nothing. Measure value, not adoption.

How I Can Help

🚀 Fractional CTO/CPO

2-3 days/week embedded in your team. Architecture, hiring, shipping. Builder energy, not consultant energy.

Bonus: Your team becomes AI-native while I'm there. I run hackweeks, set up Claude Code workflows, train devs on what's working. This is included, not extra.

💡 Product Advisory

Strategy and execution for 0→1 products. What to build, how to validate, when to kill.

[ BOOK A CALL ]

Why me over other fractional CTOs?

Most fractional CTOs haven't shipped with AI in production. I do it every day.

Superuser

AI-native workflow. Context engineering. Multi-threaded. 10x output.

Surface User

Uses AI daily. Copy-paste outputs. Thinks they're a superuser. 10-20% boost.

Non-User

Skeptical. Missing out. The gap is widening every month.

Claude Code, MCP servers, agentic workflows, context engineering. This is my daily stack. When I join your team, this knowledge transfers. Your developers move from surface users to superusers.

By the time I roll off, your team isn't just better at building. They're AI-native.

Ask My AI Profile Anything

Curious about my experience, tech stack, or how I might help your project? Open your favourite AI assistant with my profile pre-loaded.

ChatGPTChatGPTClaudeClaudeGeminiGeminiGrokGrok

Powered by steve.llm.md

What I'm Thinking About

🌐 Browser-Native AI

When the browser already understands your page, another chatbot isn't value, it's latency. Building apps that use browser context directly.

🤖 Agents as Co-workers

Agents should handle knowledge transfer, context gathering, and grunt work. Humans focus on creativity. Building AI-first knowledge bases that do exactly this.

🛡️ Data Moats Win

Defensibility = unique, permissioned data, not raw compute. Customer desire > operational efficiency. Don't lose the plot while optimizing.

🔧 MCP & Geospatial AI

Deep into Model Context Protocol and AI + Maps APIs. Real-world context + AI reasoning is where the magic happens.

How I Lead

👥 Supportive line manager who fosters professional growth and champions colleagues

🎯 Known for wearing many tech hats well: software engineering, project management, UX design, leadership

😌 Calm, organised demeanor with a fondness for spreadsheets (yes, really) & FigJam

⚡ Ability to lead tech & product while integrating new technologies quickly

🎓 Guest lecturer at Henley Business School & UTC Reading teaching entrepreneurship and app development

My Approach

💡 Jobs-to-be-done over feature lists

🚀 Quick prototypes and 1-week experiments over endless planning

🎯 User value anchored in data, not hype

📊 Product analytics tied to outcomes, not vanity metrics

🎨 Crisp UX that reduces friction. Make it feel effortless

What Colleagues Say

"Steve wears so many tech hats and he wears them all so well! I was forever amazed at his capacity to cover so many bases with such expertise."

- Steve Batcup, Senior Software Engineer

"There isn't anything that Steve cannot do. He can solutionise promptly whilst providing the best product & tech solutions I've ever seen."

- Eugene Luke, Growth Marketing

"He could quite literally create and test an entire platform from scratch, and still have time to make it look great."

- Anneka Nicholls, Marketing Manager

[ READ MORE ON LINKEDIN ]

Hackathon Wins

🏆 9+ ETH conference projects with 1st place wins and sponsor prizes

XMTPHelper

ETHDenver • 🏆 1st Place XMTP

Plugin for alerts, on-chain queries, and IP asset registration

Opal

ETHGlobal • 🏅 Coinbase AgentKit

No-code onchain AI Agent launcher

ChainStory

ETHGlobal Online 2025

ChatGPT app converting wallet history into AI-generated narratives

Vouch Messenger

ETHGlobal NY • 🏅 ApeCoin + XMTP

Anti-spam messenger for web3

Building With

Languages

TypeScriptPythonRubySwiftKotlinSolidity

Frameworks & Platforms

ReactNext.jsReact NativeTailwindRailsNode.jsExpoKMMFlutterRemotion

AI & Agents

Claude CodeCursorAgent SDKOpenAIGeminiMCP ServersRiveLangChain

Web3

EthereumThe GraphLivepeerSubgraphsXMTPFoundryHardhat

Let's Build
Something Fresh

Open to fractional CTO/CPO roles and advisory positions

[ REACH OUT: steve@yume.co ]
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