Recent content in Fearless Organizations on Dr. Raphael A. Bauer, MBA | Fractional & Interim CTO | PE/VC Tech Strategy & Due Diligence | Berlin | London | Austin, Texas
Table Of Contents Intro to LaJolla The basic idea, and how it actually works Modernizing LaJolla with Claude Then: hundreds of machines. Now: five seconds. LaJolla as a scientific project - did it stand the test of time? Where next? Summary References Intro to LaJolla My PhD thesis was about understanding biomolecules, and one part of that is finding structural similarities between them ( full…
Table Of Contents TL;DR The first “wow”, two years ago Two years later, the game changed Know your models LM Studio is your friend Two settings that save you a lot of pain 1. Give the model a large enough context window 2. Stop at the limit - do not silently truncate The real kicker: a local OpenAI-compatible API Why this matters TL;DR Running a capable LLM entirely on your own machine…
Table Of Contents TL;DR Two kinds of “wow” What an agent actually is How Klaus Code does it The loop The one trick that makes it work Teaching the model the rules Tools are just an interface The details that turn a demo into something usable Why bother building this? TL;DR There are two things that still give an experienced engineer a genuine “wow” moment in the age of AI.…
Table Of Contents TL;DR Intro Level 1: The Organization - Automate Your Company Level 2: The Teams - Agents at Work, Standards at Scale Level 3: The Product - New Use Cases for Your Customers Playing All Three Levels Closing Thought TL;DR AI transformation happens on three distinct levels: the organization , the teams , and the product . They have different goals, different success metrics, and…
Table Of Contents Introduction 1. Your CTO Just Left 2. You Have a Promising Internal Leader Who Needs Support 3. Post-Acquisition: PE or M&A Transition 4. You Need to Scale Fast 5. You Need Specialized Expertise for a Defined Period 6. Pre-Investment: Tech Due Diligence 7. Crisis: Something Is Broken When NOT to Hire an Interim CTO Conclusion Introduction I’ve completed over ten Interim and…
A few days ago I had a silly idea: what if my homepage had a hidden arcade game? Click a button, and the page turns into Space Invaders - where the actual text on the page becomes the enemies you shoot. I built it with Claude Code in about 30 minutes across three iterations. I used Opus as the model with effort set to high and Plan mode enabled for each iteration. The result is a fully playable…
Table Of Contents TL;DR The Default Template The Four at a Glance Jobs and Gates Jobs and Musk So Whose Style Should You Copy? The Nadella Lesson Most Founders Don’t Want to Hear Saying This to a Founder Without Losing the Room What to Actually Take Away More TL;DR Steve Jobs has become the default reference for tech leadership, but he is one data point among several. Putting him next to…
Table Of Contents TL;DR Intro 1. Find a Mentor 2. You Don’t Control the Mess. You Control the Response 3. Stand Out and be the Red Thread 4. Anchor to Four Virtues 5. If You Can’t Do Good, at Least Do No Harm 6. Compromise Is Not Weakness 7. The Engagement Has an End Date - Memento Mori Closing Thought More TL;DR Interim work is short, high-stakes, and full of things you don’t…
Table Of Contents Introduction The Migration That Changed My Thinking What AI-Accelerated Engineering Actually Looks Like Agentic Coding with Guardrails Automated Test Generation PR Automation and Code Review Release Automation What Leadership Needs to Do Differently Mistake 1: No Measurement Mistake 2: No Governance Mistake 3: Ignoring the People Side Mistake 4: All-In Without a Pilot My…
Table Of Contents TL;DR Intro The Core Tension How to Tell You’ve Drifted Too Far What Happens If You Don’t Course-Correct The Solution Is Simple (But Hard) A Framework for Getting Back on Track Classify every request Reframe revenue concentration Negotiate instead of complying Set a ratio and defend it Make the cost visible The Honest Question TL;DR Customer-driven roadmaps protect…
When to Use a Performance Improvement Plan You have that feeling. Something is off. A person on your team is not performing the way you’d expect. Maybe it’s the quality of their work. Maybe it’s how they interact with others. Maybe they are just not delivering. Trust that feeling. But then try to find out what the root cause of the problem is first. Sometimes it is a personal…
Table Of Contents Introduction What Tech Due Diligence Actually Covers 1. Architecture & Technology Stack 2. Team Assessment 3. Delivery Capability 4. Cost Structure 5. Strategic Alignment How I Structure a Tech DD Week 1: Discovery Week 2: Deep Dive Week 3: Synthesis & Reporting Common Findings From DD to Execution Conclusion Introduction Technology due diligence is one of the most consequential…
