Fractional CIO / CTO
You need senior technology judgment on the decisions that can't go wrong, but a full-time CIO is a six-figure hire you can't yet justify. I give you that judgment fractionally: the roadmap, the vendor calls, and a steady hand on the projects that cannot fail. And when those decisions turn into builds, they run on a real AI delivery pipeline I created, so execution keeps pace with the strategy.
Technology Leadership on Staff
Most growing businesses hit a point where the technology decisions outrun the people making them. You need someone who knows both your business and what it takes to scale one. I've spent 30 years and 250+ projects doing exactly that: I founded and ran two manufacturing companies of my own (about 200 people, $25M in combined revenue) on the ERP, CRM, and warehouse systems I designed and wrote myself, then scaled a consulting firm to 20 people and $3.5M before selling it. I've sat in your chair. I've also signed the checks.
Many of the companies I work with have no IT leadership at all; others have a capable team that has outgrown its systems. With AI augmenting me, I can be that department or lead the one you have: the strategy, the vendor calls, the implementation, and the day-to-day operations, delivered by one experienced architect at a fraction of a six-figure hire. And because I built and ran my own companies on systems I designed myself, the problems you're facing are likely ones I've already solved, for myself or one of the 250+ engagements behind me.
The Roadmap, Prioritized
Technology changes fast, and every dollar you put into it needs to earn its keep. I start every engagement by sitting down with the people doing the work, then come back with a prioritized roadmap that ranks your bottlenecks by what they actually cost you. The projects that move productivity, sales, and your ability to scale go to the top. The ones that won't pay off get named as such. Clear enough to hand to your team, specific enough to build from.
Honest Build-versus-Buy
Every new system is a bet, and the wrong one is expensive to unwind. I've built ERP, warehouse, CRM, and marketing systems from scratch and bought them off the shelf, so I know what they really have to do and where the gaps are. I have no affiliations to technology companies, so my advice is driven by value and fit, not a vendor relationship. If a generic product fits your problem, I'll tell you to buy it, and run the process from procurement through go-live. When custom is the smarter call, I can build it too: a warehouse system I delivered for about $28K against a $168K quote is one example of which way that math can go.
Board Communication
A technology initiative only succeeds when the people funding it understand it. Having scaled and sold my own companies, I've sat on the funding side of these decisions. I translate the work for board members, investors, and leadership, so everyone backing a project knows what it does, what it costs, and why it matters.
A Steady Hand on Delivery
Strategy is only half of it. I stay on the projects that can't fail, through selection, build, and rollout, as the senior judgment that keeps them on scope, on budget, and actually adopted by the people who have to use them. The same backbone work I did for a wholesale distributor came in under budget on every phase.
“Mike was an excellent person to work for. He used the perfect combination of flexibility and accountability to keep his team both happy and motivated. He didn't micromanage, yet communicated clear expectations and direction. The informal atmosphere at Ares kept the IT team free from mundane meetings and let us complete a large, complex software project that benefited the entire company. A true pleasure to work for.”
“Mike and his team were extremely knowledgeable, thorough, and easy to work with. They were able to help us configure the system to handle complex business processes while making the system easy for end users.”
The DreamSight difference
It's the pipeline, not the headcount
Senior judgment is only half of it. The other half is how the work actually gets built, and that's where the pipeline comes in.
Solving a business problem well used to take a room of people (analyst, architect, developers, a senior reviewer, QA, DevOps) and the meetings and handoffs between them. I know that model from both sides: I scaled a consulting firm that worked exactly that way, and I ran my own companies on the systems I built myself. So I replaced the room with a delivery pipeline. Thirty years of judgment scopes and reviews every request, and a team of AI agents I built and trained does the volume in between.
It's a real pipeline, in production today, not a slide deck about one. And it isn't tied to any one platform: the same process delivers on whatever systems you already run. The result is simple. I ship in hours what a traditional consulting team takes a week to deliver.
Need guidance on tough technology decisions?
Book a 25-minute, zero-pressure call. Bring the decision that's keeping you up, and I'll give you an honest read on where to start, even if we never work together.