Technology decisions, in plain English.
Kindled Growth is my advisory practice. I work with founders and business owners who need to get technology right: the strategy, the build, the team, the tools, without hiring a full-time executive to find out.
Who I work with
Early-stage founders
Pre-seed to Series A. You are making decisions now that you will live with for years: what to build, who to hire first, what to buy instead of build, and what an investor is going to ask about your stack.
Owners modernising
You run a real business and technology is not your background. You want a straight answer on what to fix first, what a fair price looks like, and how to tell whether the people building it are doing a good job.
Founders and builders
If you're technical, running your own thing, or just deep in a similar problem, I'm happy to compare notes, trade an intro, or help you think something through. No pitch needed.
Five ways I help
Fractional CTO
Senior technology leadership a day or two a week. I own the roadmap with you, sit in on hiring, keep delivery honest, and translate between the engineering room and the board.Technology strategy and architecture review
A clear read on what you have built, where it will break, and what it costs to run. You get a plain written assessment and a sequenced plan, not a list of everything that could theoretically be improved.Product strategy
What to build next and why. We get specific about the customer, cut the roadmap down to what moves the business, and agree how you will know it worked.Technical and commercial due diligence
For investors and acquirers, or for founders preparing to be looked at. Code and infrastructure, team and key-person risk, delivery track record, and the commercial story the technology is meant to support.AI adoption
Where AI genuinely helps your business, where it does not, and how to put it into daily work safely. We start with the tasks your team actually does and pick the smallest change that pays for itself.No long proposals. A conversation, a short written plan, and a seat only if it fits.
01
A call, free
Half an hour on where you are and what is in the way. If I am not the right help, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
02
A written plan
A page or two: what to do, in what order, what it should cost, and what we leave alone for now. Yours to keep either way.
03
A project or a CTO seat
One defined piece of work with an end date, or a fractional CTO seat a day or two a week. I hold only a few of these at once, which is the point: you get a senior operator's real attention, not a slice of an agency.
This is deliberately a small practice. I take a handful of clients at a time, and when the roster is full I say so rather than stretch thin, so it is worth asking early if the timing matters.
I'm Aidan Porter. that's Oscar.
I'm a developer and founder who has built companies from the first line of code through fundraising, scale, and sale, and I still run one.
As CTO and co-founder, I took a Y Combinator-backed consumer brand through a Series A, international distribution, and an acquisition, which led to my being named to Forbes 30 Under 30 in Retail & E-commerce. Today I'm CTO and co-founder of a buy-sell-trade retailer, building its e-commerce operation across marketplaces and leading its marketing and AI work.
Across both, the work has been the same: software, AI, e-commerce, retail, and operations. I build internal platforms from the ground up and replace fragmented software with systems that fit how the business runs.
Kindled Growth is where I bring that to other founders and business owners. I'm most useful when spreadsheets, disconnected software, outside vendors, and improvised systems are starting to become expensive.