I write code daily. Because staying technical is part of who I am.

I believe staying close to the hundreds of tiny technical decisions made every day lets you see how strategic choices can compound into either outcome excellence or technical debt/failure.

I can offer

• Fraction CTO leadership
• Technical leadership & mentorship for teams or individuals
• Public speaking

What Teams & Clients Say

"Alex was absolutely brilliant... The content he delivered was the perfect blend of being technical, but still relatable to suit all of those in the audience. Alex was mobbed after his talk with people wanting to know more."  – Jack Snelling, CSO @ Godel Technologies

"The best manager I have ever met. He really understands how to properly manage, motivate and challenge a team... This creates so many growth opportunities that the team is always getting better and better everyday." –  Pedro Matos de Carvalho, Senior Backend Engineer

"Whip-smart, exceptional with people, funny, deeply enthusiastic and willing to experiment... I watched him grow from an exceptionally talented developer to a fully-formed CTO: managing his team, managing an increasingly complex and world-facing site with major security implications." – Turi Munthe, CEO @ Demotix

See more on LinkedIn

The reality

Your engineering team doesn't need to hear from another executive or advisor who speaks in buzzwords and TLAs (yes, that's Three Letter Acronyms). They need someone who can spot why your CI takes 47 minutes when it should take 6. Why upgrading to the latest version of a library might actually be a mistake. Who knows which AI tool is actually useful versus expensive noise. Who can translate between complaints about "technical debt", your customers wanting a dark mode and your board asking about "velocity".

The brutal truth: Every decision compounds, architectural ones especially. From big and small, it all counts. From which feature to start building, to which company to acquire. Choose right and you will be delighting customers, with happy teams, wrong and you will be stuck watching your competitor' success from the sidelines, as you rewrite, rehire and rethink.

I've been helping teams and companies grow and thrive for 20 years. From running my own consultancy to startups like Demotix (built, scaled, acquired by Corbis), and TubeBuddy (due diligence, integration, growth),  and leading technical teams at a Bill Gates owned business BENlabs, for 12 years (scaled up, acquisitions, AI integration, long term investments). I have also helped dozens of advisory clients along the way (start ups, marketing agencies, e-commerce, journalism, DJs, educational VR and even landmine sniffing rats ... yes, really).

What I Actually Do

Strategic technical guidance and research. Not dry PowerPoints. Actual code reviews, architecture decisions, and "should we use X?", team structure, senior technical mentorship.

AI without the BS. I've been hands-on with AI since the early days of this current wave (and even long before that, I was studying poker playing AI at University!). I've built data-science teams, upgrading engineering with agents and spoken internationally about how AI can be applied to a range of fields. I have seen what works, what's hype, and what will cost you time and money for marginal gains.

Due diligence that matters. I have evaluated technologies for both sides of M&A negotiations. I know what acquirers actually check for, what sends them running and where the future expensive technical landmines can be hidden.

Team acceleration and enhancement. Your team can ship faster with the right patterns, tools, and processes. I've made it happen. Small changes can have massive compound effects. Your teams can be happier and more engaged, with the right patterns and flows established.

Staying ahead of the curve

I write about what's actually happening at the intersection of engineering, product and AI. Not the hype, the on the ground reality. I believe strongly in sharing what we know, helping others and exploring the fun (and hard) problems, so we can all grow.

My blog should give you a taste of my approach, thinking and what I'm interested in currently. That said, I'm always excited to learn about new problems. Especially the tricky ones!

Good fit?

If you want someone to manage JIRA tickets, help run your stand-ups or build you a specific feature; that's not me, that's management and development.

I'm here for the strategic inflection points, the long term mentorship, the advice over months and years; where technical decisions determine teams and companies trajectory.

I'm not generally a good fit for one off projects. But I can probably put you in touch with some great companies/candidates, if that is what you need!

Next steps

Drop me an email [email protected], or book a meeting https://calendly.com/alex-mcfadyen

We can talk, and see if we might be a good fit. If I can't help you, I will try very hard to connect you with excellent CTOs/VPs of Engineering in my network who might be able to help.

I am excited to learn more about you and your goals.