Fractional (To Become Full-Time) CTO | Potential Co-Founder Position 🔹About Us: Garnet Gazelle is a fast-growing auction startup transforming how high-quality consumer goods: Jewelry, diamonds, designer purses, coins, and collectibles are sold online. We deliver exceptional value with items consistently priced below MSRP and ensure 2-business-day delivery across the U.S. and Canada. With a loyal subscriber base of over 60,000 (and growing), one-third of whom are active buyers, we’ve proven our model "bootstrapped". Now, we’re ready to scale. That means saying goodbye to outdated white-label auction platforms and launching [Unannounced], our proprietary, always-on, AI-powered auction marketplace built for the modern, mobile-first, data-optimized era of e-commerce. We are preparing to hit the road for a Series A round to fund the development. 🔹Role Summary: We are seeking a dynamic and experienced CTO to lead our transition to a new online auction marketplace. A technical visionary and builder! Easy to work with, but deeply proactive. The ideal candidate will possess a deep background in web development and e-commerce / marketplace design, with a keen understanding of the latest technologies and trends. You will play a crucial role in designing a scalable, modular, and user-friendly platform that supports our long-term growth objectives. This is a rare opportunity to join a profitable, proven business right before a major tech leap. This is a critical hire, and not a typical tech lead role. We are specifically seeking an experienced executive who meets the following criteria: 🔹 Proven Scale Experience You must have demonstrable experience scaling a company from $5–6M to $100M+ in annual revenue within 2 years or less. Your track record should include hands-on leadership during periods of hypergrowth, including scaling infrastructure, team, and processes to support aggressive expansion goals. 🔹 Capital Markets Readiness This role is tightly aligned with our fundraising efforts. You must have verifiable experience engaging capital markets investors, presenting at a Series A or later stage, and directly contributing to closing funding rounds. You’ll be working alongside a CEO who understands expects peer-level collaboration on investor strategy and technical validation. 🔹 Co-Founder Philosophy Ideally, this role is for someone entrepreneurial savvy. Compensation includes a substantial equity stake and strong upside potential but requires alignment with a co-founder-style compensation structure: • A modest initial salary for the first ~6 months • A structured compensation catch-up post-Series A close (at this stage <$200K base salary) • Performance-based bonuses • Health benefits included This is for someone who wants ownership of a startup with significant traction that once again, is focused on the strong upside and longer-term execution. 🔹 Strategic Tech Vision: "B2B2C" (B2B and B2C) + AI-Driven Marketplace We’re building a first-of-its-kind auction platform with seamless onboarding, AI-enabled personas, real-time engagement systems, and inbound/outbound marketing automations at scale. You’ll architect and lead the development of this unique hybrid model, designed to attract hundreds of thousands of new buyers quarterly. 🔹Key Responsibilities: Platform Development • Architect and oversee the development of a modular, scalable auction platform built for continuous 24/7 operation. • Refine and finalize the technology stack for the platform, data, and marketing, collaborating with our technical advisor to ensure scalability and flexibility. Data Strategy & Intelligence • Define our data architecture to unlock actionable insights from limited existing datasets and rapidly evolving new ones. • Build systems for tracking real-time engagement, bidding behavior, and conversion paths. • Collaborate on dashboards for internal stakeholders to make data-informed product and merchandising decisions. AI & Automation • Integrate AI-driven tools for smart merchandising, dynamic pricing, seller onboarding, and user personalization. • Optimize for high-throughput transactions, prioritizing low latency and high uptime. Marketing & Growth Integration • Guide integration of digital marketing infrastructure: SEO/SEM analytics, attribution modeling, pixel tracking, and customer journey optimization. • Lead technical integration of marketing tools to create a seamless pipeline from inventory to ads and landing pages, driving measurable, scalable ROAS improvements. UX/UI & Mobile-First Design • Oversee design that’s visually stunning and conversion-optimized across devices. • Lay the groundwork for a future mobile app, incorporating push notifications and geo-personalization features. Team Building & Project Oversight • Recruit, mentor, and manage a lean in-house development team, potentially integrating near-shore resources during initial build-out. • Define agile processes and oversee execution across discovery, sprints, QA, and deployment. 🔹Culture: Our global team, with remote contractors in the Philippines and on-site operations in Kentucky, USA, thrives in a collaborative, customer-focused environment. We value hard work, dedication, and authentic professional relationships. The ideal candidate is confident yet humble, driven yet approachable, and passionate about problem-solving while enhancing our positive team culture. The ideal candidate will align with Eastern Standard Time business hours to collaborate effectively with our team and partners, with flexibility for remote work. If you’re passionate about building a category-defining platform that blends real-time engagement with e-commerce excellence, we’d love to hear from you.