6 years shipping production code Series A through C only Four clients max · Two board seats

The story you've heard before

You shipped v1. Now you're hiring. Every PR. Every call. All on you. You need a senior engineer in the room. Not another advisor.

I read your codebase first. I push back early. I leave you with a team that runs without me.

Yusuf at a smoked-glass desk reviewing dual monitors with warm cobalt syntax-highlighted code, brass desk lamp on, dark walnut wall behind, warm tungsten side light

How I think about it

I read your codebase first. I push back early. I leave you with a team that runs without me.

01

The architecture call, made once

I read the codebase before the first hire. Architecture decisions made early save quarters of refactor work later. The hard call, made once.

02

Six years on the inside

Atlassian 2018 to 2022. Founding engineer at a Sydney Series A fintech 2022, $42M Series C acquisition 2024. I know what shipping at this stage actually feels like.

03

Surry Hills, founder rooms

In person where it matters. Eight office hours a week at your desk or mine. The CBD walk-and-talk has unlocked more architecture clarity than the whiteboard.

Yusuf gesturing across a dark walnut conference table to a founder, two leather chairs, single brass pendant lamp casting warm pool of light, smoked glass wall behind

About

I write code.
I read codebases.
I push back when push back's needed.

Atlassian 2018 to 2022, senior engineer on developer tooling. Founding engineer at a Sydney Series A fintech 2022 to 2024. Exit at $42M Series C acquisition.

Now solo. Four retainer clients max. Two board seats max. Series A through Series C only. Plus post-acquisition integration when the founder is technical and the cap-table allows fractional.

I don't take board seats from companies I haven't worked inside first. Pattern recognition needs reps, not pitches.

How an engagement actually goes

From discovery to off-ramp.

Step 01
Discovery

Free 60 minutes. Codebase walk-through. Where you are, where you're stuck.

Step 02
First 30 days

Architecture review and 3 to 6 month technical roadmap. Your team meets me, I meet your codebase.

Step 03
Months 2 to 3

Technical hire support, code review cadence, board prep. The codebase gets quieter every sprint.

Step 04
Off-ramp

Senior engineer hired internally OR retainer renews. Your call. The off-ramp is the point.

What I offer

Fractional CTO. Done properly.

Six ways to engage. The retainer is the deepest. The audit is the sharpest. The advisory seat is the longest.

Dark walnut desk with hardcover notebook open showing handwritten architecture diagram, brass pen, single brass desk lamp casting warm pool
01 · Audit

Codebase Audit

One-shot read of your codebase, written architecture report, prioritised technical debt register, hire-plan recommendation.

$5,500

Yusuf's office: empty Aeron chair angled toward dual monitors with screen-glow, dark walnut wall with framed print, warm tungsten light
02 · Retainer

Fractional CTO Retainer

3-month minimum, $8K per month. Eight office hours per week, async Slack, monthly board-prep, quarterly off-site.

From $24K / quarter

Hands holding a printed JD or candidate brief over dark walnut desk, brass pen mid-margin annotation, warm tungsten light
03 · Hiring

Hire-Plan Sprint

Senior engineer JD, technical screen, take-home design, offer review. The hire that holds the next 18 months.

$7,500

Dark walnut conference table with empty crystal water glass, closed laptop, small whiteboard with sketched flowchart, single brass pendant
04 · Board

Board-Tech Advisory Seat

Two seats max. Quarterly board prep, technical due-diligence on acquisitions, ad-hoc strategic counsel. Post-engagement only.

$30K / year per seat

Large smoked-glass wall mid-architecture-diagram drawn in metallic-gold marker, hand holding marker mid-stroke, warm tungsten light
05 · Sprint

Architecture Sprint

Two-week deep dive. Written architecture deliverable, system diagram, migration plan, sequenced execution roadmap.

$14,000

Simple dark walnut desk with a single book, notebook, brass pen, crystal glass of water, dark walnut wall behind, warm tungsten light
06 · Advisory

Strategic Advisory

Quarterly retainer, 4 hours per month, async-first. For founders who want a senior technical thinking partner without the depth of the full retainer.

From $2,200 / month

Brief Yusuf

Talk to Aero. They screen my inbound.

Aero isn't a chatbot reading from a script. Tell them what stage you're at. Ask them whether the retainer or the audit is the right fit. Ask them when I have a discovery slot this week.

Most enquiries get a discovery call slot within the week. Series A through Series C only. Post-acquisition integration discussed case-by-case.

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Series A, B, C, or post-acquisition integration?

Real questions

The stuff founders ask first.

Can I just hire you full-time?
No. Fractional only. Four-client cap. The reason the work works is the depth across four concurrent codebases. Going full-time at one would lose the pattern recognition that makes the call sharper.
Do you take board seats?
Yes. Two max. Post-engagement only. I don't take board seats from companies I haven't worked inside first. $30K per year per seat. The cap holds.
Can you write code if needed?
Yes, but it's not what you're paying for. The work is architecture, hiring, code review and the calls. If the team is one engineer thin and a Postgres migration is blocking the next release, I'll write the migration. That's the edge, not the centre.
Do you specialise in a stack?
TypeScript and Postgres preferred. Comfortable across modern stacks (Node, Go, Python on the backend; React or Next on the front). Mobile and ML I refer out. I have opinions about TypeScript that you may not enjoy if your codebase is loose.
What stages do you work with?
Series A through Series C. Plus post-acquisition technical integration for the buying or selling side. Pre-seed is usually not the right fit. The work is architecture and hiring, not building MVPs.
Do you do due-diligence work?
Yes, on retainer engagements. Not as one-off DD sprints. The technical DD I do is for board seats I hold or for clients evaluating acquisitions inside an existing retainer. The depth comes from the relationship, not the brief.

Got a question Aero didn't answer? Just ask them.

Brief Aero now

Four client cap.
Q3 2026 booking now.

Two retainer slots open this quarter. The discovery call is free. The retainer is three-month minimum. The off-ramp is the point.

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