FRACTIONAL TECHNICAL LEADERSHIP
Senior technical leadership for Shopify and print-on-demand brands, without a full-time hire.
I’m Chris Ledden. I led software teams at Amazon for eight years, and I run a 7-figure print-on-demand brand on Shopify. I help established brands fix their stack, cut what they don’t need, and make the technical calls an owner shouldn’t have to make alone.
No pitch deck. We talk about your store, and I tell you whether I can help.
8 years
Leading software teams at Amazon
7 figures
In sales from my own Printify brand
13,000+
Customers and 1,100+ five-star reviews at Daily Bloom
35 years
Building software, from banking systems to Shopify apps
Previously at Amazon and Charles Schwab · Builder of PODPilot for Printify
Built for brands that have outgrown winging it
A good fit if you:
Run a Shopify or print-on-demand brand doing roughly $500K to $20M a year
Pay for more apps than anyone can explain, and the bill keeps climbing
Rely on an agency or freelancers, with no one on your side who can check their work
Run Printify or Printful at volume, with costs and fulfillment problems tracked by hand
Are making replatform, integration, or AI decisions alone
Probably not a fit if you:
Are pre-launch or under about $100K a year. Shopify’s built-in tools and a solid theme will serve you better for now.
Need someone to build a full-time engineering team
Want hourly development with no say in what gets built
I sit on the owner’s side of the table
Stack and spend
Every app, integration, and monthly cost, sorted into keep, replace, or cut. Most stores I look at are paying for things nobody uses.
Agency and developer oversight
Someone on your side who can read the code and the invoice. I scope the work, check it, and tell you when a quote doesn’t add up.
Platform decisions
Shopify Plus or not, headless or not, which POD provider, which 3PL, which ERP. A straight answer before you sign anything.
Practical AI and automation
Shopify Flow, n8n, Klaviyo, and AI-built theme changes that replace paid apps. Set up so your team can run them without me.
HOW ENGAGEMENTS WORK
Start small. Keep going only if it’s working.
1. Stack & Spend Audit
$2,500 fixed · 2 weeks
Every app, integration, and cost reviewed, with keep, replace, or cut for each. Your top five fixes ranked by savings or revenue, and a 60-minute walkthrough.
2. Fix sprint
From $5,000 · 30 days
I implement the top fixes: replace apps with code you own, clean up integrations, and set up automations.
3. Fractional technical lead
From $5,000 a month · about 1 day a week
Ongoing oversight of your stack, agency, and roadmap, with a weekly check-in.
Every step is fixed scope. You can stop after the audit and keep everything in it.
Amazon taught me how systems scale. My own store taught me which lessons a small team can use.
I’ve been building software for 35 years. For the last eight years of my corporate career I led software teams at Amazon, most recently as a Senior Software Development Manager responsible for the SDK and premium experiences on Amazon Glow. Before that I ran mobile engineering at Charles Schwab and built iOS apps for startups through my own studio.
In 2019 I co-founded Daily Bloom, a family-owned apparel brand for the neurodivergent community. I run the business and technology side: the Shopify store, Printify fulfillment, email, and the automation that lets a small family business run lean. It has grown to 13,000+ customers and 1,100+ five-star reviews.
The problems I kept solving for our own store became PODPilot, a Shopify app that automates Printify order operations. So when I look at your store, I look at it the way you do: as the person who pays the app bill and answers the support email.
Questions owners ask
Tell me about your store
Tell me about the store and the stack. I’ll tell you honestly whether I can help, and if I can’t, who might.