Nico Westerdale

Early stage tech-startups are always in need of both technical leadership and raw coding ability. After spending many years in small and emerging startups I realized that this model was broken.

Founders at startups usually hire an adept coder, perhaps a senior software engineer, and while that's great for writing the code there's a huge gap. Engineers usually lack the skills required to lead a company, even a small company.

That's where I come in.

Having worked in a multitude of startups, including startups of my own, and held leadership roles in larger organizations I've lived the growth trajectory many times. I work as a fractional CTO, spending a fraction of my time with many startups and making sure that the direction is set and the right choices are made. I also work hands on with engineering teams making sure that the right product is built in the right way.

Startups are my passion, and by working with many startups, providing the technical leadership and hands-on management that is needed. I help fill the void that non-technical founders have, and that engineers cannot fill.

I now have the pleasure of helping multiple startup founders and work with a group of technical executives. To find out more, or get in contact, please visit Accelerator CTO.

If you'd like to learn more about my story about how I got here, please read this article in Technical.ly published in July 2021.

My work

My current work as an Accelerator CTO started in the summer of 2021. This involves working with multiple small and emerging startups, providing them with technical leadership and hands-on management.

Gopuff

My latest full time position was as Director of Engineering at Gopuff, an on demand convenience delivery app currently valued at 15Bln, and Philadelphia's fastest growing startup.

I joined Gopuff when the Engineering team was tiny, and oversaw the entire Consumer Product and helped to scale the team to over 200 in Engineering.

My work at Gopuff encompassed the consumer application, both native apps and the website. From a small team I helped to built the department to over 200 software engineers, with teams focused on growth, loyalty, the shopping experience, release management, site redesign and the delivery driver experience.

Incentfit

I worked as the CTO of IncentFit, a corporate wellness platform that incentivizes employees to exercise.

Incentfit takes the principals of behavioral science to encourage participants to lead a healthy lifestyle. The platform rewards participants for gym check-ins, step counts through smartphones or watches, or any activity that can be tracked with a smart device, with interactive challenges to enable group cohesion towards a common goal.

Comcast

At my Time at Comcast I worked with a small team to lead development on a variety of embedded devices.

This marked Comcast's first explorations into streaming video on demand, and the model that we used for the Xbox, Samsung Smart TV Roku, and web based streaming apps served as a model for Comcast's eventual move past the set-top-box into IP streaming.

BitsDuJour

I built and run BitsDuJour.com, a daily deals software website that showcases deals from independent software vendors.

Founded in 2007, BitsDuJour continues to run and provide a valuable marketing resource to independent desktop software manufacturers. We won the Best Independent Software Vendor Award at the 2010 Software Industry Conference.

Iconico

For many years I've been running Iconico.com, which hosts many of the software products and inventions that I've built over the years.

Iconico hosts a variety of simple to use applications, including ColorPic, the world's most downloaded color picker for PC, and Screen Calipers, a unique and intuitive on-screen measuring app.

 

Much more details can be found on my resume.

Art, Photos and Passion

When not helping others scale their businesses I try and find the time for more aesthetic pleasures.

This website also serves as a showcase for my passion projects, enjoy!