Felipe Fernandes signature

I build teams, ship products, and turn ideas into real businesses.

I'm Felipe — I currently own and operate Pi Tech (a software consultancy) and Closet Factory Austin. Over 20 years I've built teams from scratch, launched products, closed deals, and helped scale companies from early stage to exit. I like working with people who want to get things done. What can we build together?

Felipe Fernandes headshot

Past Employers

Pi Tech Zello PaidUp Mozido Accenture

Past Clients

Dairy Queen Telefonica Coca-Cola Honda Bechtel Western Union Command Alkon Restoration Hardware

What I Do

Core Competencies

Things I enjoy doing and have had real success with.

Customer Interviews

There's no better way to understand your customer than by talking to them and tracking everything to identify patterns.

Design Sprints

Stop delaying and get customer feedback in 5 days. "I don't need time, I need a deadline." — Duke Ellington

Product Roadmaps

Ditch the feature wishlist. When done correctly, roadmaps can guide the org to deliver on the company strategy.

Contract Negotiations

Digging into contracts, including legalese and coming up with amicable win-win agreements.

Retention & Growth

Solving this puzzle can have huge benefits for the business, from increasing NPS scores to reducing churn.

Building Teams

A coach is on the sidelines calling plays. A captain is on the field, solving problems with the team. I prefer being a captain.

Learning

Education

Always learning. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.

Computer Engineering

Boston University

1998 – 2002

Pragmatic Marketing

Pragmatic Marketing Institute

2015

Machine Learning

Stanford University (Coursera)

In Progress

Career

Experience

Here are the highlights...

Mar 2021 – Present

Co-Founder & CEO

Pi Tech

Built this from the ground up to $3.9M revenue with 25% EBITDA in two years. Grew the team to 40 engineers and created our "Specless Engineering" methodology — our take on making Agile actually work.

Mar 2019 – Mar 2021

Director, Customer Success

Zello

Grew the team from 2 to 7 in 12 months. Cut enterprise MRR churn from 9.8% to -0.1% in 6 months by actually visiting customers and fixing problems. NPS hit 58% enterprise.

Sep 2015 – Mar 2019

Co-Founder & President

PaidUp

Co-founded a payments platform for youth sports clubs. We processed $5MM+ a year. Built the support stack on ZenDesk and Stripe and wired it all together.

Sep 2012 – Aug 2015

VP, Product & Engineering

Mozido

Ran product and engineering across fintech and mobile marketing — 5 PMs, 2 scrum masters, 35 devs, 10 QA, and 5 managers. Three promotions in seven years at this company.

Sep 2010 – Aug 2012

Director, Product

Mozido

Jul 2008 – Aug 2010

Sr. Manager, Product

Mozido

Jun 2006 – Jun 2008

Manager, Financial Services

Affinity Mobile

May 2004 – May 2006

Analyst, Wireless Carriers

Accenture

(Remind me to tell you the story about being the real-life "Can you hear me now?" guy)

May 2017 – Present

Non-Profit Board Member

Sustainable Food Center

Let's have a little fun...

Name that movie

Nunchucks 97%
Bo Hunting 95%
Computer Hacking 90%

Check out my resume for a list of practical skills

Work Samples

Portfolio

Some featured past work. Here are some of the work products I've created. Click below for more details.

PaidUp Material Design Checkout

PaidUp Material Design Checkout

Laid out payment workflows for this portal using Material Design.

4 images
Design Sprint

Design Sprint

Operated a design sprint to get real user feedback on new app in 5 days.

6 images
Early Warning System

Early Warning System

Generated early warning system to identify accounts in danger of churning.

2 images

Questions

FAQ

Answering some questions you may want to know about me.

Get In Touch

Let's chat

I'll get back to you in two shakes of a lamb's tail...