CTO, advisor, builder.

Through TideHelm — my advisory practice — I work with founders, CTOs, and investors at the decisions that define the next chapter: the first VP of Engineering hire, post-Series B scaling, technical diligence on a portfolio company, a CTO succession, and what AI actually changes about the org.

I write every Tuesday at itsmeduncan.com about AI implementation, engineering leadership, and what it actually takes to build at scale.

And I build Aqen.ai — a lean, AI-native product: an AI cofounder that coordinates the non-product work of starting a company — legal, finance, marketing, ops. Built independent and sustainable. It sits under Grazier Ventures, the holding company for what I build.

Previously Chief AI Officer at BuildOps ($1B unicorn). Scaled Weedmaps from 30 to 300+ engineers through a NASDAQ IPO. Led ShopKeep through a $550M acquisition by Lightspeed.

• Why tokenmaxxing is lines-of-code thinking for the agentic era
• How to measure AI's real value as minutes added to workforce, not cost reduction
• What the AI notetaker security gap tells us about shadow IT in 2026

• Advisory: tidehelm.io — how I work with founders, CTOs, and investors
• Blog: itsmeduncan.com — weekly on AI implementation + engineering leadership
• LinkedIn: in/itsmeduncan
• Podcast: InfoQ — Transforming Software Engineering Culture