Backend Architecture for Early-Stage SaaS
I design scalable technical foundations, from real-time systems to production reliability.
Who I Work With
Early-stage SaaS founders who need someone to own the technical foundation, not execute tickets. US and EU teams who value architectural thinking over speed-at-any-cost.
I take responsibility for what breaks at 10x, what refactors cost you later, and what you'll regret in 18 months. I question specs, flag risks, and propose alternatives when the plan doesn't hold.
If you want a technical partner who cares about the outcome, we should talk.
Case Studies
Real-Time Monitoring & Control Platform
Industrial IoT for laser-equipped vehicles
Sole backend and systems engineer. Owned architecture, implementation, and deployment. Designed the WebSocket Pub/Sub layer, Golang services, and React dashboard.
Defined system boundaries, data models, and failure modes from scratch. Sole backend and systems engineer. Owned architecture, implementation, and deployment from zero to production. Designed WebSocket Pub/Sub for real-time data, Golang services processing 2,000+ requests/minute, React dashboard with map integration. 20+ vehicles, single pane of glass for operations.
Read full case studyMessaging Commerce Platform
Conversational Commerce over Messenger & WhatsApp
Designed and built the first MVP enabling transactional ecommerce inside Messenger. Modeled event-driven backend, conversational state, and multi-tenant commerce logic. Later expanded to WhatsApp commerce.
Read full case studyCapability Pillars
Architecture & System Design
Defining system boundaries, data models, and failure modes before scale becomes expensive. API contracts and service decomposition that survive pivots.
Data & Performance
Data models and performance decisions aligned to real business queries, not hypothetical scale. Real-time pipelines when latency matters, batch processing when it doesn't.
Production & Reliability
Deployment, observability, and failure isolation designed before problems appear. Monitoring that surfaces root causes, not just symptoms.
How I Think
- Every decision has a tradeoff. I make them explicit so you can choose.
- Optimize for change. Early-stage means pivots. Architecture should bend, not break.
- Reduce risk before it becomes a crisis. Technical debt has compound interest.
- Think in failure modes. What happens when this breaks? When traffic spikes? When you need to refactor?
- Ship fast, but not at the cost of unrecoverable mistakes. Some shortcuts are fine. Others you pay for forever.
What Working Together Looks Like
Deep dive into product constraints, business risks, and technical debt.
Architecture proposal with clear system boundaries and tradeoffs.
Implement core foundation and observability.
Stabilize, refine, and scale responsibly.
If you're building something that matters
I work with a small number of founders. If you want a technical partner who takes ownership, not a vendor who executes tickets, get in touch.
Get in Touch