Early-stage or growth-stage SaaS companies

These are founders who have moved beyond idea and prototype. Their product is in the market, they’ve validated early traction, and they’re now facing the technical realities of scaling. They aren’t pre-MVP, and they aren’t mature enterprises — they’re in the messy middle where technical foundations matter more every month.

5–20 employees

Teams this size typically have product, design, customer success, and a few engineers - but not enough senior technical depth to set direction, build process, or prevent misalignment. They’re big enough to have real customer demand, but small enough that one wrong technical decision can slow everything down.

$2M–$5M annual revenue

These companies have strong customer validation and the financial footing to invest in stabilizing their platform. They’re past the scrappy-builder phase but not yet at enterprise scale. At this stage, founders usually feel pressure from both customers and investors to strengthen their technical foundations.

A live product with paying customers

These are founders who have moved beyond idea and prototype. Their product is in the market, they’ve validated early traction, and they’re now facing the technical realities of scaling. They aren’t pre-MVP, and they aren’t mature enterprises - they’re in the messy middle where technical foundations matter more every month.

Engineering handled by contractors, offshore teams, or small internal teams (1–3 engineers)

Most teams we work with don’t have a fully built engineering department. Instead, they rely on freelancers, near-shore/offshore firms, or one core engineer doing everything. This creates bottlenecks, inconsistent quality, and blurred ownership. They need structure, process, accountability, and senior guidance - not more junior developers.

No senior technical leader in place

There’s no CTO-equivalent to translate business goals into technical action. Without a technical “owner,” founders often get stuck with: unclear timelines, unpredictable releases, hard-to-interpret technical explanations, slow progress, recurring bugs, reactive decision-making. Keiboarder fills this leadership gap - giving founders clarity, direction, and stability while laying the groundwork for future internal leadership.

Fractional CTO Leadership

• Weekly advisement

• Strategy alignment

• Roadmap guidance

• Vendor and contractor oversight

• Coaching for founders who lack a technical counterpart

Platform Stabilization

• Technical audits

• Architecture reviews

• Codebase and infrastructure assessment

• Transition from prototype/MVP to production-ready

Engineering & Delivery Process Setup

• Sprint rhythm

• QA, documentation, deploy processes

• Backlog structure and velocity tracking

• Reducing rework, bugs, and surprises

Recovery & Transition Work

• Untangling technical debt

• Stabilizing brittle outsourced builds

• Planning transitions from offshore → in-house

Slow releases / delays

“I don’t know why everything takes so long.”
“We haven’t shipped anything meaningful in months.”
“Every date they give me slips.”

Recurring bugs / instability

“Every time we push a release, something breaks.”
“Users keep reporting issues we thought were fixed.”
“I’m afraid to deploy because something always goes sideways.”

Offshore or contractor confusion

“I can’t tell what my offshore team is doing day to day.”
“We’re spending money but not getting real progress.”
“I feel like I’m managing the dev team instead of the business.”

Single-developer dependency

“Only one person knows how anything works.”
“If they quit, everything stops.”

Unclear timelines or progress

“Why does a simple feature take weeks?”
“I never get clear answers.”
“They keep saying things are ‘complex,’ but I don’t know why.”

Communication breakdown

“I don’t understand what they’re talking about.”
“They’re speaking in technical riddles.”
“I just want someone who can translate.”