Intro About two years ago I wrote about how AI will replace programming . Back then I predicted that most programming jobs would look fundamentally different in ten years. I still believe that. But now I want to get more specific. I’ve learned that predicting the future is extremely hard. And I am especially bad at it. That hasn’t changed. But here are my bets anyway. Today is…
This post shows how NinjaX became a dependency-free 96KB Java web framework core (routing, sessions, rendering). For a CTO, this matters because a smaller, modular core reduces supply-chain/CVE risk, improves startup/deploy speed, and keeps flexibility to add Jetty/modules when needed. As an interim/fractional CTO, it’s a repeatable playbook to quickly improve inherited stacks: modularize, cut…
Intro There’s a persistent belief in the Java community that com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer is some kind of “internal JDK thing” you shouldn’t touch. That belief is wrong. Yes, the package name starts with com.sun.* , which looks like it belongs in the “hands off” pile—but com.sun.net.httpserver.HttpServer is not the same category as sun.* internals. It’s part of any certified JRE, it’s…
Intro Java and Java Web development Back in 2012 Java web development in 2012 was a very different world from what most teams are used to today. There was no Stream API, so day-to-day collection processing meant explicit loops, helper methods, and plenty of boilerplate. Immutability wasn’t the default mindset either—most code leaned heavily on mutable state. Web applications were typically built…
Table Of Contents Why Tech Debt Kills Your Company #1 You Lose Your Ability to Hire and Keep Good Engineers #2 Security and Compliance Become Unmanageable #3 Delivery Speed Falls Off a Cliff #4 Upgrades Turn Into Existential, Company‑Level Projects Conclusion Why Tech Debt Kills Your Company As an interim / fractional CTO, I’m often called in when a SaaS company feels like it’s “slowing down” for…
Intro Diamonds are forever. Programming languages aren’t - at least not in the same way. As Fractional and Interim CTO I’ve had to advise on choosing a programming language more than once. Often companies want to simplify their stack (e.g., TypeScript on frontend and backend). Sometimes new languages/frameworks reduce complexity (e.g., moving from iOS/Android apps to Flutter/Dart). And sometimes a…
How to Make Tech Hiring Predictable, Measurable, and Boringly Reliable Hiring in tech is one of the highest-leverage activities in a company. It’s also one of the most chaotic. Teams are under pressure to “hire great people quickly,” but often lack three basics: a clear definition of who they’re looking for, a consistent standard for how they evaluate candidates, … and a measurable way to…
Intro Have you ever wondered whether that new tool your team built should be capitalized or simply expensed? You’re not alone. For many CTOs, product managers, and engineers, sorting out what counts as a capital investment versus an operational expense can be confusing - but it’s also crucial for sound business planning and smooth audits. In this post, I’ll walk you through a straightforward…
Intro Understanding capitalizable work is not just for finance professionals - it’s a critical part of building a sustainable and successful technology organization. Whether you’re a CTO, CPO, product manager, engineer, or tech lead, knowing the difference between capital expenditure (Capex) and operating expense (Opex) helps you make smarter decisions that impact your team, your company’s bottom…
Intro Negotiating is one of the most underrated and under-taught skills. It’s absolutely essential - not just in business, but in our everyday relationships as well. Whether you’re closing a major deal, navigating a tough conversation with your partner, or working in sales where many techniques rely on subtle negotiation tactics, understanding how negotiation works (especially when those tactics…
Intro When I started writing tests, I mostly focused on pure unit tests and followed what’s commonly known as the testing pyramid . This meant lots of unit tests and mocking, a handful of integration tests, and only a few end-to-end (e2e) tests. It’s a widely accepted approach, and for good reason. But as with everything in software, there are trade-offs. If you’re unfamiliar with the testing…
Intro Story points are a often used by agile teams - but in my experience, they’re often misunderstood or misused. With the right approach, however, story points can do more than just help estimate effort. They can actually foster the psychological safety and open communication that high-performing teams need. The Secret Behind Effective Teams Making tech teams effective is the key responsibility…
