Stephan Smith
Technical Translator-in-Chief at Launch by Lunch 🍕
Based in United States
Summary
Tech Leadership, Less Risk
About
I step in as interim tech leadership for growth-stage SMBs when tech starts to impact revenue or risk. I lead your existing team and vendors to restore delivery cadence, clarify priorities, and ship targeted improvements—without a rebuild.
Call me when:
A) Tech decisions are slowing growth.
B) You have a team/vendor, but delivery is inconsistent.
C) Reliability/security concerns are starting to matter.
D) “We should refactor everything” is blocking outcomes.
I don’t bill hourly. I work in packaged engagements (diagnostic → sprint → retainer) so you can budget predictably and measure results.
I have a superpower: I am a painfully cheap technologist!!! I love to do a tech expense teardown. You bring your spreadsheet of tech codes, and I go item by item and tell you how to lower each. TLDR: Every company I talk to spends too much on AWS. But there are also so many overspends in every tech stack.
Skills
Regions covered
Industry experience
Fintech, Professional Services, SaaS
At a glance
Stephan brings hands-on experience across Engineering Leadership. Available for engagements across North America. Industry experience includes Fintech, Professional Services, SaaS.
How fractional CTO engagements with Stephan work
Stephan works on a fractional basis — typically one to three days a week for an agreed engagement length — so you get senior technical leadership without the cost or commitment of a full-time hire. Engagements commonly include technical due diligence, board reporting, engineering team leadership, technology strategy, architecture reviews, hiring support, and stepping in as interim CTO during a transition.