Companies going through change
Leading through growth, transitions and acquisitions
In short
Some moments need an experienced leader in the room: a technology leader leaves, the team doubles, the company contracts, an acquisition is under way or delivery has stalled. I lead through those moments as a fractional or interim CTO, take responsibility for the transition, and hand over to a team that no longer needs me.
You might recognise this
- Your technology leader has left, or is about to.
- The team is growing faster than its ways of working.
- You are going through an acquisition, a merger or a contraction.
- Delivery dates keep slipping, and nobody can say why.
How we might work together
Examples, not packages. They often overlap within one relationship, and we shape the work together.
- Fractional CTO leadership
- Part-time technology leadership, with clear ownership of decisions.
- Interim CTO leadership
- Full or near-full-time leadership while you find a permanent leader, with a proper handover.
- Turning delivery round
- Finding where work gets stuck, and changing how the team plans, builds and releases.
Relevant experience
- Led Remo’s engineering through pandemic hypergrowth, contraction and acquisition Read the case study
- Scaled Festicket’s team from 3 to 17 through Series B and C, and reengineered the platform to support substantial increases in concurrent demand Read the case study
- Led post-merger IT integration at Global University Systems, serving 15,000+ students
- Cut Remo’s infrastructure and vendor spend by more than 80% over 14 months, holding ~99.99% uptime Read the case study
How we start
We start with a focused look at what you’re trying to achieve, what’s getting in the way, and how I could help. From there, we agree whether there’s a useful role for me and what it should involve.
- Understanding the business and what you are trying to achieve
- Meeting the people who matter to the work
- Looking at enough evidence to see where I could be useful
- Deciding together whether an ongoing role makes sense, and what it should be
Selected results
| Organisation | What changed |
|---|---|
| RemoCTO, 2021 to 2024. Events and remote-office SaaS | Led a 24/7 engineering organisation spanning GMT−8 to GMT+8 through pandemic hypergrowth, contraction and acquisition by Events.com. Cut infrastructure and vendor spend by more than 80% over 14 months, achieved approximately 99.99% uptime with recovery from live-event failures in under one minute, and achieved SOC 2 and ISO 27001. |
| FesticketInterim CTO, 2015 to 2017. The UK's sixth fastest-growing startup | Took over technical leadership from the founding CTO, scaled the team from 3 to 17 through Series B and C, and reengineered the platform to support substantial increases in concurrent demand during a period of more than 1,000% revenue growth. |
Questions
What is the difference between fractional and interim leadership?
Fractional leadership is part-time and ongoing. Interim leadership covers a gap, full-time or close to it, and ends with a handover to a permanent leader.
Will you help hire a permanent leader?
Yes. Defining the role and assessing candidates is usually part of the work.