GaffTek LLC

Hi! I'm Doug Gaff, founder of GaffTek. I provide Startup Company advisory services to pre-seed, seed, and growth-stage startup companies. I work directly with founders and executive teams in order to provide guidance on product-market fit, product-led growth, engineering organizational scaling, and building a technical moat. I also offer executive coaching for senior leadership.

LinkedIn
Leadership & Startups Substack
Manager Readme
Maker projects on my personal page
Contact me on LinkedIn or doug at gafftek dot com

Each company I engage with has a specific initial need, and those needs evolve over time as the company grows. Here are some general expertise areas where I can help.

Product-Market Fit

When you’re launching a new product, nothing matters more than product-market fit. Typically a company starts with an initial minimum viable product (MVP) and an initial set of customers and then repeatedly iterates on their product based on customer feedback. This is the initial process of developing product-market fit, and it requires regularly questioning assumptions about the original vision of the product. I’ve gone through multiple new product creations and launches, and I’ve worked hands-on building and evolving MVPs. I’ve also worked through multiple product pivots as we evolved a product for a new market and customer base.

Product-Led Growth

Unlike sales-led or marketing-led growth, product-led growth is a methodology of running a company in which the primary source of business growth and company scale comes from the product itself. The product drives user acquisition, expansion, conversion, and retention. A good example is Zoom, which acquires customers by giving them a highly functional free version for 45-minute calls, converts customers by adding additional functionality for a paid zoom account, and retains customers with their extensive app integrations. Two of my hyper-growth startups used product-led growth to drive the business, and I bring a strong customer-centricity to how I think about product development.

Engineering Organization Scaling

Having built and scaled multiple engineering teams to over 100 engineers, I have expert-level experience scaling engineering. I can help you think through your first non-founder engineer hire, help you figure out when to put Engineering Managers in place, help you build an org structure for a multi-tiered engineering organization, help you refine your engineer and Manager/Director/VP hiring practice, and help you plan for diversity and inclusion in your organization.

Building a Technical Moat

An often overlooked part of building a company is how much technical architecture a company should build at each phase of its growth. A “technical moat” is the protective architecture upon which your product is built. The best companies build and rebuild their technical moat as they scale their customers. The best companies also iterate on their architecture regularly. The worst companies don’t focus enough on the technical moat and eventually find that they can’t keep up with customer demand, or even worse, get swamped by the competition. I’ve built architecture teams, technology stacks for new products, and technical strategies across engineering geared towards multi-year growth. I’ve also learned from my mistakes in not investing heavily enough in maintaining a technical moat.

Executive Coaching and Mentoring

Being a founder or executive at a growing startup can sometimes be stressful and lonely. Startups leaders experience some of the highest highs and the lowest lows. My job is to provide an unbiased outsider’s perspective by both supporting you and challenging you. I’m a mixture between a coach and a mentor. I’ve been coaching and growing leaders for over a decade in my role as a senior leader, and I’ve worked in your shoes in my executive roles. I will use a variety of coaching tools to help facilitate discussions and self-reflection with you. I will also mentor and collaborate with you on ideas you have for your business, for scaling your department and leadership team, and for developing your product.

I have over 20 years of management experience, including 7 years of executive leadership at three hyper-growth companies: Zapier, InVision, and SimpliSafe. During my tenure as VPE at these companies, each grew well past $100M ARR with annual growth rates of 30-50%. These companies also achieved valuations of $1B or more, including one company acquisition.

I’ve built multiple engineering organizations over my career. I’ve hired 50-100 engineers per year, built a multi-tiered engineering management structure (Manager, Director, Sr. Director), established engineering processes, established high-reliability products, and built product and technical strategy at scale. Over my career, I’ve worked in 6 startups at various company phases--founder, seed, bootstrapped, and multiple series investment rounds--and I’m equally comfortable engaging with the 3-person startup as much as the 150-person hypergrowth company.

I hold a BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Tech. I’m experienced in both consumer electronics hardware and enterprise SaaS software. I’ve worked across many diverse product markets including instrumentation, 3D modeling, embedded software tools, open-source software, digital media, consumer electronics, visual design prototyping, and low-code automation.

Please check out my Manager Readme to get a better idea of how I lead.

Put simply, the purpose of a startup advisory board is to help a startup company succeed as they grow. Startup advisory boards exist to help founders make both strategic and operational decisions at multiple points along the growth trajectory of their company. The ideal startup advisor has a track record of scaling one or more successful companies. They have domain-specific operational experience that can assist founders in areas where there is a skills or experience gap at the company. They also serve as a mentor and executive coach to members on the executive team.

An advisor position is structured as an equity-compensated independent contractor, which ensures that the work of the advisor is completely aligned with the long-term business objectives of the founders. An advisor resembles a board member more than a consultant. Consultants are usually hired on a short-term basis to solve a specific problem. Advisors are long-term, high-trust founder and executive team partners who serve 1-2 years. The specific work for the advisor is mutually agreed upon between the founders and the advisor, and the statement of work will evolve as the needs of the company change over time.

Startup advisory work is described in more detail in the following links.
Building Your Startup Advisory Board (SVB)
Why Your Startup Needs An Advisory Board (Inc.)
Sample Agreement (Founder Institute)