The Alchemy of Startups

Fractional CTO / CPO Services

People | Process | Product | Technology | Marketing

"How Can We Accelerate Your Startup?"

Richard Pickett Profile Photo Richard Pickett Profile Photo

"Building a successful startup is a blend of tech savvy, customer connection, and balancing speed with scalability."

- Richard Pickett

Technology

I help founders create a Technology Roadmap so they build on the right technology today, enabling future growth without throwing away past work.

There are two traps founders get caught in. Either not understanding technology well enough, so they start with the wrong tech stack, or being super‑tech and building a complex tech stack, delaying their speed‑to‑market.

Product

I help founders prioritize the right features early on and develop a technology roadmap to avoid future pitfalls.

Initially, startups must balance feature delivery with speed to market.

As they grow, finding Product-Market Fit—a mix of science and art—and building a scalable, stable product becomes critical.

Customer Engagement

I help founders craft their messaging in a way that their ideal customers are drawn to them by a deep "we get it" connection.

From the start, customers are the oxygen of the business, and the need for constantly improving customer engagement never ends.

Speaking directly to your ideal customer in a way that connects with them is key.

"Schedule some time with me now to share your vision,
I'd love to see how we can work together!"

- Richard Pickett

Schedule Your Initial Consultation

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My Approach To Startup Growth

Make Your Product Your Marketing And Your Startup Will Grow On Its Own

I can help you find the best ways to gain market traction while validating your product features.

The initial focus a startup should take is validating it's product with potential customers.

The worst thing a startup can do is waste time making the perfect product that no one wants.

Finding the fastest way to test features and product ideas, spending the least amount of money will free you to focus only one what matters.

Every product has it's own unique way of gaining market traction and validating features with customers.

Enchant Your Customers With Your Messaging

I can help you create the magical phrases your customers will find irresistable.

Connecting with customers is an art, one that doesn't come natural to engineers.

As founders we view the problem through a lens that shows us the solution. Our ideal customers don't have that lens, or they wouldn't need our product.

When we talk to our customers from our viewpoint, they can't connect with us.

Often founders skip from making the product, straight into trying marketing.

There are two steps in‑between making the product and marketing - Aligning your "why" with your ideal customer's "why," and clearly defining your marketing position.

Great People make Great Processes make Great Products

I can help you find the right people for your team and develop the right processes for your sustained business growth.

Once the product is validated and there's a good base of customers, it's time to switch focus.

In the beginning, manual, and sometimes costly, processes may have been developed for speed-to-market.

As the startup grows, the focus has to switch to people and process.

Many startups fail to keep growign, and even collapse, after their initial success because they didn't switch focus from speed to stability.

Marcus Lemonis' 3 Ps in business are People, Process, and Product - and their importance is in that order.

Great People fix bad Processes. Great Processes fix bad Products.