Greenfield engineering for consequential products
Stackpad is an operator-led engineering team for founders building fintech, healthtech, marketplace, and money-adjacent products. We build greenfield platforms fast enough for early traction — and solid enough for the rounds, audits, integrations, and scale that come next.
Or email engage@stackpad.io
Greenfield roots
First engineers · founding systems
We have built the first product surfaces and foundations at multiple startups
Where we are strongest
Fintech · healthtech · marketplaces
Product builds where correctness, trust, and integrations matter early
Reality-tested proof
Audits · diligence · scale
The foundations we build are meant to survive the next phase
Inside Stackpad
Stackpad’s engineers come out of the builder’s seat. They’ve been first engineers, founding technical leaders, and embedded operators at startups across cybersecurity, retail, marketplaces, fintech, and healthtech.
The regulated work matters because it proves the foundations hold. But the part we love is the build: turning a product bet into production software real customers can use.
Every engagement is operator-led. Stackpad leadership sets direction and takes final responsibility. Senior engineers join when scope requires it. You won’t get handed from sales to delivery — the people you meet are the people doing the work.
Current clients
Catch · Lettuce
Prior leadership at
CyberSaint · ThirdChannel · SidelineSwap · Catch
How to think about us
We build the first version like the next version matters.
Early-stage code should move quickly, but it should not teach your team bad habits. We make the smallest useful technical calls now, with enough discipline that scale, partners, audits, and diligence do not force a rebuild later.
What we do
01
We love the early stage: choosing the first architecture, naming the services, setting up production, and shipping the product surface customers actually use. We build fast without treating the foundation like disposable scaffolding.
02
We’ve been the first engineer and the senior engineering voice inside multiple startups. We know which early decisions compound, which ones only look urgent, and how to keep a product moving while the market is still teaching you what it needs to become.
03
We’ve built financial systems across fintech and healthtech — the kind of work auditors, banks, and customer-success teams all read. Billing, payments, ledgers, reconciliation, subsidy logic, marketplace payouts, tax automation, bank-partner integrations — the code that has to balance every time.
04
Compliance is not the whole business; it is the pressure test. We build systems with the controls, evidence, access boundaries, and operational clarity that regulated markets eventually demand.
How we engage
Pick the shape that matches your moment. Each one has a clear scope and a clear end state — so you know what you’re buying and when it’s done.
Engagement
Timeline
Best fit
Founding Engineering Partner
3–6 months · Discuss fit
3–6 months · Discuss fit
You’ve raised pre-seed or seed money, you have a real product to build (not just an idea), and you want senior engineers who’ve shipped this kind of system at scale before — not your first hires figuring it out by themselves.
Embedded Technical Partner
Quarterly retainer · Discuss fit
Quarterly retainer · Discuss fit
Your team needs a CTO-level voice in the room continuously, but the runway or the role isn’t right for a full-time hire yet. You want someone in standups and design reviews — not just steering meetings.
Architecture Review
~2 weeks · Discuss scope
~2 weeks · Discuss scope
You are about to build, launch, scale, or inherit a system and want senior eyes before committing to a longer engagement.
Audit Readiness Sprint
~4 weeks · Discuss scope
~4 weeks · Discuss scope
You have a real audit or regulated-market deadline close enough that the system needs remediation, not advice.
How we staff
Stackpad engagements aren’t run by a junior consultant with a senior name on the proposal. Every engagement is led by a senior staff engineer who’s shipped this work as an operator — through greenfield builds, money-movement, scaling pressure, audits, or acquisition diligence — with Stackpad leadership providing oversight, standards, and continuity across milestones.
That structure is intentional. It gives you a real engineer in the room every day, redundancy if someone is sick or in another time zone, and a team that doesn’t disappear when any one person gets pulled into a sales call. And we can take on scope a solo lead couldn’t carry through alone.
A multi-month embedded engagement to build the first technical foundation of a new product. A senior Stackpad engineer is embedded with your team; Stackpad leadership joins weekly and is accountable for the architectural direction. We set up production, ship the first customer-facing product surface, and leave behind a system your first full-time hires can step into.
Best for
You’ve raised pre-seed or seed money, you have a real product to build (not just an idea), and you want senior engineers who’ve shipped this kind of system at scale before — not your first hires figuring it out by themselves.
What you walk away with
A launched product on foundations that hold through your next two rounds, production infrastructure that doesn’t need to be rebuilt at Series A, and a codebase plus team posture ready for your first full-time engineering hires.
Your fractional CTO, on a quarterly retainer. A senior Stackpad engineer sits inside your engineering org, with Stackpad leadership as the escalation path and quarterly strategy partner. We own the architectural calls, lead code review on the decisions that compound, and step in on production incidents. Hiring and vendor selection alongside you when scope requires. Both engagements have run multi-year — see the case studies below.
Best for
Your team needs a CTO-level voice in the room continuously, but the runway or the role isn’t right for a full-time hire yet. You want someone in standups and design reviews — not just steering meetings.
What you walk away with
A senior engineer in the room for the decisions that compound, without expanding headcount. Continuity that spans audits, scaling milestones, board cycles, and acquisitions if they come.
A senior read on the decisions that will be expensive to reverse. We map how your system actually works, identify the foundation risks, and write up what should change before the next launch, round, hire, audit, or diligence event.
Best for
You are about to build, launch, scale, or inherit a system and want senior eyes before committing to a longer engagement.
What you walk away with
A written assessment, a prioritized risk list with owner-ready issues, an architecture diagram of how things actually connect, and a 60-minute readout with your team.
Four focused weeks before a SOC 2, CMS/EDE, ARC-AMPE, or federal security audit. We do the gap analysis across IAM, access controls, logging, data classification, incident response, and vendor management — then remediate the highest-risk controls and package evidence the way auditors actually consume it.
Best for
You have a real audit or regulated-market deadline close enough that the system needs remediation, not advice.
What you walk away with
A remediated environment, a control map tied to evidence, an audit-ready document repository, and a team that can walk an auditor through the system without flinching.
Not sure which fits? Tell us what you’re building at engage@stackpad.io.
What the work leaves behind
The output is not a strategy deck. It is working product, production posture, and operating material your engineers, partners, acquirers, and first full-time hires can inspect after we leave the room.
Case studies
Building Catch from consumer enrollment into agent, broker, and agency workflows
A regulated health insurance platform evolving through CMS/EDE Phase 3, agent/broker support, and agency support
Engagement: Embedded technical leadership · multi-year, ongoing
What happened
Scaling a multi-product fintech for the solopreneur economy
Tax automation, bookkeeping, S Corp services, and embedded banking on one platform
Engagement: Embedded technical partner · growth-stage scaling, ongoing
What happened
Have a product to build?
A first product, a new platform, a complex integration, a launch date, or an audit in the distance — the more specific you can be about the build, the more useful our first reply will be.
