Plano, Texas · Collin

Your lead engineer, embedded in your Plano team

Architecture · Strategy · Daily code

You don't need a CTO who won't touch the keyboard. You don't need another freelancer who disappears mid-sprint. You need one senior engineer who owns your entire technical stack — someone who makes executive-level calls AND ships code every single day. I bring 27 years of startup engineering to Plano founders across Collin and all of Texas. Remote-first, on-site when it actually changes the outcome.

Let's Talk About Your Team

This is what it actually looks like

When your team doesn't have a technical partner.

You're on your third freelancer this year. The first one disappeared mid-sprint. The second one built something that technically works but nobody can maintain. Now you're onboarding someone new again, explaining the same business logic for the third time, watching them nod along while you wonder if they actually get it.

You're in a meeting and someone asks "can we add this feature by Q2?" and you have no idea. You can't evaluate timelines, you can't assess tradeoffs, and the person you're paying to know these things gives you a different answer every time.

Your app goes down on a Saturday night. You text your developer. No response for 6 hours. When they finally reply, they need another 4 hours to figure out what broke because they don't remember how the system fits together. You're sitting at dinner calculating revenue lost per minute.

The real problem isn't that you need a developer. And it's not that you need a CTO. It's that the role you actually need doesn't fit standard job descriptions — you need someone who thinks at the executive level but executes at the individual contributor level, every single day.

What an Embedded Lead Engineer Actually Does

Half the "fractional CTOs" out there are advisors in a fancy hat — Notion docs, Slack opinions, zero pull requests. That isn't the job.

Writes real code

Not a strategy doc, not a Notion page — production code, in your repo, tested and deployed. The lead engineer you hire should be able to unblock the team by shipping, not just advising on Slack.

Owns architecture decisions

Database choice, auth pattern, deployment pipeline, monitoring, cost structure. Founders without a technical partner end up with whatever their first contractor felt like using — and pay for it later.

Manages the humans

Reviews contractor output, interviews engineering hires, calls the BS when a vendor is overcharging, and makes sure everyone on your team is set up to succeed.

Carries investor credibility

When a VC asks "who's your technical lead?" on a fundraising call, you need a name, a LinkedIn, and a track record — not a contractor nobody knows. An embedded lead engineer closes that gap without the full-time equity grant.

The "embedded" part means I work across 3 clients at a time — so Plano founders get senior engineering judgment at a fraction of the cost of a full-time hire. The "still writes the code" part is what separates this from advisory roles.

Seth Black — embedded lead engineer for startups

About Seth

27 years. 20+ startups. Every mistake your next hire is about to make.

I started writing code at 15. Since then I've been engineer #1, CTO, lead architect, and the technical backbone of startup after startup — watching brilliant ideas die from bad engineering and great engineering die from bad business. I've seen every way it goes wrong.

I've hand-rolled neural networks in C when there were no good Python libraries, shoved terabytes of data through Postgres every hour without melting the cluster, designed custom BLE protocols for wearable hardware, built CAD-integrated configurators that drove real CNC machines, shipped computer vision systems that ran on off-the-shelf cameras, and stood up billing/auth/ops infrastructure more times than I can count.

Now I embed in small teams as the lead engineer. I own the architecture, the strategy, and the code itself. Not as a consultant who advises and leaves — as a partner who shows up every day and builds.

Health & Biotech
ML / AI Systems
Hardware / Embedded
Energy & Climate
Fintech / Payments
Manufacturing / CAD
Computer Vision
Consumer / SaaS

How The Full-Stack Partnership Works

No discovery calls that turn into sales pitches. No 30-slide decks. Here's what happens when a Plano founder reaches out:

1

Embed

I join your team. Read every line of code. Understand the business, the product, the people.

2

Assess

Identify what's working, what needs attention, what's urgent. Give you a straight answer about where things stand.

3

Own

Take full ownership of the technical stack. Architecture, infrastructure, daily development. It's mine now.

4

Build

Ship features. Solve problems. Make executive calls AND write production code — every single day.

5

Evolve

Grow the technical foundation as your business grows. The code is yours from day one — no lock-in, ever.

The Full-Stack Partnership

One engineer. Your entire technical stack. Architecture, strategy, and daily code — available to Plano founders and teams.

Embedded Lead Engineer

Architecture, strategy, and daily code — one person, fully embedded

I join your team as the lead engineer. I own the technical vision, make the architectural calls, and write production code every single day. No management layers, no handoffs, no disappearing acts.

  • Full-stack development — Python, databases, DevOps, mobile, web. The whole thing.
  • Executive-level technical strategy — architecture decisions, build-vs-buy, scaling plans.
  • Architecture reviews, hiring guidance, and the technical credibility investors demand.
  • 100% code ownership from day one.
Roster: I only take on 3 clients at a time. When the 3 seats are full, the door is closed until one opens.
$15,000/mo 3-month minimum · 6-month maximum · 3-client roster
Ask About a Seat

Lessons from 20+ Startups

Twenty startups. Every flavor of failure and quiet success. Here are a few lessons I bring to every Plano engagement:

The "Genius Dev" leaves eventually

Worked at a crowdfunding startup where the one rock-star engineer used the attention to land a FAANG job — and left a gaping hole nobody could fill. The lesson: document relentlessly, and never let one person become a single point of failure.

Watch churn more than bookings

Had a sales rep "crush" their goals by selling features the company didn't actually have. Customers churned right after commission got paid. The lesson: retention and engagement metrics tell the truth; booking numbers often don't.

"Quick fixes" on Friday are rarely quick

Shipped a "small" change on a Friday afternoon that took down an e-commerce site for launch weekend, because I tested in Firefox and forgot about IE. The lesson: test like a user, not like a developer.

