Keith D.

Fractional CTO who architects and builds. I set the technical direction, then ship the product myself, at a pace that used to take a small team. 20+ years, five CTO and founder roles, three exits. Clients usually find me at one of these points: - You have an idea or prototype and need it built properly, for scale, not just demoed. - You've hired developers or an agency, and nobody owns the system end to end. - The AI project sounded promising and hasn't delivered anything the business can measure. - An investor, board or buyer is about to look hard at your technology. HOW I BUILD I architect the system, make the stack and build-versus-buy calls, then build it. AI is built into how I work, which is why one person can move this fast, and I'm accountable for everything that ships. You get senior judgement and the build in one hire. If you already have developers or an agency, I can lead them instead, or do both. A recent client: "Keith set up our entire Linear workspace in a single session... He ran the whole thing programmatically using AI tooling." THE TRACK RECORD Co-founder and CTO at Telenor Health, where we scaled Tonic to 9 million subscribers before exit to Grameen Trust. Founder and CTO at ODOC and Creation Application, both exited. CTO and CPO at Praava Health. Director and Group Chief Digital Officer at Hemas Holdings: a World Bank-sponsored transformation across pharma manufacturing and distribution, and a hospital digital transformation that secured $25M of IFC investment. Consulting CTO for Harbr, a healthcare impact fund: three companies I took through technical due diligence were subsequently funded. Enterprise work with Apple, Netflix, KPMG, Tata and Mubadala, from programme-managing the original iPhone launch at O2 to a $10M global mobility platform rolled out across 15 countries. Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School have published case studies on programmes I've led. HOW WE START Usually with a fixed-price technical assessment covering architecture, codebase, team and risk, with a written report and a three-month plan. From there, a fixed-scope build, a CTO retainer of half a day to two days a week, or both. PROGRAMME DIRECTION When the job is delivery at scale, I take programme director mandates too. Enterprise implementations through Topia for Netflix, Mubadala, ASML and Syngenta. Government digital public infrastructure across Somalia, Madagascar, Uganda and the Philippines, in my work with OpenCRVS. NOT A GREAT FIT If you need someone to manage a task list, want daily hand-holding, or are looking for the cheapest option. WHAT TO EXPECT More questions upfront than most, because the right questions early save everyone time later. I'll tell you if something won't work rather than just building it. Security and data privacy are built into how I work, which matters if you're regulated or in government. AI: Claude API, Claude Code, OpenAI API, LangChain, n8n, Qdrant, RAG pipelines, multi-agent orchestration. Build: Python, Node, Docker, Astro. Delivery: Linear, Jira, Azure DevOps, Notion. Based in Dubai (GMT+4). Tell me what you're building and where it's stuck, and I'll give you an honest first read.