Build the product. Strengthen the team. Get enterprise-ready.
Work directly with Reuben Firmin as your fractional CTO or CISO. Connect business strategy to architecture, engineering, and the code itself.
Senior leadership for your next step: a first product, a growing team, or your next enterprise customer.
Turn a product idea into working software, or get an existing team moving with confidence. I own the technical decisions and work alongside your engineers.
Build a security program that fits your business. I manage readiness, policies, and audit coordination so your engineers can stay focused on the product.
Build a team you can rely on. Candidates work through realistic problems, with technical interviews led by someone who has built and managed remote teams.
From my time as CTO of ExecVision to my work with 4rc.io clients: engineering leadership that founders can depend on.
"We went from deploying once every two weeks to shipping multiple times a week."
CEO, Finance Lobby
"We brought Reuben in after a rough stretch that left our engineering team needing a complete rebuild. He took full ownership from day one, built a rigorous hiring process, vetted every candidate carefully, and assembled an exceptional team.
What impressed me most was how thorough he was. He did a full 360 audit on everything we had, developed and nurtured the team members, put real processes in place, and made the whole operation significantly more resilient. We went from deploying once every two weeks to shipping multiple times a week, sometimes every other day.
As a non-technical founder, having someone like Reuben is a lifesaver. You need to be able to trust that person completely to make the right calls without you in the room. Reuben earned that trust fast. If you're in the same boat, he's your guy."
Founder, Cadence OneFive
"His versatility and dedication have been invaluable to our company's growth and success."
"I have known Reuben for over 25 years, and he is not only a person of great integrity but also an exceptional engineering leader. Reuben's support has been crucial in establishing our development team, from hiring our first outside engineers to our Head of Engineering post pre-seed.
As a social enterprise with a climate justice mission and a horizontal management philosophy, we had some unique cultural requirements in addition to needing top-notch engineering skills. Reuben took all of this into consideration and conducted efficient, rapid recruitments to find us individuals who have been a perfect fit for our organization.
Due to his technical expertise, excellent listening skills, and flexibility, Reuben has filled various roles for us as our needs have evolved, including overseeing the SOC2 process as our fractional CISO. His versatility and dedication have been invaluable to our company's growth and success."
SVP, Mediafly / Founder, ExecVision
"We never would have exited the business without Reuben's technology leadership."
"Reuben is the rare CTO who is great at talking with customers and really listening. We met after a lengthy search for our first CTO at ExecVision. He is great pulling together remote engineering teams to collaborate effectively. He's also incredible getting his hands dirty in the code. Reuben's team punched way above their weight class especially given the limited resources we provided them.
They cranked out more functionality in our product than teams 3x their size. It was a small but mighty group - exactly what our business needed. I knew nothing about software development prior to Reuben. He patiently taught me everything I know about the crazy SaaS product development process. I owe a great deal to him. We never would have exited the business without Reuben's technology leadership.
I highly recommend him."
Founder, Vorsight / Founder, Stori Inc
"I can't wait to start another company with Reuben as my cofounder."
"I hired Reuben as an outsourced CTO, but quickly realized how critical he was to the business. I was able to convince Reuben to join ExecVision full time and he became my technical cofounder. Reuben is an architect and a hands on CTO. He is willing and able to speak with customers and prospects to understand their needs and translate that back into a complete product vision.
He can also jump on a call anytime as a technical resource and outperform most salespeople. He has a natural ability to guide and motivate his team which was especially critical with the speed of development we needed to compete in our SaaS category. I can't wait to start another company with Reuben as my cofounder. I highly recommend him."
Founder, York Run
"He quickly understood complicated specifications and single-handedly put together a talented team."
"Reuben is brilliant. He proved invaluable in helping me (a non-technical founder) take the first step with my startup. He quickly understood complicated specifications, created an implementation plan and after conducting rigorous interview processes single-handedly put together a talented team of developers. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to have worked with him and would welcome the opportunity again in the future."
Co-Founder, Stream Bean AI
"We achieved product-market fit with paying customers in less than a year."
"4rc.io and Reuben have been instrumental in helping us navigate the difficult challenges of launching a tech startup. The wisdom and guidance we've received have helped us to avoid the costly pitfalls of new companies. The expertise he shared with us also helped us to engineer solutions to big problems and gave us a solid roadmap for the infrastructure of our business model. As a result, we've been able to achieve product-market fit with paying customers in less than a year."
What’s holding your team back?
Slow releases, a difficult hire, or an enterprise security review? Let’s identify what needs to change.
Let's talkGood decision 6 months ago. Wrong decision today.
With the pace of competition between AI providers, you should be using the best, and you need somebody who is keeping better track of the industry.
Your engineers are shipping AI-generated code fast. Is what they’re building secure, or are they accidentally exposing customer data? Could someone’s next rogue ChatGPT experiment break into your site? I review what you’re shipping, find the vulnerabilities, and help your team fix them before someone else finds them.
Get the team set up with the right tools and practical training. Keep review standards and testing in place as the technology changes.
Measure delivery time, review effort, defects, and cost. Keep what improves your team’s results, and reassess when a better option arrives.
Tell me what you're building, where you're stuck, or what needs to change.