Things have become harder than they should be.
Work takes too long, costs too much, or depends on constant coordination. I help find the constraint and work through what needs to change.
Technology and product executive
AT SOME POINT, EVERY GROWING COMPANY ACCIDENTALLY BUILDS A MAZE.
I'm Kal Walkden. I help business leaders understand what's getting in the way, decide what needs to change, and lead the work to make it happen.
As companies grow, systems, processes, and teams get harder to manage. I work with founders, CEOs, owners, and investors when that complexity starts holding the business back.
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When to Call Me
Technology isn't delivering what the business needs.
Systems are unreliable, disconnected, or difficult to change. I help decide what to repair, replace, or simplify, then lead the work.
Product and engineering aren't executing consistently.
Priorities keep shifting and delivery is hard to predict. I work with leaders and teams to clarify ownership, focus the work, and reconnect delivery to business priorities.
You need experienced technology leadership.
A growing company or a leadership transition calls for someone who can make decisions and carry them through. That may mean fractional or interim leadership.
You're evaluating a technology investment or acquisition.
You need a clear view of the technology, the people behind it, and the risks that could affect your decision. I provide an independent assessment grounded in how the business works.
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How I Help
The starting point is the business problem. Sometimes the answer is a platform change. Sometimes it's clearer priorities, different responsibilities, or a decision that's been waiting too long.
I’m also a hands-on engineer. I still write code nearly every day. Staying close to the work helps me test assumptions, understand the tradeoffs, and lead implementation when that’s what the situation needs.
Depending on what you need, we can work together on a focused project, through ongoing advisory or fractional leadership, or in an interim role.
Fractional and Interim CTO
I work alongside your leadership team to set direction, make technology decisions, and take responsibility for execution. I stay close to the people and the work.
Operational and Technology Improvement
I look at how systems, processes, and teams fit together. Then I help remove the constraints that make everyday work slow, expensive, or difficult to manage.
Product and Engineering Leadership
I connect business priorities to product decisions, architecture, and team ownership. The work can include resetting a roadmap, modernizing a platform, or making delivery more predictable.
Technology Assessments and Due Diligence
I assess platforms, engineering organizations, and delivery practices for executives and investors. You get a clear account of the risks, the tradeoffs, and the work needed to address them.
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Selected Work
A few examples of decisions I've led and results delivered with the teams involved.
HelloFresh / Factor— stabilizing a platform the business depended on
I joined Factor as CTO to address platform outages that were constraining growth. The outages were happening daily near peak ordering deadlines. I chose an incremental modernization rather than a full rewrite and aligned the team around that direction.
The team replaced critical parts of the platform while keeping the business running. We eliminated peak-period outages and gave the company a more reliable foundation for growth.
I helped build the technology and architecture that supported Factor's growth from $20 million to almost $300 million in annual revenue before the acquisition. My work also included aligning systems, teams, and processes as Factor became part of HelloFresh.
ForeverCar— removing friction from the buying process
A third-party pricing service took over five minutes to return a quote. As CTO, I led its replacement with an internal pricing engine, working with the team to improve the buying experience and expand pricing capabilities.
Quote time fell to under five seconds, and visitor-to-purchase conversion improved by approximately tenfold. The new engine also supported per-customer pricing across multiple providers.
Operational and Fractional Work— improving platforms, teams, and execution
I’ve worked with dozens of startups and growth-stage companies to build products, modernize platforms, and improve execution. That has included launching a first customer-facing platform, validating it with early customers, building an engineering team, and planning legacy modernization without disrupting the business. In manufacturing, I’m replacing ad hoc processes with software that improves estimating, project visibility, and profitability.
The work also extends to how teams operate. At Double Good, I reorganized teams around business domains and replaced 12-month planning cycles with 6–12-week outcome increments. Clearer ownership and shorter planning cycles helped improve development velocity by approximately 30%.
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About Kal
Experience across the business and the technology
I've spent more than 25 years in technology and product leadership across startups, growing companies, and enterprises. I've held senior leadership roles at companies ranging from pre-revenue startups to businesses with billions of dollars in revenue.
Teams, growth, and change
I've built and led distributed engineering organizations, including teams across the United States, Europe, Central and South America, and India.
Those experiences have shaped how I approach growth and operational change: look at the architecture, the organization, and the business priorities together. A sound technical decision still needs people who can carry it through and a clear reason for doing the work.
I also conduct technical due diligence for investments, acquisitions, and licensing. That means examining code, architecture, engineering practices, and operational risk, then explaining what the findings mean for the business decision.
Education and mentoring
I earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Engineering from Northwestern University and received a DARPA Fellowship during my master's studies. I also mentor and advise on curriculum with Code Platoon.
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Writing
Notes on technology, product, teams, and the decisions that connect them.
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The Code Repository as Working Memory
Explore how treating the code repository as durable working memory preserves decisions and evidence, enabling people and AI agents to build more ambitious software together with continuity and confidence.
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Good automation doesn't eliminate human decisions
Good automation doesn't eliminate human decisions. It makes them more visible, deliberate, and informed. Sometimes that means deliberately keeping a manual step.
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As AI gets cheaper, judgment becomes more valuable
As AI models become cheaper and more interchangeable, competitive advantage shifts toward better decisions, proprietary data, workflows, and customer relationships.
Contact
Let's talk about what's getting in the way.
Tell me a little about your company and the situation you're working through. You don't need to have the problem fully defined.