Product engineering for early-stage companies
From idea to a product customers pay for. I lead discovery, design and development of your MVP and early product, with the architecture, security and AI foundations to keep scaling after launch.
Speed now, without a rewrite later.
Early-stage companies face two expensive failure modes. Build too slowly and you run out of runway before you find product-market fit. Build carelessly and the shortcuts you took at month three turn into a rewrite at month eighteen, right when customers and investors expect you to scale.
Product engineering led by an experienced CTO avoids both. We move fast on what's easy to change, and slow down only on the few decisions that aren't: your data model, your infrastructure, your security and compliance posture, and how AI fits into the product.
- Senior judgment on scope, so you build less and learn more.
- Foundations ready for enterprise buyers and security reviews like SOC 2.
- AI-native from day one, governed and secure by design.
- Code, infrastructure and accounts that you own outright.
End-to-end, from discovery to launch
Product discovery
- Problem framing and customer interviews
- Riskiest-assumption mapping
- Scope definition and MVP cut
- Success metrics before a line of code
UX & product design
- User flows and wireframes
- Clickable prototypes for validation
- Design systems that scale with the product
MVP development
- Web and mobile applications
- APIs, integrations and data pipelines
- Short iterations with working software each step
- Automated testing and CI/CD
AI-native features
- LLM-powered features and AI agents
- Integrations on standards like MCP
- Evaluation, guardrails and cost control
- AI-assisted engineering workflows
Cloud & security foundations
- Cloud architecture on AWS and similar platforms
- Infrastructure as code and observability
- Security controls ready for SOC 2
- Privacy and compliance by design
Launch & handover
- Production launch and monitoring
- Documentation your next hires can use
- Hiring your in-house or LATAM team
- Optional move to a fractional CTO engagement
How we build
Discover
Understand the customer, the problem and the riskiest assumption. Cut scope to what matters.
Design
Architecture and UX for the MVP, with the irreversible decisions made carefully.
Build
Short iterations, demos you can put in front of customers, and steady progress you can see.
Launch & grow
Ship to production, measure, iterate, and set up the team that takes it forward.
Built, shipped, in production
Proptech · Homie.mx
ML pricing and a support chatbot
An ML-based market-price calculator and a CS/CRM chatbot that cut inbound calls 40% and lifted NPS and CSAT, on a platform migrated from a monolith to microservices on AWS and Kubernetes.
Fintech · NoNighter
AI agents and OCR, SOC 2 compliant
Customer-facing features powered by AI agents and OCR, on redundant AWS and Azure infrastructure, in a company that passed SOC 2 Type II.
Travel · SnowBus / ReserveWinter
Two booking sites, relaunched
Relaunched and rebranded two white-label booking sites on React and Java, with a new SEO strategy and a team recruited for the job.
Banking · Santander Colombia
Foreign-trade platform in 6 months
Delivered a new platform that replaced a licensed product and saves ~USD 1M a year.
Payments · Getnet
Tax engine and merchant onboarding
A tax engine for card transactions and merchant onboarding for Getnet Argentina and Mexico.
Travel · Despegar
85% less manual after-sale work
Automation that cut manual after-sale operations by 85% at Latin America's leading online travel company.
A good fit if you…
- Are a founder with a validated problem and need a product built
- Raised a pre-seed or seed round and need to ship before the next one
- Are in fintech, proptech, travel, B2B SaaS or another space where security matters
- Want AI at the core of your product, not bolted on
Probably not a fit if you…
- Need the lowest-cost hourly development shop
- Have a fully defined spec and only want it typed in
- Need ongoing staff augmentation without product ownership
Need leadership more than a build? See fractional CTO/CPO.
Frequently asked questions
What is product engineering?
Product engineering combines product thinking and software engineering: deciding what to build based on customer and business needs, then designing, building, testing and iterating on it. For early-stage companies it means getting from idea to a product customers pay for, without building foundations you'll need to throw away.
How long does it take to build an MVP?
It depends on scope, but the goal is to ship the smallest product that tests your riskiest assumption in weeks, not months. We start with discovery to cut scope to what matters, then build in short iterations with working software at each step.
Do you build AI features and AI-native products?
Yes. I design AI as an operating layer rather than a pile of features: a coherent, governed and secure framework built on emerging standards like the Model Context Protocol (MCP), and I use AI-native engineering workflows to ship faster.
Who owns the code and IP?
You do. The code, infrastructure and accounts live in your company's name from day one, documented so your future team can take over without a rewrite.
What happens after the MVP launches?
We can keep iterating together, help you hire your own engineering team (including in Latin America), or transition into a fractional CTO engagement while your team grows.
How do I start a project with you?
Send me a connection request on LinkedIn followed by a DM describing your idea or product, your stage and your timeline.
Have a product to build?
I don't use contact forms. Reach me on LinkedIn:
- Send me a connection request.
- Follow it with a DM mentioning "Product Engineering", what you're building, your stage and timeline.
Intros welcome too.