Where the conversation is interesting
Six shapes of engagement. If your role looks roughly like one of these, the call will be productive — for both of us.
Head of AI Platform / Head of AI Infrastructure
Building the engineering layer between AI capability and product. MCP servers, agent orchestration, eval harnesses, developer tooling. Series B+ companies with real product traction and ~50–500 engineers.
VP Engineering (Mobile-led product)
Where mobile is the product or a strategic surface. Series B/C/D scale. Have at least one mobile team to lead. AI integration on the roadmap.
Director, Mobile Platform
Multi-region mobile org. Cross-app SDK strategy. Performance, observability, release engineering. The NewsCorp role I held in 2019, scaled up.
Fractional / advisory CTO or VP Eng
5–15 hours/month retainer. Architecture sounding board, hiring panels, technical due-diligence, escalation contact. Founders with technical CEOs but no senior IC depth in mobile or AI.
Mobile AI Launch Readiness Audit
The productized 3-week engagement on /consulting/. iOS team about to ship AI features and wants an honest pre-launch read.
Strategy days / single-day engagements
Architecture review, hiring panel, due-diligence read, conference talk prep. $1,500–4,500/day. Best for “we need an outside read in the next two weeks” situations.
Yes / no, no ambiguity
If your role doesn't match these, save us both the round-trip. If it does, we should talk.
Yes
- Series B+ companies with real product-market fit
- Teams of at least 5 mobile engineers OR a meaningful AI infrastructure mandate
- A clear technical leader I'd report to (CTO / VP / SVP Eng) for FT roles
- Compensation in market range for the role (typical NYC Director AI/VP Eng band: $300K–600K+ total comp)
- Equity that's not obviously underwater
- Timezones overlapping at least 4 hours with US Eastern
No
- Pre-PMF / pre-seed startups looking for a CTO co-founder
- Greenfield rewrites with no engineers to lead
- Fully-React-Native shops with no native mobile path
- “We need someone to manage the offshore team” without scope or autonomy
- Crypto / NFT / gambling / surveillance-adjacent products
- IC-only roles below Staff level
- Non-disclosed comp bands (“competitive” without a number)
- Unpaid trial projects masquerading as interview rounds
The track record behind the criteria
Not a brag wall. The shape of the work I'd do for you, mapped to the work I've already shipped.
- 17+ years iOS, native-first. I started before the SDK existed; I know what every layer of the Apple platform actually does.
- Three production AI agents in CI right now. Multi-agent orchestration with Claude/Cursor/Kimi across the Provenance org — pattern-tested, not slideware. (See /#impact case study and /ai/.)
- Director-level scale management. Led 8-region team at NewsCorp. Hired in Barcelona, Bangalore, Buenos Aires. Know what global mobile orgs actually need.
- 3 US patents, 2 acquisitions. Sense Networks portfolio acquired by YP then Verve. I think about IP and durable value, not just code.
- Open source maintainership. 13 years on Provenance, App Store launch Jan 2025, 388K+ downloads. I ship for users, not for the demo.
The number, named
Direct, not coy. If you can't post a band, you can't recruit me — but specific role determines specific number.
- FT base salaryUSD 280K–400K depending on role tier and equity
- FT total comp (NYC market)USD 400K–800K+ depending on role tier and stage of company
- Consulting day rateUSD 1,500–4,500/day depending on engagement scope
- Open to discussing — don't write me off because I named a number. Specific role determines specific number.
The right path, by intent
Match your reason to the channel; you'll get a faster, better reply.
Your time is worth a real answer
- A direct answer on whether the role/scope is interesting.
- Specific reasons for yes or no, not vague platitudes.
- If it's a no, a recommendation of someone else who'd be a better fit (when I can).