Chuck Groom
Consulting CTO, Entrepreneur in Brooklyn, New York

Consulting CTO

The CTO / VPE is an engineering leader who wears many hats to help a business to shape its strategy, to execute on its vision, and to build a cohesive team.

But what if you don't have the infrastructure to hire a full-time CTO? Or if your team is in transition between leaders, and you need support right now? Or you're facing one particular challenge?

As a consulting CTO, I can help you. I offer three types of engagements: consulting to focus on a particular problem; fractional CTO to support a team over a period of time; or advisor for coaching and strategy over a longer term.

  • Technical strategy - we want to build a new product, but where do we get started?
  • Building a great team - how do we hire software engineers? What does a great interview process look like? How much should we pay people? How do we motivate and provide career direction to our team?
  • Improving performance - something isn't working in our ability to execute, and people are getting frustrated. How do we set up a better framework for planning, setting expectations, and feedback loops?
  • Transition - how do we stabilize and support our team in a time of change?

About Me

20+ years of experience as a software engineer, manager, and business leader. I founded and sold two startups (BillMonk, Precision Polling), and built two business units from scratch in rapid-growth startups (Audience at SurveyMonkey grew to a $20+ million ARR business; and Marketplace at VTS was the fastest-growing product in proptech history).

I'm here to help software startups get off the ground. I enjoy growing teams, coaching engineers and leaders, and collaborating to find solutions to real-world problems.

  • Serial entrepreneur with successful exits
  • Experience managing engineers and managing managers
  • Extensive recruiting background, with 800+ engineering inverviews
  • Have worked at numerous early- and mid-stage startups, as well as at Amazon
  • Strong in Python, Ruby, PostgreSQL
  • Computer Science degree from Swarthmore College
  • Prolific writing about startups

See my LinkedIn profile for more details.

Our customer had developed a framework for assessing and benchmarking corporate disability inclusivity, but needed help turning this into a product vision that would scale. Chuck worked directly with me to run a kickoff workshop with stakeholders, then to develop a prototype and a report with recommendations. He not only addressed technical considerations but also corporate engagement models and a multi-year rollout strategy. The collaboration couldn't have gone better, and the result set everyone up for success.

-Thomas Logan, Owner, Equal Entry

I'm really glad we worked with Chuck. He helped coach a first-time engineering manager during a time of rapid team change and growth, and helped us raise the bar on our product-roadmap process and how we plan and communicate as a company.

-Dmitry Alexin, CEO, 1Build

Our first project, to evaluate our technical architecture roadmap, was so helpful that we extended Chuck's engagement to get his input on our hiring process, and also how to structure a platform engineering team as we continue to grow. He worked with leadership, managers, and engineers 1:1 to share his extensive experience and perspective, which let us move quickly and confidently.

-Kevin MacDonald, CEO, Kit Check

How We Can Work Together

Alas! I'm afraid that I'm not currently accepting new engagements. Feel free to contact me on to me on LinkedIn.