Talentware is a startup that helps large companies manage talent with an AI skill-based approach. Instead of thinking in terms of roles, they map employees’ real competencies and use AI to suggest career paths, development plans, and automatic successions.

Their target? Enterprises that want to retain talent and optimize performance through strategic skill management.

TL;DR - Key Results

• From 3 founders + Fractional CTO → tech team of 15 people in less than 2 years
• Single-tenant enterprise-ready architecture designed from day zero
• €1.2M pre-seed round
• ISO 27001 in 4 months (vs standard 12-24) = enterprise clients unlocked immediately
• Internal CTO transition completed with structured handover and zero interruptions
• Team 80% autonomous - developing without the Fractional CTO

When you need the right partner

They called me at the end of 2023. Three brilliant co-founders, fresh from an accelerator, with a working MVP on no-code tools.

They had a clear vision: revolutionize HR tech with a skill-based approach that nobody was really doing well.

But what struck me most was that they knew exactly what they needed. They weren’t looking for just any developer or a generic consultant who solved everything with pre-made templates.

They needed someone who could build enterprise-ready infrastructure from day zero, manage growing technical teams, and above all navigate the complexities of B2B enterprise without hitting the typical startup walls.

“We need to build everything already thinking about where we want to go” was the first thing we said to each other in that initial four-person meeting. And from that sentence alone, I understood this would be a different kind of project.

The compromise that made the difference

Normally my approach is “move fast and break things”—build quickly, then fix.

But with Talentware I had to make a different choice from the start, and the reason was simple: their target doesn’t forgive mistakes.

When you sell large companies an HR platform to map skills and manage employee careers, you can’t afford sudden downtime, critical bugs that lose data, or security holes that end up in the news.

Their typical client is the kind that fires vendors for much less than this. So we made a smart compromise: moderate development speed, but enterprise quality and scalability from day one.

I spent the first month deeply analyzing their business model.

Who were the real target customers, what data volumes should we expect, what compliance requirements would come in the long term. All subsequent technical choices started from there.

The strategy we decided together was to think about ISO 27001 certification from day zero, even if it wasn’t needed immediately.

Instead of building something that worked and then having to adapt it to compliance (expensive and risky approach), we set up architecture, processes, and documentation already thinking about that future certification we knew would come.

Single-tenant architecture was practically inevitable for their market. Every enterprise client needed to have their own completely isolated instance—for security, for customization, for their buyers’ peace of mind.

It seemed like over-engineering for a startup starting from zero, but it was the only way to compete with giants like SAP and Workday in the long term.

The solution was to bet everything on Infrastructure as Code from the first commit, so when the first large companies started arriving, it was literally a button press to deploy their dedicated architecture.

On the team building front, we started with a hybrid approach that proved successful: external developers to start immediately and accelerate, while in parallel we did structured recruitment to build the internal team that would stay long-term.

Every new hire went through technical assessments I designed specifically for them, because team quality in the early stages determines everything that comes after.

Growing without breaking

When things really started to accelerate, the problems became completely different.

The team grew from 6 to 15 tech people in a few months.

The first enterprise clients arrived with complex requests. Investors did deep due diligence touching every aspect of the infrastructure.

And this is exactly where the initial strategy proved its value. When it came time for ISO 27001 certification, we didn’t have to redo practically anything.

We already had everything: documented processes, compliant architecture, implemented security procedures.

The result was certification in 4 months instead of the typical 12-24 that traditional implementations require.

Managing unexpected turnover made me realize how important the robust processes we had put in place really were.

When a frontend developer left us suddenly in the middle of a critical sprint, we managed to replace them in two weeks through my network of professionals, reassigned tasks without losing momentum, and no sprint suffered significant delays.

Enterprise RFPs (Request for Proposals) were an interesting discovery—a completely different world from B2C.

It’s not enough to have a good product that works. You have to document every technical aspect in detail, demonstrate compliance on dozens of different frameworks, explain complex architectures to buyers who know the market better than you.

I directly supported the team on three important RFPs, and all of them succeeded thanks in part to the solidity of the infrastructure we had built.

The most delicate moment was when we started the search for an internal CTO. It wasn’t just about finding a technically valid profile (already complicated) but someone who could take over the entire ecosystem we had built and grow it further without losing the initial vision. Result? We found them and they’ve already started.

The decisive factors

• Know the client’s business before the technology. Every architectural choice derived from deeply understanding their target, expected volumes, and future compliance needs.
• Long-term vision always pays off. Setting up compliance and scalability from day zero means achieving results like ISO 27001 certification in 4 months when competitors take 24.
• Handover timing is crucial. The transition to an internal CTO isn’t just technical—it’s strategic, relational, cultural. Done well, it guarantees continuity. Done poorly, it can compromise months of work.

Talentware today has what every tech startup dreams of: a product that works, an architecture that scales, a team that produces autonomously, and the credibility to compete with the big market players.

For founders reading this

Technology follows business, never the other way around. First understand who your customers are and what they’ll require long-term, then design accordingly. There’s no “right” architecture in absolute terms—there’s only the right one for your market.

If your target is enterprise, invest in quality from day zero. It costs more at the beginning, but it saves you months of refactoring and opens doors that would otherwise stay closed for years. Compliance is a competitive advantage if you think about it immediately.

The right Fractional CTO doesn’t just help you build—they help you not rebuild. The difference between someone who writes code and someone who understands your business is immense. And when the time comes to transition to an internal CTO, you’ll have solid foundations to grow on.

The question isn’t “do we need this?” but “can we afford not to have it?”