From bottlenecks to breakthroughs.
I work with your leadership team to restore flow, sharpen priorities, and build a foundation that lasts.
Scaling Teams, Technology, and Leadership.
Who I work with
Founders, CEOs, and CTOs at Series A–C companies (typically 2–100 people). When human complexity surfaces and strategy starts stalling in execution, I step in to help you regain focus and momentum.
Outcomes you can expect
Time and focus for founders
Strategy and fundraising no longer blocked by operational firefighting.
Executive alignment
Decisions stick, conflicts resolve faster, and priorities hold across the org.
Teams that scale without breaking
Communication structures evolve smoothly from 10 → 100+.
Culture resilience
New hires onboard into a healthy, self-reinforcing environment.
Momentum in critical moments
I join execs in the room when stakes are high, so progress doesn’t stall.
Lower product & tech risk
Processes and architecture are red-teamed before they get expensive.
What I do
Embedded Delivery
I work directly with your leadership team and high-stakes R&D and product initiatives to earn trust and move work forward.
Fractional Leadership
As trust builds, I can step in as fractional CTO, VP Eng, or Chief of Staff until you hire permanent owners.
Executive & Org Design
Operating rhythms, decision forums, and culture foundations.
Investor Add-on (optional)
Selective org, product, and technical diligence for boards and investors.
How we’ll work
Typically, in the first ~90 days I focus on diagnosing friction and creating visible wins: clarifying priorities, restoring pace, and unblocking critical work.
I model durable async practices — written decisions, transparent updates, and knowledge-base loops — so improvements last long after I step out.
My aim is to hire myself out of a job: identify gaps, define roles, recruit, and onboard permanent owners.
Example Previous Cases
Product↔R&D rift
- Problem: PMs lacked technical fluency; CTO overloaded mentoring.
- Intervention: 1:1s, PM upskilling, R&D coaching.
- Result: Respect restored; CTO freed to focus on strategy and fundraising.
Prioritization chaos at the top
- Problem: CTO struggled to prioritize; strained relationship with tech lead.
- Intervention: Mentoring, comms redesign, exec facilitation.
- Result: Clearer CEO/CTO interface; re-org enabled CEO to delegate; new exec hire stabilized leadership.
Senior technical leadership
- Problem: R&D mismatch skills↔product needs.
- Intervention: New technology foundations, review processes, better hiring rubric.
- Result: Higher team velocity; increased product stability; lower customer acquisition costs.
Decisions evaporating
- Problem: Key decisions disappeared without follow-through.
- Intervention: Introduced lightweight knowledge base and written loops.
- Result: Durable decisions; smoother collaboration between R&D, sales, and support.
About Raphael
I began my career as a PhD systems researcher with a strong engineering component, then spent over a decade in senior technical and leadership roles at multiple tech companies — including Cockroach Labs and Neon. Along the way I’ve worked across startups and scale-ups, leading cross-functional initiatives and teams of up to ~200 people.
What I bring to founders through Thaumogen is a mix of research depth and operational experience: the ability to see technical, organizational, and cultural blind spots, and to help you close them while keeping your company focused on growth.
Where and how I engage
Based in the Netherlands; highly mobile and available worldwide when it benefits clients.
Ready to talk?
Book an intro call (30 minutes) or reach out async.