Eric Reid's laptop open to an iOS project on a cafe table, bamboo outside the window

I find what's broken.I build what's missing.

I'm Eric Reid. 25 years of building and fixing products, two acquisitions, and I still ship code every week. I explain technical decisions in business terms, and business needs in terms engineers can build from.

Book 30 minutes See how I work

Three kinds of problems land on my desk.

You need a CTO, but not a full-time one

Your team ships every sprint but the business numbers stay flat. A big technical decision is coming and you need someone who's made these calls before. I step in as part of your leadership team.

The fractional engagement →

You vibe coded something real

People use it. Maybe they pay for it. Now it has to survive growth, security questions, and someone else reading the code. I make it production grade without starting over.

How a rescue works →

You have an idea and no engineers

I design it, build it, and ship it, production grade from the first commit. When it works, you build on it instead of starting over.

How I ship version one →

Results with names attached.

Specific results from specific engagements: what happened and what my part was.

$4B

PayPal acquisition

I hired the Android team at Honey, built the mobile infrastructure, and launched to 2 million users. When PayPal acquired Honey for $4 billion, that mobile stack held up under diligence.

13x

Engineering team growth

I took Alo Yoga engineering from 5 to 65 people. I built the hiring process, team structure, and architecture to support revenue growth from $350M to $550M.

$3M+

Annual savings

I redesigned Alo Yoga's infrastructure with a serverless architecture that cut over $3 million per year in operating costs.

Users in six months

I went from zero to a shipped Android app with 2 million active users in six months at Honey. I hired the team, defined the architecture, and shipped it.

Two acquisitions, 25 years of building.

I was the first employee at Gnip, where I built the core product before it got acquired by Twitter. Then I built Honey's Android team from nothing to 2 million users, which became part of PayPal's $4B acquisition. Two startups, two acquisitions. That doesn't happen by accident. Before all of that, I wrote satellite firmware and communication systems for the space shuttle program. I've been building iOS apps since the iPhone came out. Founded a company. Taught college programming courses because I like explaining hard things simply.

People keep telling me the same thing: you speak human.

I can sit with a CEO and explain a technical problem in business terms, then take what the business needs back to the engineers in language they can build from. That turns out to be rare, and it's most of the job.

I still write code every week. Right now I'm building an MVP for a client: a privacy-first behavioral health platform. Native iOS app, web dashboard, backend, statistical alerting engine. Four codebases, one engineer.

Years building: 25
Acquisitions: Twitter, PayPal
Cost cut: $3M+ a year
Current build: 4 codebases, solo

How we work together.

Five ways in, depending on where you are and what you need. Prices included, because guessing helps nobody.

Rapid Teardown

~$9.5K

Focused diagnostic. I audit your code, your architecture, and your team, including the app you vibe coded. You get a prioritized action plan your team can run with.

Best for: You suspect something is wrong but need someone to pinpoint it.

~$9.5K

The guarantee: if the teardown doesn't tell you something you didn't already know, you don't pay for it.

Deep Audit

~$25K

Everything in the Rapid Teardown, plus I go deeper into your architecture, your team, and your competitive position. You get a phased roadmap your board can follow.

Best for: Preparing for a major investment or platform decision.

~$25K

90-Day Growth Sprint

~$75K

I embed with your team for 90 days. We pick the metrics that matter and move them together. I'm in the standup and in the code reviews, making the hard calls with you.

Best for: You need the numbers moving this quarter.

~$75K

Fractional CTO

$4K-$20K+/mo

Ongoing technical leadership. Architecture decisions, team structure, vendor calls, code reviews, incident response, hiring. Part of your leadership team.

Best for: Between CTOs or not ready for a full-time hire.

$4K-$20K+/mo

A full-time CTO runs $300K and up before equity. This buys the part you need.

Zero-to-One Build

Scoped per project

Version one from scoping to launch: architecture, design, code, handoff. The current one: a privacy-first health platform, four codebases, native iOS app to the data science, built solo.

Best for: Founders who need version one shipped by someone who has done it before.

Scoped per project

Questions I get on the first call.

How many hours do I get?

It depends on the engagement, and we set it together up front. The lower end of the fractional range is a few hours a week of advisory. The upper end is me in your standup, acting like your CTO. What you never get is a junior consultant subbed in behind the scenes.

Will I understand what you tell me?

Yes. I explain technical decisions in business terms: what it costs, what it risks, and what it buys you. When your engineers need the business side translated back, I do that too. Clients tell me this is the part they didn't expect.

Do you write code or only advise?

Both. I still write code every week, and right now I'm shipping a four-codebase health platform solo. If your problem needs hands on a keyboard, mine are available.

Why is the teardown $9.5K?

Because it is two weeks of my full attention, and you get every finding, not a teaser for a bigger contract. It also comes with a simple guarantee: if it doesn't tell you something you didn't already know, you don't pay for it.

What if we already have engineers?

Good. Keep them. My job is making the calls they shouldn't have to make alone, and leaving them stronger than I found them. If you already have senior technical leadership that is working, then I'm not the right fit.

What happens when the 90 days end?

You keep everything: the roadmap, the processes, the hires, the momentum. Some clients move to a lighter fractional arrangement. Plenty shake my hand, and that's the point.

Can you fix my vibe coded app without judging me?

Yes. You shipped something people use, which is more than a lot of beautifully engineered codebases can say. I'll meet the app where it is and make it production grade without starting over.

Do you only do mobile?

Mobile is where I made my name, but the work is broader: web platforms, backends, data pipelines, AI features. The build I'm shipping right now runs from a native iOS app all the way back to the statistical engine behind it.

Two weeks. Every finding. No jargon.

In two weeks, I'll give you what your team can't: an honest, outside view of your situation. Your code, your architecture, your team, written up in plain English with straight answers to the questions you brought me.

Should you rebuild or fix what you have? Where is the next outage hiding? Which fixes are worth the money this quarter? You walk away with a roadmap any competent team can execute.

Let's figure out what's going on.

30 minutes. You talk, I ask questions, and you leave with the three things I'd fix first. If we never talk again, you keep the list.

Book 30 minutes

Rather email?eric@invertedimpact.com

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