Advisory
I advise a small number of founders. Most engagements are with pre-seed to Series A AI-native startups whose founders want senior judgment to make the architectural, hiring, and AI decisions that determine velocity for the next twelve months. Engagements range from a 1-hour expert consult through embedded advisory retainers, depending on what you need.
The work I do for clients is the same work I’m doing every day at Allset. Production AI on AWS Bedrock, multi-tenant SaaS, voice and agentic systems on top. The patterns I recommend are patterns I’m using in production right now.
How I work
Most engagements begin with a written technical review. I look at the architecture, the AWS bill, the AI integration patterns, the hiring plan, and the technical decisions in front of the team. The output is a written assessment and a 90-day roadmap. Some engagements end there; many continue as an ongoing advisory relationship.
Ongoing engagements range from advisor-on-call cadence (weekly strategy calls, async access, monthly architecture review) to embedded advisory work (15+ hours per week, owning the AI roadmap, running hiring loops, board-level technical communication). The shape depends on what the founder actually needs.
I also take on bounded build engagements with fixed scope and a fixed timeline, where I write code alongside the team to ship a specific system. These are rare but useful when the right problem shows up.
For investors, I take on pre-investment technical due diligence projects. Code review, architecture assessment, team interviews, written memo. Two-week turnaround.
What I look for in an engagement
I take on engagements where I can add unusual value, usually AI-native products, AWS-heavy infrastructure, or teams making decisions that will compound over the next twelve months. I work best with founders who want to be challenged on technical decisions, not validated.
I don’t take equity-only engagements, and I don’t take equity at all. I’m Co-founder and CTO at Allset, and keeping client work cash-only avoids any conflict-of-interest exposure. I don’t work with companies whose business I don’t understand. I don’t take more than three concurrent engagements. Past that, quality drops.
Engagement terms
Every engagement starts with us agreeing on the goal and what success looks like. I’ll tell you how long I think the work will take. If my estimate is wrong and the work runs over, I keep working at no extra cost until you and I agree the deliverable is complete. The only exception is scope changes, which get scoped and priced separately.
The standard contract is an MSA and a per-engagement SOW. Three-month minimum on retainers, month-to-month after. Cash-only, no equity. International engagements welcome. Remote-only, Mountain Time, which overlaps Eastern mornings and Pacific full-day.
To start a conversation
Email advisory@knbrlo.com, or book a 30-minute call. The call is free. No pitch. You’ll leave with a clear answer on whether we’re a fit.