Interview for judgment, not trivia

Hired a developer who aced every technical quiz, then turned out not to know how to code — they'd been hoping to figure it out before anyone noticed. The lesson: conversational interviews about real past decisions beat whiteboard gotchas every time.

These aren't hypotheticals. Each one cost a real company real money — so your Plano startup doesn't have to re-learn them.

Plano, Texas · Collin · Large City

Working with Plano Founders

Plano is the corporate-HQ capital of Texas — Toyota NA, JPMorgan Chase, Liberty Mutual, FedEx HQ-ops, and a heavy concentration of Fortune 500 operations. The startup scene here is unusually corporate-adjacent: founders are mostly former employees of those HQs, and their startups are mostly selling back into them.

What I see most often in Plano: a founder in their second or third year out of a Fortune 500, with an industry rolodex and a clear B2B niche, but a 'v1 build' that's a vendor-built clone of an internal tool from their previous employer. Reworking that into something a real commercial market will actually buy is most of what Plano engagements look like.

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The companies I take on in Plano tend to cluster around corporate HQs, fintech, enterprise SaaS — though I've delivered engagements across nearly every flavor of Texas startup. What they have in common: a founder who needs someone they can trust to make technical calls without having to double-check every decision.

Distance from Houston
241 miles · regional
Market tier
Large City · pop. 290,594
Region
Collin, Texas

Also Serving Collin

Remote-first engagements work across all of Texas. Some of the other Collin cities I work with:

Frisco McKinney Allen Wylie Prosper All Texas Cities →

The Plano Industry Landscape

Where the actual work in Plano happens — and where founders most often need a senior technical partner who already speaks the domain.

Enterprise B2B SaaS (Corporate-Adjacent)

Founders selling back into the HQs they just left. Toyota / JPMorgan / Liberty Mutual / FedEx alumni networks. Strong customer access, weak engineering foundation.

Toyota NA Plano JPMorgan Chase Plano Liberty Mutual Plano FedEx HQ-ops

Fintech & Insurtech

Capital One Plano alumni, USAA Plano operations, plus the steady flow of fintech founders coming out of corporate finance roles.

Capital One Plano USAA Plano Charles Schwab Westlake

Healthcare IT

McKesson Irving spillover, plus a meaningful concentration of healthtech founders in the Legacy West / Plano area.

McKesson Irving Children's Health Plano

Anchor Organizations

  • Toyota NA HQ
  • JPMorgan Chase Plano
  • Liberty Mutual
  • FedEx HQ-ops
  • Capital One Plano
  • Plano Innovation

Universities & Research

  • UT Dallas (Plano-adjacent)
  • Collin College

Neighborhoods I Serve

Legacy West Downtown Plano West Plano / Willow Bend Granite Park

From the field

What I see most often in Plano

Plano founders tend to be in their second or third year out of a Fortune 500 — they have an industry rolodex and a clear B2B niche, but their first 'v1 build' is usually a vendor-built clone of an internal tool from their previous employer. The internal tool worked for one buyer (their old employer); the open-market version needs to work for fifty. Reworking that for a commercial market is most of what Plano engagements look like.

Questions I Actually Get Asked

Are you familiar with Toyota / Capital One / JPMorgan-style enterprise expectations?

Yes — that environment shows up in nearly every Plano engagement. The caveat: internal Fortune 500 standards rarely translate one-to-one to commercial-market startups. I can tell you which standards from your previous employer will help you sell to other enterprises, and which are over-engineering for a five-person team and a Series A.

What if you leave?

With freelancers you're already dependent on someone with zero commitment to your business. I embed specifically to stay. The 3-month minimum exists so we both take the partnership seriously. And everything I build is yours from day one — code, documentation, all of it.

Can one person really handle our entire technical stack?

I've done exactly this for 20+ startups over 27 years. I know what one senior engineer can handle — and I know when to say "we need help here." One person who owns everything actually moves faster than a team of specialists coordinating through Jira tickets.

Do you work with Plano-based teams in person?

I'm primarily remote-first, which means I can usually start faster. For Plano and other Texas clients, on-site visits are possible when they genuinely move the needle — not for meetings that could've been a Slack message.

What happens if we're not a good fit?

The 3-month minimum exists so we both take the engagement seriously and have real time to ship. After that, we can wrap at the end of any month up to the 6-month maximum. You keep all the code and documentation.

How much does this cost?

$15,000/month. 3-month minimum, 6-month maximum. No hourly billing, no tiered packages, no upsells. I only take on 3 clients at a time — if you want a seat, let's talk and we'll see if the fit is right.

Do you believe in ghosts?

Absolutely, yes. Your legacy code is haunted by the disembodied spirits of junior developers who copy-pasted from Stack Overflow without understanding what they were doing. Let's clear them out.

Let's Talk About Your Team

One meeting. No pitch deck, no proposals. Just a conversation about what you need and whether I'm the right fit.

Roster limited to 3 clients

Book a 20-Minute Call

Pick a time that works. No sales pitch — just a straight conversation about your team and your stack.

Book a Call

No commitment. 20 minutes. Straight answers.

or send a message if you prefer async
The Full-Stack Partnership — $15,000/month
3-month minimum, 6-month maximum. Roster limited to 3 clients.

No long-term contracts. You own all the code.

tl;dr

I embed in your team as the lead engineer. I own the architecture, the strategy, and the code. One person who thinks like a CTO and ships like a senior engineer — serving Plano and all of Texas.

Let's Talk About Your Team

No commitment. 20 minutes. Straight answers.

Let's Talk · 3-Seat Roster