Hormesis
Fractional CTO · pre-seed & seed founders

Ship the MVP.
Reach the next milestone.
Keep your equity.

I’m a fractional CTO who ships product, owns the engineering calls, and helps you tell the product story that closes the next fundraise.

Book a call →See engagements
Thomas Hepner

About

I’m Thomas Hepner. I’ve spent the past 10 years building and shipping products in financial technology, machine learning, stablecoins, and onchain credit.

  • Built financial infrastructure at Credit Coop processing $2B+ in annualized volume with no exploits — featured by Visa in its Stablecoins Beyond Payments: The Onchain Lending Opportunity whitepaper.
  • Raised $4.5M from top-tier investors including Coinbase Ventures.
  • Hired and led engineering teams that shipped products with millions in ARR.
  • Deployed machine learning models used for lending decisions by 13,000+ bankers.
  • Early angel investor and partner with seed-stage startups now collectively worth billions.

Engagements

Advisory
1-week

Unblock an issue.

One engagement. One problem. Architecture review, hiring call, fundraise technical narrative, stack decision — in days, not weeks.

  • Operational security review
  • Security or smart contract audit prep
  • Product narrative and pitch deck review
Fractional
10–20 hrs / wk

Ship product.

I write the code, own the engineering calls, and carry the technical seat in your company until you hire a full-time team post-seed.

  • MVP shipped, then iterated weekly
  • Stack, architecture, security, vendor decisions
  • Evaluate technical talent when you’re ready to hire

Ready to ship?

If you just closed a pre-seed round and need a working product to reach the next milestone — send one email.

Reply within 24 hours. If we’re a fit, I’ll share a calendar link for an introductory call.