Zach Smith: Fractional CTO & Product Leader
I work alongside founders and teams to turn complexity into working software, shaping product direction, building engineering orgs, and shipping with AI-augmented velocity.
With over two decades in SaaS, I bring deep experience in product development, cloud infrastructure, AI integration, and security/compliance. I know how to lead through growth, uncertainty, and change without slowing you down.
How I Help
Hands-on leadership across product, engineering, and execution.
- Product & Development
End-to-end product leadership: strategy, UX, specifications, architecture, and hands-on development. I build and ship, not just advise. - AI-Augmented Development
I use AI tooling daily to move at the speed of a small team. Faster prototyping, faster integration, fewer dependencies on large engineering orgs. - Engineering Operations
Velocity without chaos: CI/CD, cloud modernization, team performance, and dev process improvements. - Security & Compliance
SOC 2, secure architecture, and DevSecOps best practices baked into your company's foundation.
Writing & Projects
- Quest Mouse
A side project: a conversational AI Dungeon Master for D&D, built with voice AI and modern LLMs. I'm building it in public and writing about the experience on my Substack, covering architecture decisions, where AI tools succeed and fail, and what it's actually like to build software in the AI age. - 9 Tech Health Questions Every Non-Technical SaaS Founder Should Be Asking
An in-depth checklist to help SaaS founders without a technical background assess how their technology is really doing. Covers code ownership, deployment readiness, security, scalability, and product roadmap alignment.
Background
Deep experience across SaaS, services, and startup ecosystems
- Fractional CTO & Product Lead – Written Word Media (2025–present)
Hands-on product and engineering leadership for a media and marketing platform. Stabilized delivery, redesigned workflows with AI-assisted automation, and reduced manual operational effort by ~60%. - CTO & Co-Founder – Channeltivity (2007–2025)
Built and led product, engineering, and compliance for a leading PRM platform. Grew from zero to millions in ARR, achieved top G2 rankings, and led multiple SOC 2 Type II audits with zero exceptions. - CEO – Analog Method (2001–2012)
Ran and scaled a digital agency, delivering award-winning work for high-profile clients. Sold the company in 2012. - Director of Web Dev – CBI Connect (2000-2002)
Led web application development for B2B clients, owning architecture and delivery.
Get In Touch
If you're a founder looking to move faster, solve product or engineering problems, or get your tech ready for scale, let's talk.