TechCXO

We're excited to welcome Marty vanZwietering to TechCXO as a Fractional CTO & Partner. For Marty, most companies don't have a technology problem so much as a business problem that's showing up in their technology. Whether that’s a growth channel that's outgrown its platform, a modernization effort that's stalled because nobody owns the roadmap, or a board that needs a clear view of technical risk before it commits capital. Marty steps in to convert those challenges into results, as an operator who builds the architecture, stands up the team, and stays hands-on until the platform is actually delivering. Where Marty has made an impact: — M&T Bank | Led the platform strategy behind a new self-service business banking product, opening a growth channel that added $32 million in annual revenue. Integrated digital scheduling and implemented CRM capabilities across the retail organization — PNC | Rebuilt a 40,000-employee licensing model from the ground up, cutting waste 92% and returning $10 million a year without adding headcount. Accelerated release cycles from three months to four weeks. Helped secure enterprise approval for AI adoption, then applied AI across development tooling, knowledge indexing, governance documentation, and dispute-management research.  — Keurig Dr Pepper | Modernized the digital commerce backbone behind a channel that grew from under $100 million to more than $700 million, while cutting fraud loss by 75% At TechCXO, Marty works with financial services, digital channel, capital markets, and technology-enabled companies that need more than a strategy deck. He’s the one who defines the roadmap and then builds it. Please join us in welcoming Marty >>https://lnkd.in/duBENYP6

Fractional leadership isn't consulting; it's ownership. That distinction came up when Rich Makover, Fractional CRO and Managing Partner of TechCXO’s Revenue Growth Practice, joined the Burn the Ship podcast with Bailey Cooper this week. Rich spent 30+ years at Avon, Luxottica, Frederick Goldman, Citizen Watch, and others before going fractional, moving from finance into sales and strategy leadership. Now he runs a team of 22 fractional executives, and one pattern shows up in almost every client engagement he takes on: open the CRM, and half the accounts still have the founder's name on them. That's often the reason the company has gotten as far as it has. But it can also be a bit of a red flag when it’s the reason they can't keep scaling without help. Rich's job isn't to advise; it's to own the functional area. As he says, "we're in there with them, side by side, not consultants, but in their operating room with them helping them scale their business.” He's also clear about where AI fits and where it doesn't. One thing he's seeing more of is "shadow AI" inside client companies: everyone experimenting with different tools, nobody connecting the dots. His assessment is that AI is excellent at organizing what you already know, but it's not all that good at the thing his team actually gets hired for: spotting the real problem underneath the problem a founder thinks they have. That's why every engagement starts with an assessment, not a proposal. Listen In >>https://lnkd.in/dDXkPiVf

Does your AI create an advantage competitors can't replicate, or is it just another off-the-shelf tool? There isn’t really a right or wrong answer, except where your company valuation is at stake. In his latest blog, Is AI Your Newest Form of Competitive Moat?, TechCXO Partner and Fractional CTO Kevin Carlson explores the three tiers of our AIIM Framework, and the distinction between using AI, and owning it. One shows up on a P&L as a cost, the other shows up in the valuation as an asset. Key takeaways: - Most companies default to tier one AI tools and stay there. Which is fine, until it isn't. - Proprietary AI moats are built on data competitors don't have access to, improve over time, and in the strongest cases generate patentable IP. - The due diligence questions around AI are evolving. The answers determine where you stand in the deal process. - The proprietary models of the future run on the data you're accumulating now. How you treat that data today determines what you can build tomorrow. At TechCXO, we help growth-stage companies and their investors figure out whether their AI is a line item or a competitive moat in the making. The issue isn't whether AI alone matters to valuation, but whether your specific use and approach to AI will create defensible value that drives valuation. Read the full blog >> https://lnkd.in/gZ8u_rnM

Virtual CIOs and Fractional CIOs often get thought of as interchangeable. They shouldn't, because they play different roles. Understanding those differences can make better technology decisions a lot easier. The MSP handles operations. The Fractional CIO handles strategy. Those are complementary functions, and for the most part, they work perfectly together. In his latest blog, Fractional CIO vs. vCIO: Decoding the Difference Between a Strategic Partner and a Sales Pitch, TechCXO Fractional CIO Ian Findlay draws on 20 years of experience running a managed service provider to explain the important distinctions between these two roles, and when an independent technology executive adds value alongside your MSP. A few key takeaways: - A vCIO is typically part of your MSP relationship, helping align technology decisions with the services that MSP provides. A Fractional CIO brings an independent executive perspective focused on your broader business and technology strategy. - The strategic value a vCIO provides varies from one MSP to the next. The key is understanding whether you're getting operational guidance and/or executive-level strategy, or neither, if they’re functioning as more of a sales-oriented account manager. - A Fractional CIO and a good MSP aren't competitors. They're complementary. The MSP keeps technology running. The Fractional CIO ensures technology decisions are supporting the business. A Fractional CIO also serves as an objective check on your MSP, ensuring they're delivering what they've contracted for, at the highest quality level. They act as a bridge between business leadership and technology execution, translating business needs into technology decisions in a way that most MSPs simply aren't structured to do. The question you should be asking is this: Is my technology strategy aligned with my business goals, and do I have the right leadership in place to make that happen? Whether you work with an MSP today or are considering bringing in executive technology leadership, understanding the distinction will maximize the value you get. Read the full blog >> https://lnkd.in/e7yZJZ9C

