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Accepting 2 new engagements for Q2 2026

Product & tech leader who's actually shipped AI-native

I help B2B SaaS companies build AI products that win. Not bolt AI onto legacy platforms. Product, technology, and AI strategy advisor for founders who need to move fast.

For Seed to Series C SaaS teams building 0-to-1 AI products,
growing revenue $1-10M, or scaling past $10M ARR

No pitch. No commitment. Just an honest assessment.

I'm Darren Card, a product and technology leader helping B2B SaaS companies build AI-native products. Based in Vancouver, BC. I've spent 20+ years building B2B SaaS products across eight industries. The short version: I've taken an AI-native product from idea to GA, helped scale companies from $0 to $50M ARR, and I'm the person founders call when the product and tech decisions matter most.

Teams I've built product with
EY Synchrony Delta Airlines United Airlines Pella reMarkable Microsoft Box Red Hat Visa Target Deloitte Banana Republic Condé Nast NASCAR ESPN Molson Coors Intel
20+
Years in B2B SaaS
$0-to-50M
ARR Scaling
8
Industries

Problems I solve

The stuff that keeps founders up at night: AI product bets, scaling past the messy middle, and building a team that ships.

AI Product Strategy

"We want to add AI but don't know where to start"

Define your AI product vision and build the architecture to ship it. I've taken an AI-native product from concept to GA and I'll help you avoid the expensive mistakes I've seen sink other teams.

LLM/RAG Semantic Search AI Pricing Build vs. Buy
Framework: LegacyAI-Enhanced

0-to-1 Product Development

"We have an idea but can't get it to market"

Get from idea to shipped product. I figure out what to build, prove the market wants it, and hire the team to make it real. No 6-month discovery phase.

Product Discovery Category Creation PLG MVP Scoping
Framework: LegacyAI-Curious

Growth & Scaling

"We're stuck between SMB and enterprise"

The messy transitions: SMB to enterprise, founder-led to team-led sales, 4-figure to 6-figure ACVs. I've done these moves multiple times and know where they break.

ACV Optimization Enterprise GTM Series A/B Pricing
Framework: AI-EnhancedAI-Native

Fractional CPTO

"We need a product leader who gets the tech side too"

Your product leader, without the full-time hire. I join your leadership team and own the product vision, roadmap, and strategy while keeping the technical architecture honest. An insider on your exec team, not an outside advisor.

Product Vision Roadmap Team Building Architecture
Framework: All stages

AI Operations Transformation

"We know AI can help but don't know how to operationalize it"

Stand up an agentic workforce that ships. I've built AI-driven operations from scratch: coding agents, QA agents, support agents. Replacing manual workflows with autonomous systems. This is hands-on implementation, start to finish.

Agentic Workflows AI Tooling Process Automation Change Management
Framework: LegacyAI-Enhanced

Product & Technical Due Diligence

"We're investing but can't evaluate the product or tech"

I dig into the product, the tech, the team, and the AI story. Then I tell you what's real and what's not. I've seen enough deals across 8 industries to know where the risks hide.

PE / VC Diligence Tech Debt Audit AI Readiness M&A Advisory
Framework: All stages
Most SaaS companies are bolting AI onto legacy products and calling it innovation. The companies that win are building AI-native from day one. The AI isn't a feature. It's the foundation.
Free Assessment

Is your product AI-native?

10 questions across the dimensions that separate bolt-on AI from AI-native. Score your product and get specific recommendations.

Take AI maturity assessment

3 minutes. No sign-up required.

Strategic Framework

The AI-native maturity framework

5 stages, 10 dimensions, anti-patterns, and transition triggers. Built for board rooms and quarterly planning.

Read the framework

Legacy to AI-Native. The full playbook.

How engagements work

No bloated proposals. No unnecessary overhead. Structured around your stage and what you need.

01

Diagnose

30 minutes to understand your product, market, and where you're stuck. You leave with a clear assessment of your biggest leverage point and whether I'm the right fit.

02

Scope & Commit

We define the engagement format (sprint, advisory, or fractional), lock in specific outcomes and timelines, and agree on how we'll measure success. No ambiguity.

03

Execute & Ship

I work alongside your team in the weeds. Every engagement produces shipped artifacts: a product strategy, a launched feature, a hired team, a closed deal. Momentum you can measure.

