I run technology due diligence for investors — and step in as CTO when the plan needs an operator. 25 years building and running software organisations, most recently as CTO of Powens, the French open banking leader.
An independent read on a target's technology: what threatens the investment thesis, what strengthens it, and what you will have to fund after closing. Delivered as a red-flag map and a 100-day value creation plan — in investor language, not engineering language.
I take the seat and execute: engineering organisation, delivery predictability, SLAs, roadmap. I have done this inside a portfolio company through a merger and a hosting migration — so the plan I write is a plan I can run.
Hybrid teams of engineers and AI agents, with the governance that makes them safe to ship: quality gates, traceability, review. Plus FinOps on the two costs nobody budgeted for — cloud and inference.
Security is an engineering problem before it is a policy problem. I have held the interim CISO seat, and I work alongside CISOs to make compliance something the engineering team can actually ship — security by design, audit-ready evidence, and the ISO certifications that clear deal conditions and unlock enterprise contracts.
Does the platform survive the growth case? Where it breaks, and what that costs.
Real debt, not perceived debt — quantified as remediation cost.
Bus factor, key-person dependency, and whether this team can actually ship the roadmap.
Exposure, GDPR, sector rules — and how far the target sits from the certification a buyer will demand.
Is the product plan credible, and is the delivery predictable enough to bet on?
Who owns the code — and the new blind spot: generated-code debt, unmanaged inference cost, ungoverned agents.
CTO of the French open banking leader — a private-equity-backed platform. Ran engineering, SLAs across on-premise and cloud, a full hosting migration, and the technical workstream of a cross-border merger.
A Swiss watch & jewellery group, based in Geneva — client confidential. A multi-year program digitalising the repair order journey for the group's Maisons: governance with business owners, multi-team coordination, and rollout across worldwide locations.
Led 100+ engineers across five countries. Cut R&D expenses by 30% through nearshore sourcing, and launched the products that made the company the European leader in private-label management.
A first scoping call costs nothing and usually tells us both, within twenty minutes, whether there is a mandate here.