AI agents and bots
I set up AI agents and develop bots, then put them to the test on real work.
Technology, with direction.
Based in Las Vegas
Fractional CTO.
For founders & CEOs.
Senior technical and AI leadership, without a full-time executive hire. AI-augmented engineers deliver the output of a full team at a fraction of the cost.
Co-founder, Upgrade Consulting & MoveFitRx
01 / ABOUT
A wider view.
A clearer path.
Fractional CTO for founders and CEOs. Co-founder of Upgrade Consulting & MoveFitRx.
Over 25 years, I've built platforms that scale from zero to millions of users, including an API layer that Apple, Uber, and Walmart use and cloud infrastructure handling billions of requests per year. I'm also a US patent holder in financial and media delivery systems.
Through Upgrade Consulting, I give founders and CEOs senior technical leadership without a full-time exec hire, with a focus on AI: setting up agents, developing bots, and bringing AI-assisted coding and governance to their teams. I also help with what's hard to see from the outside: architecture decisions that'll cost you later, data you can't trust, infrastructure that won't scale, and the bottlenecks nobody can quite diagnose. I also help leaders build stronger teams, because the best technology comes from people working well together.
I'm also co-founder and CTO of MoveFitRx, a medical exercise prescription platform where clinicians refer patients to personalized exercise programs and review their participation to inform care.
02 / WORK TOGETHER
Ways to work
together.
AI first. Senior judgment throughout. Pick the level of help you need.
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AI TRANSFORMATION
Adopt AI deliberately.
Most teams already use AI tools. Few have a plan, guardrails, or a way to measure what's working. I help you pick where AI actually moves the needle, set up governance that doesn't slow people down, and get your engineers shipping faster with it.
Best for: Leadership teams under pressure to "do something with AI" who want it to stick.
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AI-AUGMENTED ENGINEERING
Senior engineers with the output of a full team.
Upgrade's senior engineers use AI as a force multiplier, not a crutch. Each one brings 5–10x the output of a traditional developer and the judgment that only comes with experience. You get the throughput of a 5–10 person team for a fraction of the cost, without the management overhead, the hiring cycle, or the junior-level mistakes.
In practice: a few of our engineers now maintain a platform that once needed a team of ten or more, at about a tenth of the cost.
Best for: Companies that need to ship more without growing headcount, or that want to replace a costly outsourced team.
Upgrade Consulting -
FRACTIONAL CTO
Your technology leader, part-time.
I join your leadership team on an ongoing basis. I own the technical roadmap, guide architecture decisions, run engineering hiring, and take the board and investor questions about technology. You get executive judgment without the cost of a full-time executive.
Best for: Seed to Series B companies without a CTO, or with a technical co-founder who wants a partner.
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TECHNICAL DUE DILIGENCE
Know what you're buying, or what you're building on.
A focused review of the architecture, code, infrastructure, security and team, with a clear written readout: what's solid, what's risky, and what it'll cost to fix. I can do this for an investment, an acquisition, or a gut check on your own platform.
Best for: Investors, acquirers, and CEOs who want an honest second opinion.
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ADVISORY
A sounding board for the hard calls.
Regular sessions for founders and CEOs facing technical decisions they can't easily take back: build or buy, re-platform or refactor, who to hire next, and whether the timeline is real. Lightweight, candid, and on call when something breaks.
Best for: Leaders who have a team but want a senior perspective outside it.
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“Royce poured CTO-level knowledge into me all year and made me a true AI-native founder.”
FOUNDER & CEO, GAMING COACHING & ESPORTS PLATFORM
Not sure which fits?
Most engagements start with a single conversation about where you are and where you're stuck.
03 / RESULTS
Small teams.
Big output.
Upgrade Consulting client work. Names withheld, numbers real.
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10+ → a few
SaaS idea management platform: web app
A production web app used to need a team of more than ten developers. A few Upgrade senior engineers working with AI now maintain and extend it at about a tenth of the cost.
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~1/5 the cost
Consumer data platform: mobile apps
We're building native mobile apps at roughly a fifth of the traditional cost, without cutting scope or quality.
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10+ → 2
Health supplement e-commerce company: full platform takeover
We took over a platform from a 10+ person team with two fractional engineers, keeping it running and moving forward the whole time.
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1 engineer = 2–4
Our own products
We practice what we sell. At Upgrade, a single senior engineer ships features that used to take a team of two to four. Some of those features I build myself.
04 / AIBUILDING WITH IT. WRITING ABOUT IT.
Building with AI.
Not just talking about it.
I set up AI agents, develop bots, use AI-assisted coding, and write about what I learn along the way.
Read all my articlesAI-assisted coding
Getting from a demo to a production system takes real engineering discipline, not vibe coding.
AI governance
Every company now runs on AI tooling. The real risk is the visibility gap behind it.
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Debt: The First 5,000 Years
The history of value and debt for humanity.
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Never Split the Difference
Delves into human psychology and negotiation approaches.
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The Black Swan
One of the most impactful books about probability and how to harness it.
06 / CONTACTTHE NEXT CONVERSATION
What’s your
next move?
Bring a question, a challenge, or a new perspective.
Let’s start there.