Where I've done this before

I've led product and engineering at every stage, from employee #1 at a pre-seed startup to post-Series B scale-ups across eight industries.

Featured Case Study

Lexful: AI-Native SaaS from Idea to GA

Pre-seed · Displacing $100M+ ARR incumbent with AI-native differentiation · Employee #1

Product Vision

Executed the product vision and architecture around conversational search and LLM/RAG-powered knowledge retrieval. Made AI the core experience, not a bolt-on feature.

Team & Operations

Hired and built the product and engineering team from zero. Stood up an agentic product operations workforce with AI coding and QA agents. Established SOC 2-aligned security practices.

AI COGS & Monetization

Owned the AI cost structure: token budgets, inference cost tiers, API rate limiting, and storage limit bundles. Designed the credit system tied to real LLM costs while sales packaged pricing in consultation.

GA Launch

Launched in Feb 2026 with paying customers on day one, validating product-market fit against five incumbent platforms as sole product and technology leader.

Lexful
CPTO, Employee #1

Shipped an AI-native SaaS platform to GA as sole product and technology leader. Defined the product vision and technical architecture (LLM/RAG pipelines, semantic search, API-first platform), built the team, and brought an AI-first knowledge platform to market against a $100M+ ARR incumbent.

Cognota
VP Product & Technology

Pioneered the LearnOps category. Led SMB-to-enterprise pivot, including API integrations and platform extensibility that unlocked 6-figure ACVs. Key contributor to $5.5M Series A raise.

Elastic Path
Director, Product

Led product strategy post-$43M Series B. Drove the composable commerce positioning and API-first architecture that made Elastic Path a MACH Alliance leader. Accelerated roadmap delivery by 18-24 months.

Allocadia (now Uptempo)
Director, Product

Scaled ARR from $5M to $20M by launching new product modules, API integrations, and an enterprise upsell motion. Ran advisory boards with Fortune 500 customers to inform the platform roadmap.

QuickMobile (now Cvent)
Director, Product

Migrated 100+ enterprise customers to a unified SaaS platform for live events and audience engagement. Owned the product vision, technical roadmap, and cross-functional delivery end-to-end.

Vision Critical (now Alida)
VP, Product

Owned the product for a data-intensive customer intelligence platform serving 300+ global customers. Shipped features across the full stack that drove $1M in new ARR in the first year.

E-Commerce MarTech Learning / HR Tech Enterprise Events Market Research IT Services / MSP AI / ML SaaS Infrastructure

Common questions

What does a fractional CPTO do?

Think of it as having a senior product + tech leader on your team 2-4 days a week. I own the product vision, the technical architecture, hiring, and shipping. Everything a full-time CPO or CTO would, but without the full-time cost. I'm not an outside advisor. I'm in the weeds with your team.

How do you help SaaS companies implement AI?

I help companies build AI-native products, purpose-built around AI capabilities. This includes defining AI product strategy, architecting LLM/RAG pipelines, designing AI pricing models (like credit-based systems tied to infrastructure costs), and making build-vs-buy decisions. I've done this end-to-end, concept through General Availability.

What types of SaaS companies do you work with?

Mostly B2B SaaS at the Series A through Series B stage, $1M to $50M ARR. The sweet spot is teams that know the market wants what they're building but need a senior product and tech person to actually get there. Especially if AI is core to the product.

What's the difference between bolting AI on and building AI-native?

Bolting AI on means adding AI features to an existing architecture. Think a chatbot sidebar on a legacy platform. Building AI-native means the product is designed around AI capabilities from day one: semantic search, conversational interfaces, and LLM-powered workflows as the core experience. AI-native products feel like magic to users. Bolted-on AI feels like a checkbox.

How are engagements structured?

It depends on what you need. Could be a focused sprint (4-8 weeks, specific deliverables), ongoing advisory (a few hours a week for strategic gut-checks), or fractional leadership (2-4 days a week on your exec team). Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute call.

How much do you charge?

Pricing depends on engagement type and scope. Advisory engagements start at a few thousand per month; fractional CPTO roles are scoped based on time commitment (typically 2-4 days/week). I'm transparent about pricing on the first call. No multi-week proposal process. Book a strategy call and I'll give you a clear range within 30 minutes.

Currently accepting 2 new engagements for Q2 2026

Let's figure out your next move

Book a free 30-minute diagnosis call, or start with the assessment to see where you stand.

No pitch. No commitment. Just an honest assessment.