AI has a way of starting as a technology conversation and becoming a business conversation. Because once AI changes how work gets done, it changes a whole lot more than the work. In her latest blog, Gina Manoli, TechCXO Partner and Fractional CHRO, looks at what happened when a rapidly scaling Series C biotech company moved beyond the question of how to implement AI and started asking a much more consequential one: How do we need to operate differently because AI is now part of how we work? The answer reached well beyond technology: How work would evolve across people, AI, and automation Which roles, responsibilities, and skills would need to change.  How leadership itself would need to evolve.  Where governance was needed to turn a growing list of AI possibilities into clear priorities.  Why workforce readiness had to be built into the transformation, not bolted on afterward. Another critical lesson? AI activity is not the same thing as business progress. For a company already scaling rapidly and expanding geographically, pursuing every AI opportunity at once would have created plenty of motion, but not necessarily value. The roadmap had to balance where AI could materially improve the business with what the organization could realistically absorb. The bigger point for CEOs? The AI plan and the organization plan aren’t separate plans. Once AI starts changing the way your company works, the technology is just a piece of that transformation. Read the Full Blog >> https://lnkd.in/ehUs7rPx

We're excited to welcome Mike Laureno to TechCXO as a Fractional CFO & Strategic Advisor. Managing investors and diligent reporting have long been table stakes of financial management. Mike goes further. With nearly three decades of experience across finance, strategy, operations, and restructuring, he steps into companies when the numbers need to hold up under real pressure, building forecasts leadership can act on and turning finance into a tool for growth rather than just oversight. Where Mike has made a significant impact: • PointRight — Led the turnaround of this healthcare SaaS company, improving EBITDA margins from negative 47% to positive 10% in 18 months and driving a fivefold increase in valuation • Snap — Built the monetization plan and projected a $10 billion valuation a year. That valuation was achieved in line with the plan and confirmed publicly exactly one year later. • Lionsgate — Stepped into a critical FP&A role days before an earnings call during a hostile takeover attempt, delivering guidance that helped restore investor confidence at a pivotal moment At TechCXO, Mike works with private equity-backed, high-growth, and middle-market companies across SaaS, AI, healthtech, media, and financial services. He helps leadership teams allocate capital wisely, manage downside risk, and raise capital on their own terms, not out of need. Please join us in welcoming, Mike >>https://lnkd.in/dr9i5vFp

Customers don't just leave a company. The relationship erodes, commitment weakens, and by the time the cancellation happens, the outcome was already decided weeks or months earlier. So why does this often come as a surprise to companies? In her newest blog, The Real Cost of Reactive Retention and How to Get Ahead of It, Karyn Mullins, Interim & Fractional COO at TechCXO, breaks down why most retention strategies are reactive by design, and what it takes to get ahead of churn before it shows up in the numbers. A few of the key takeaways: • 73% of churned customers never saw enough value early enough to want to stay (Gainsight) • Lagging indicators tell you what already happened. Leading indicators tell you what to act on now. • The biggest retention gap is that no one owns the full picture across product, sales, and customer success. • Retention and expansion run on the same signals. Read in reverse, churn risk indicators often point to growth opportunities instead. Karyn also shares a real example around this: a behavioral signals model that helped one team catch at-risk accounts early enough to drive a 56% increase in renewal rate. Reactive retention is scrambling to save clients who have probably already decided to leave. Proactive revenue growth means earning those clients every day. Read the full blog >> https://lnkd.in/gUvEchJe #CustomerRetention #RevenueGrowth #CustomerSuccess #RevenueStrategy

Renewal work can quietly drain days from a growing business. TechCXO Partner and fractional CFO Peter Biro explains how AI automation for small businesses can reduce renewal prep time while keeping people accountable for the customer relationship. The right workflow does more than draft a faster email. It brings the review points into view so employees have more time for follow-up, exceptions, and the conversations that require trust. Read the full blog below. https://lnkd.in/grRTbrwK #AI #AIForBusiness #BusinessAutomation #CustomerExperience #FractionalLeadership

As a business changes, especially quickly, the finance department doesn't always keep up. That's where John Nolan, CPA comes in. TechCXO is excited to welcome him as our newest Fractional CFO, Finance & Operations and Transaction Advisor. John works with growth-stage and middle-market companies, primarily in the $10M to $100M revenue range, as well as with private equity firms, investment bankers, and other investors supporting portfolio companies and transactions. His strength is bringing the financial infrastructure up to speed with the business: forecasting, reporting, pricing, cash management, and the operational discipline that boards, investors, bankers, and auditors expect. Over more than three decades across SaaS and technology, financial services, and government contracting, John has served as CFO of four founder-led companies, spanning startups, private equity-backed businesses, and public companies moving through acquisitions, restructuring, and rapid growth. A few career highlights:  • Led the finance function through the successful sale of publicly traded SaaS company Determine, Inc. (NASDAQ: DTRM) to Corcentric • Was the CFO of one of the 100 largest private companies in Washington, DC, government contractor Quadel Consulting • Moved a $30M international luxury goods wholesaler to sustained EBITDA profitability John has been named a CFO of the Year finalist by SmartCEO, with his work featured in the Washington Post and the Harvard Business Review Press book Competing on Analytics. Welcome, John. Meet him here >> https://lnkd.in/gwFTF7Rs #FractionalCFO #FinancialLeadership #PrivateEquity #BusinessGrowth