The Problem With QA In many companies there’s a big confusion about the role of the product manager and the role of QA. Who makes sure that things work? Who checks out specifications? If QA starts “verifying” that a story works then QA is doing the job of product. QA simply does not know how a product feature should “look” like to be successful. Only product manager…
Table Of Contents That Vague Feeling that Engineering is Too Slow Software Engineering Sucks and Is Unpredictable A Better Way to Know What Is Going on in Your Dev Department Two Buckets Bucket “Keeping the Lights On” Bucket “Elective” What Percentages to Choose Elective Bucket When to Use the Balanced Investment Framework How to Measure And Introduce Summary References…
Intro Some years ago, I moved to Potsdam, a crazy cool and nice city. It has well-maintained parks, friendly people, and really nice schools for kids. What I also noticed was that it was very simple to get an appointment to extend your passport or update your residence information (Bürgerservice). This was in 2018. Now, in 2025, Potsdam is still a really nice city, but the quality of public…
Intro AI will make software developers unemployed. And I’ve written about this ( already some time ago ). Here’s a real world example of AI usage that saved me many hours of work. Creating a Wordpress Plugin Without Knowing How to Do It As you might know I am developing a privacy-first web analytics platform. Privatracker . Cool tech. TimescaleDB. etc. Now - one of my clients is…
Intro In a recent tweetstorm Martin Tobias, a pre-seed venture capitalist at delphi.ai, shared his expert insights on the best strategies for early-stage B2B startups . Drawing from his experience with over 250 companies, Tobias highlights both the promising avenues and common pitfalls for pre-seed ventures. His recommendations resonate quite well with me. In my Tech Strategy and Due Diligence…
Intro The roles of Interim CTO and Fractional CTO often look similar at first glance. It’s easy to see why some think that “Interim CTO” is simply an outdated term, with “Fractional CTO” being the buzzword embraced by the tech-savvy crowd. However, beneath these seemingly interchangeable titles lie some subtle yet significant differences that can impact how a company…
Introduction Text-to-text, text-to-image, text-to-video. From acquiring knowledge to managing knowledge to creating text, speech, video and general reasoning. AI is changing so much, so rapidly. A true advancement of humanity. It’s crazy. This post will try to collect and keep track of the coolest AI tools around. I will update this list from time to time. Feel fee to ping me if you got a…
Intro There are three principal ways if you want to want to have an llm with custom responses and operating on custom (maybe private and confidential) data. Train your own LLM Fine-tune an existing LLM Use a default model, but leverage a long context with information to improve responses for your domain (RAG) In an ideal world, anyone would simply train their own LLM. However, this would cost…
Intro As part of my assignments as tech advisor and Fractional CTO I have to evaluate technology stacks and advise on tech strategy. There is usually never a one size fits all solution. It always depends. Except for PostgreSQL , but that’s a different story (I am joking of course…). When it comes to microservices we should trust what Martin Fowler recommends: “One reasonable…
Intro Respecting user privacy has always been important. And with GDPR , CCPR and other laws it became mandatory for all of us. While privacy is important it’s also a vital interest for online businesses to know how users are using their apps and websites. This allows businesses find flaws in usability and optimize the website to provide the best experience for their clients. But how can you…
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) offers a great way to provide data to Large Language Models (LLMs) and generate responses based on your own content. This approach is particularly beneficial when dealing with sensitive data that should remain within controlled environments. In my current projects as Private Equity Tech Advisor, I often handle such data. For that purpose, I have been using…
Intro Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) is a powerful technique to supply data to a Large Language Model (LLM) and generate accurate responses based on your own content. It’s cost-effective to run and you don’t need to train your own LLM. Great. In my previous blog post , I experimented with a locally running Llama 3.2 model to answer questions based on my content. While it…
The challenge Recently, I’ve been deeply involved in tech diligence and strategy projects, which are all about quickly accessing the right information. The challenge lies in the fact that this information is scattered across multiple sources, such as pre-due diligence reports, post-buy due diligence documents, and various detailed reports within different parts of the system. And it’s…
