2024: The year of the Fractional CTO and more.

Around this time last year, I handed in my resignation as CTO of Yebo Fresh, a position I had held for close to 2.5 years, and spent the remainder of 2023 wrapping up, handing over the reigns, and separating myself from an important part of my career. I will forever be grateful to Jessica Boonstra, Mike Jones, the board, my mentors, and everyone else for taking a chance on me.

It really was not an easy decision, and it took a few months of deliberation (and a false start) before I finally made the decision.

I truly enjoyed working with the amazing exco, staff and board, working on ecommerce in the Kazi (township) retail sector. My engineering and product teams (and I) got to build incredible technology (across many platforms) and I was able to grow in my career as a technology leader, but I wanted a different challenge, so after a few months of some freelance projects, with the support of my amazing girlfriend Jess (♥️), some close friends and many chats with my network, in February 2024 I founded a new company.

Rodehouse — Fractional CTO, as a Service.

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Looking back over the last 10 months since I switched off everything "Yebo Fresh", it was 100% the best decision I made. Not easy, by any small margin, and I really thought it wouldn't be where it is today, at least not so quickly.

Honestly, when I switched off the "Looking for Work" banner on my LinkedIn profile, updated my byline to say "Fractional CTO" and started negotiations for the first contract under Rodehouse, I had no idea what to expect. It has been an absolute (scary) blast.

I've successfully negotiated a few long-term contracts, had some blunders (par for the course, no?) and achieved some amazing milestones in a very short timeframe:

• Grown Rodehouse to 7-figures (R) in revenue, in less than a year (🤯) - next up, to do that in $.
• Completed my Digital MBA at CTO Academy, and have since, joined them as Chapter Director for Cape Town (more on that soon).
• Joined the Board of Directors at Word of Mouth.
• Released Got the Time - more on that here.

Personally, I have also made some incredible strides:

• Jess and I bought a house (😱) and moved from Green Point, Cape Town to Hout Bay, which was a V.B.D (very BIG decision) for us.
• Excluding my now well-managed credit card, and a pretty significant (but planned) bond/mortgage, with some dedication (and continued encouragement from Jess) I took every extra-penny I could, and settled all the short-term debt I had, paid off my car-finance, improved my credit rating to "Excellent" and contribute a fair portion of my income to retirement and investments: 2022-Byron thanks you, 2024-Byron.
• Had a not-insignificant surgery, replacing my C6/C7 discs in my neck with some kick-ass titanium.
• Ran a 1h48 half-marathon with very little training.

With less than 2.5 months left of 2024, and I have a few more plans before wrapping up the year:

• Start (and grow) a newsletter on being a Fractional CTO, my thoughts on personal-AI and other technology I am passionate about.

• Continue working on my coaching platform for running/cycling/swimming. I can't wait to open the private-beta phase. Keep an eye here for updates later this year.
• Finish off our office in our new home. I had to stop working on it for my surgery, and recovery. Hoping that the surgeon gives me the all-clear next week.
• Get back into running, swimming and cycling. I do seriously miss racing.

Wow, reading through all of this: 2024 has been massive. Cannot wait to see what 2025 will bring.