For Startups
Ship an AI-Native Product Without Burning the Runway
Early-stage teams move fast, but speed in the wrong direction is how runway disappears. I bring senior product judgment to founders building AI-native products, so you build the right thing and tell a story investors and users actually believe.
The Pressure
Limited runway, infinite directions, and an AI landscape shifting every week. The startups that win aren't the ones building the most. They're the ones building the right thing, fast.
That tension shows up in four places founders feel most:
- Product focusbuilding the right thing before you scale it
- Speed vs. debtmoving fast without painting yourself into a corner
- Hiring leveragesenior product work before you can afford a CPO
- Investor narrativean AI story that holds up in the room
How I work with founders
Discovery & Validation
De-risk before you build. We pressure-test the problem, the market, and the wedge so you spend precious runway on the version most likely to work, not the first one that came to mind.
AI-Native Product Strategy
Define positioning, the roadmap, and where AI is a genuine advantage versus table stakes. You leave with a sharp point of view and a plan you can take to your team and your investors.
Build & Iterate
Hands-on through the first shipped versions. We tighten the loop between users and the product, prioritize ruthlessly, and ship something real that earns the next round of conviction.
Where the work pays off
Faster time-to-product
Skip the months lost to building the wrong thing. Clear product direction means you ship something users react to sooner and learn faster.
Capital efficiency
Spend runway on what moves the needle. Sharper priorities mean fewer expensive detours and more progress per dollar raised.
A sharper investor story
Replace AI hand-waving with a credible narrative: a real wedge, real traction, and a defensible reason this product wins.
Senior judgment on demand
Get CPO-level product thinking when you need it, without the cost and commitment of a full-time executive hire too early.
Who this is for
This work is built for founders and early teams: pre-seed through Series B, building an AI-native product and moving fast. It is for the founders who need fractional CPO-level firepower to sharpen the product and the story, without committing to a full-time executive before the timing is right.
Why work with me
I've been the founder, building, scaling, and exiting product organizations used by millions.
I'm Jeff Soto, a product and technology executive with over 16 years building digital products. I founded Tendigi, a mobile studio acquired by Work & Co, where I led engagements for Google, the NBA, Netflix, and the PGA Tour.
As CTO at Mosaic Group (IAC), I ran a 160-person organization across 50+ consumer apps reaching 15M people a month, culminating in a $160M acquisition. Today, through EVNN, I help teams bring AI-native thinking to how they build, ship, and operate.
Ready to ship something investors and users believe in?
Whether you're still validating the idea or racing to your next milestone, let's sharpen the product and the plan to get there.
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