What is a Good API? Note: While API just means “Application Programming Interface” - this article mostly talks about an Http “RESTful” API that is accessible via the internet and sends back Json. Table Of Contents What is a Good API? The API is your User Interface Structuring Internal Codebases Enabling Growth and Reducing Support Efforts The First Step: Establish API…
Toyota Production System and Software Development In software development, efficiency and effectiveness are crucial for maintaining competitiveness and innovation. One of the most influential methodologies that can help achieve these goals is the Toyota Production System (TPS) , that inspired much of what we know today as XP , Scrum and Agile . TPS was key to making Toyota the #1 company in the…
Knowing what to build, when and how is a key success factor for any tech team. But breaking an idea down into workable chunks is non trivial. A key tool for determining what to build are user story maps developed by Jeff Patton . User story maps help teams visualize the journey of their users and prioritize what to build next. Whether you’re a seasoned product manager or a software engineer,…
Security within development teams is not just a priority but a necessity. Ensuring that security measures are deeply embedded in every aspect of your team’s workflow can significantly reduce vulnerabilities and protect your organization from potential threats and costs. This blog post outlines a structured approach to establishing security within teams, focusing on key elements such as…
Note: There are many different names for “brown bag sessions” - some call them “lunch and learns”, “learn at lunch”, “working lunch” and more. We’ll use the term brown bag sessions in this document. The Power of Brown Bag Sessions in Tech Staying updated with the latest trends, tools, and best practices is crucial. One effective way to foster…
Intro A two-pizza team is a small, cross-functional group dedicated to supporting a specific business capability. It was introduced by Jeff Bezos during Amazon’s rapid growth. During the growth teams just got bigger, but communication and productivity just broke down. Jeff therefore made it a rule that any development team should be a Two Pizza Team. The term “Two Pizza Team.”…
Implementing Career Ladders: A Simple and Straightforward Approach In my book on tech management , one topic that always garners attention is “career ladders.” A well-defined career ladder is essential for organizational growth, employee satisfaction, and operational efficiency. Inspired by Joel Spolsky’s career framework and heavily influenced by the Microsoft career ladder,…
A Simple Way to Visualizing Software Architecture Effectively communicating the structure and design of a system is crucial. Whether you’re explaining your architecture to a new team member or documenting it for future reference, clarity is key. But how do you document your architecture? And at what level? This is where the C4 Model comes into play. Developed by Simon Brown , the C4 Model…
Amazon’s Planning Cycles: A Guide for Leaders As CTO and Interim CTO, I am always looking for ways to optimize your company’s planning and execution processes. One of the most successful models out there is Amazon’s Operating Model. It’s described in the fantastic book “ Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon. ”. I’d highly recommend…
Intro I recently read “Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon” by authors Colin Bryar and Bill Carr. It’s a fascinating book about Amazon’s operational strategies. The book is a great read, and its concepts are influencing my day-to-day work in tech leadership and as Interim CTO. One of the concepts that is easy to get wrong is leading and…
Intro As Interim CTO I closely collaborate with non-technical folks. And often we come to the topic of “test coverage”. For non-techies this concept looks very simple. High test coverage is good, low test coverage is bad. Let’s just force the teams to produce a high test coverage. But it’s not that easy - and forcing teams to produce a high test coverage will lead to…
Introduction 20% time projects have always been a celebrated concept in the tech world. They offer employees the freedom to explore new ideas, contribute to the business in innovative ways, and boost overall motivation. However, without proper structure, side projects can quickly devolve into unproductive chaos. Here’s how we transformed our approach to 20% time projects from a potential…
Why Staging Systems Are a Lie In software development, staging systems have long been seen as a crucial step in the deployment pipeline. The idea is simple: replicate your production environment as closely as possible to catch any issues before they hit your live users. Sounds great. But the harsh truth is: Staging systems are a lie. Staging systems promise a level of “sameness” and…