Founding CTO / Technical Co-Founder (Tampa)

HQOS is building an operating intelligence and action platform for owner-led businesses.

Small-business owners already use accounting software, payroll systems, POS platforms, CRMs, marketing tools, and dashboards. What they often do not have is an experienced executive team helping them understand what is changing, what matters most, and what action to take next.

HQOS is designed to become that missing layer.

The platform will connect signals from across the business, identify risks and opportunities, explain what they mean in plain English, and help owners move from information to decision, plan, action, and measurable result.

HQOS is not being built as another dashboard. It is being built as the trusted operating and action layer for owner-led businesses.

Our mission:

The perspective of an executive team, built around your business. See what’s changing. Know what matters. Take the next right action. HQOS manages the signals, so you can focus on the mission.

The Opportunity

About HQOS:

HQOS is building an operating intelligence and action platform for owner-led businesses.

Small-business owners already use accounting software, payroll systems, POS platforms, CRMs, marketing tools, and dashboards. What they often do not have is an experienced executive team helping them understand what is changing, what matters most, and what action to take next.

HQOS is designed to become that missing layer.

The platform will connect signals from across the business, identify risks and opportunities, explain what they mean in plain English, and help owners move from information to decision, plan, action, and measurable result.

HQOS is not being built as another dashboard. It is being built as the trusted operating and action layer for owner-led businesses.

Our mission:

The perspective of an executive team, built around your business. See what’s changing. Know what matters. Take the next right action. HQOS manages the signals, so you can focus on the mission.

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Founding Chief Technology Officer and Technical Co-Founder to help transform the HQOS vision into a scalable technology company.

This is not a traditional CTO role overseeing an established engineering department. It is a genuine co-founder opportunity for someone who wants to help shape the product, architecture, company, culture, and long-term mission from the beginning.

The founding CTO will work directly with the founder to:

• Establish the technical vision and architecture
• Unify the company’s product and technical presentation
• Define a disciplined and achievable MVP
• Begin building the initial product
• Strengthen HQOS’s technical credibility with accelerators, investors, pilot partners, and future customers
• Build the foundation for a scalable engineering and product organization

HQOS has already received invitations to accelerator programs while still in its early validation stage. To fully capitalize on those opportunities, strengthen the company’s funding position, and begin product execution, HQOS needs the right technical co-founder at the table.

The Founding Partnership

Before outside funding, both founders will agree to a clear and realistic weekly commitment.

The expectation is not unlimited unpaid availability. It is a defined founder-to-founder commitment focused on making measurable progress each week.

The initial partnership will concentrate on:

• Pressure-testing the product vision
• Defining the technical structure
• Finalizing the MVP scope
• Building the technical roadmap
• Selecting the appropriate technology stack
• Creating an initial prototype or working MVP
• Preparing for accelerator and investor discussions
• Strengthening the company’s overall funding readiness

Once an agreed funding or revenue milestone is reached, both founding members will transition into full-time roles with HQOS.

The exact weekly commitment, responsibilities, decision rights, milestones, equity structure, vesting schedule, and deferred compensation terms will be discussed openly and documented formally.

What You Will Own

As the founding technical leader, you will own or lead:

• HQOS’s technical strategy and long‑term architecture
• Translation of product requirements into a focused MVP roadmap
• Selection of the technology stack, cloud infrastructure, databases, and development tools
• AI architecture, model strategy, retrieval systems, agents, and workflow automation
• Secure integrations with accounting, payroll, POS, CRM, marketing, and other operational platforms
• The platform’s core data model, permissions, and integration framework
• Development and technical leadership of the initial MVP
• Security, privacy, reliability, and scalability standards
• Evaluation of APIs, models, automation tools, and third‑party technology partners
• Technical preparation for investor, accelerator, and partner conversations
• Future recruiting and leadership of the engineering and product organization
• The balance between development speed, cost, usability, technical quality, and long‑term scale

During the first phase, this will be a hands‑on role. The founding CTO should be comfortable personally building, prototyping, reviewing code, or directly managing those doing the work.

What We Are Building

HQOS is designed to help business owners move from scattered information to confident execution.

The platform will help an owner:

• See an important issue or opportunity
• Understand why it matters
• Choose a direction
• Test what is realistically possible
• Build a plan
• Turn the plan into specific actions
• Measure what changed
• Learn from the result

Initial product areas include:

• Today: What needs the owner’s attention now
• HQ: The business at a glance
• Actions: What needs to be done
• Boardroom: Work through important business decisions
• Build: Create the tools, plans, and resources the business needs
• Results: Measure what changed and what it was worth

The initial market will focus on owner‑led businesses, beginning with industries such as restaurants and home services.

Market Opportunity

HQOS is not envisioned as a small, short‑term, or narrowly focused product.

The long‑term objective is to build the category‑leading operating and action platform for owner‑led businesses.

• Total Addressable Market: $62.3 billion ARR
• Serviceable Addressable Market: $19.6 billion ARR
• Initial Serviceable Obtainable Market: $25.1 million ARR

HQOS has the potential to support millions of businesses that currently operate without the coordinated financial, operational, strategic, and decision‑making support available to larger organizations.

Our goal is to become a long‑term leader and trusted supporter of Main Street America’s mission to survive, grow, employ people, create opportunity, and succeed.

Who We Are Looking For

The right person may already be a CTO, technical founder, or engineering leader.

However, we are equally interested in exceptional professionals who are in the middle of their careers and know they are capable of building something larger than their current position allows.

Relevant backgrounds may include:

• Software Engineer
• Senior or Staff Software Engineer
• Full‑Stack Engineer
• Backend Developer or Backend Engineer
• Solutions Architect
• Cloud Architect
• Platform Engineer
• AI or Machine Learning Engineer
• Data Engineer
• Engineering Manager
• Technical Product Leader
• Fractional CTO ready to become a full‑time founder

A perfect résumé is less important than the right combination of technical ability, judgment, integrity, drive, and founder mentality.

You may be a strong fit if you:

• Have experience building SaaS, AI, data, analytics, automation, or business intelligence products
• Can think strategically while remaining willing to build
• Understand cloud architecture, APIs, integrations, databases, and data security
• Have experience with large language models, AI agents, retrieval systems, machine learning, or workflow automation
• Care about solving meaningful business problems rather than creating more software noise
• Want real ownership and influence over what is built
• Are prepared to make decisions as an owner rather than simply complete assignments as an employee
• Have the resilience and willingness to fight for a mission you believe in

Experience with small‑business technology, accounting, fintech, payroll, restaurants, home services, enterprise integrations, or operational management is valuable but not required.

Current Stage

HQOS is currently in the validation, pilot‑development, and early technical‑planning stage.

The following work has already been developed:

• Product vision and market positioning
• Initial customer profiles and use cases
• Product navigation and user workflows
• Executive decision and action framework
• Pilot structure
• Pricing direction
• Go-to-market strategy
• Financial and investor materials
• Early product mockups
• Accelerator and inv]]>