Company Performance Metrics
- Duncan Grazier: Founder & AdvisorPast Role: BuildOps, Chief AI Officer
TideHelm is the advisory practice of Duncan Grazier, a three-time CTO who has taken engineering organizations from founding teams to hundreds of engineers — through a NASDAQ IPO, a $550M acquisition, and the shift to AI-native software.
The advisor founders, investors, and CTOs call before the hardest decisions.
Founders preparing for the next
phase. The transition from product-led to scale-led, the first VPs, the architecture call that locks in the next three years. Investors sizing up technical risk. Diligence on engineering orgs, codebases, and the people running them — before a check, before a board seat, before the markdown. CTOs navigating the calls that will define their tenure. AI strategy, organizational redesign, the build-vs-buy questions where the wrong answer is invisible until it's expensive.
Duncan brings 15+ years of operating experience: most recently as Chief AI Officer at BuildOps ($1B unicorn), previously scaling Weedmaps engineering from 30 to 300+ through IPO, and steering ShopKeep through a $550M acquisition by Lightspeed.
Engagements are intentionally low-volume and high-context. The work is not consulting hours; it's judgment at the moments that matter most.
tidehelm.io
