Case Studies
Real projects. Real outcomes. Here’s how I’ve helped companies solve complex technology challenges — from launching new SaaS products to modernizing legacy infrastructure and leading technical due diligence for acquisitions.
Every engagement starts with understanding the business problem, then applying the right combination of technology leadership, architecture expertise, and hands-on execution to deliver measurable results.
EmpireVault — From Concept to Scalable SaaS Platform in 90 Days
Engagement type: Fractional CTO — Full technical ownership
Timeline: 90 days (greenfield build to production launch)
Industry: B2B SaaS — Customer Engagement Platform
A B2B software company needed to go from zero to a production-ready SaaS platform combining CRM, support ticketing, AI-powered live chat, and email campaign management — all within a 90-day window driven by competitive pressure. I served as fractional CTO, owning architecture decisions, technology selection, infrastructure design, security posture, and delivery execution.
Key technology choices: Cloud-native Kubernetes on Civo, full-stack web application with real-time WebSocket layer, AI-powered ticket triage and lead scoring, enterprise security with AES-256-GCM encryption and WorkOS SSO/SAML authentication.
Results: 5 integrated products shipped on schedule, enterprise-grade security from day one, sub-second live chat delivery, AI automation across the entire customer lifecycle, and per-seat pricing starting at $19/month.
Industrial SCADA on Cloud-Native Kubernetes
Engagement type: Architecture & implementation — DynamixE Inc.
Timeline: 2024–2025 ongoing
Industry: Industrial automation / pharmaceutical manufacturing
A pharmaceutical manufacturing client needed Ignition SCADA — historically deployed on dedicated industrial servers — running as cloud-native workloads with the same uptime guarantees and a far better cost profile. I designed and delivered the architecture on Civo’s managed Kubernetes platform, with the Honeywell-grade operational discipline the regulated environment required.
Key technology choices: Civo managed Kubernetes, Ignition Industrial Application Platform, hardened container images with non-root execution, GitOps deployment via ArgoCD, multi-zone failover.
Results: Drop-in replacement for legacy on-prem SCADA at a fraction of the infrastructure cost; demonstrated path off vendor-locked industrial servers; first reference architecture used as the basis for a $1.5M cancer immunotherapy infrastructure deployment.
Replacing a Contact Form with Conversational AI
Engagement type: AI architecture & implementation — Selbytech
Timeline: 2026 — production live
Industry: Professional services (own marketing site)
Standard contact forms convert at low single-digit rates and qualify badly — visitors don’t know what to put in the “message” field, and most submissions need a follow-up email to extract the actual question. I replaced ours with a conversational AI that asks the right qualifying questions, scores intent, and produces a structured lead summary for follow-up.
Key technology choices: Custom AI agent on Anthropic Claude with conversation-grounded context, lead-scoring rubric, structured JSON output to CRM, full conversation transcript retained for review.
Results: Lead quality (manually scored 1–5 by the operator after each conversation) moved from a mean of 2.1 (form) to 3.8 (AI). Time-to-qualified-response dropped from ~24 hours (form → human triage → email) to under 5 minutes (AI → operator review → response).
Technical Due Diligence: Engineering Division Carve-Out
Engagement type: Technical due diligence — pharmaceutical client
Timeline: 2026, 3-week assessment
Industry: Pharmaceutical engineering services
A pharmaceutical client was carving out an engineering division for sale. The acquirer needed an independent assessment of the division’s technology assets, IP separation, team capability, and operational risk before completing the transaction. I conducted the assessment as part of the sell-side data room preparation.
Scope: Architecture and codebase review, IP and license-stack audit, team capability and bus-factor analysis, infrastructure cost model under the carve-out structure, compliance posture against the acquirer’s standards (ISO 27001-aligned), and a risk register with mitigations.
Results: Clean data room delivered on schedule; identified three IP-separation issues before they became deal blockers; produced the technical narrative used in the management presentation.
More Engagements Available on Request
The cases above are the ones I can write about publicly. I’ve also led AI infrastructure strategy for a regulated SaaS application, a VMware-to-Verge.io platform migration assessment, and an interim-CTO engagement during a fundraise. Those engagements are under NDA — happy to discuss on a call.