Matthias Isler
Fractional CTO | SaaS, AI & Technology Leadership | 20 Years of Experience
Operating focus
Industry experience
SaaS · FinTech · LegalTech · HRTech · MedTech · Automotive
Company stages
Pre-Seed · Seed · Series A · Series B · Scale-up · M&A / Exit
Operating regions
Switzerland · DACH · United Kingdom · Europe · North America · International / Distributed Teams
Languages
English · German
Executive statement
I’ve built and scaled SaaS, marketplace and AI-powered products from early stage through growth and acquisition. My experience includes building engineering teams from scratch, managing seven-figure technology budgets, leading enterprise SaaS platforms used by Fortune 500 customers, and operating production ML systems supporting more than $500M in trading turnover. I work across technology strategy, software architecture, AI/ML, engineering leadership, hiring, cloud infrastructure, product delivery, technical due diligence and turnaround situations. My best-fit clients are founder-led technology companies, typically with 5–50 employees, where software is core to the business and senior technical leadership is missing or stretched. Common situations include post-funding scale-up, CTO transitions, underperforming engineering, technical debt, major architecture decisions, AI adoption, or preparing the technology organization for the next stage of growth. My approach is hands-on, pragmatic and focused on business outcomes.
Leadership scope
Led engineering organizations of 15–20 people across multiple countries, with ownership of seven-figure technology budgets and several concurrent SaaS products. Managed platform modernization, cloud migration, team restructuring, and delivery process transformation while maintaining business continuity. Regularly advised founders, executive teams, boards, and investors on technology strategy, risk, scaling, and M&A. Worked in regulated environments including LegalTech, FinTech, and data-sensitive B2B SaaS.
Selected outcomes
- Built, scaled, and exited a technology company, leading it through seed funding, acquisition, management buyout, and final exit.
- Built production machine-learning systems that supported more than $500M in live trading turnover with zero downtime.
- Led architecture and engineering for enterprise SaaS platforms used by Fortune 500 customers, including Bayer and Philip Morris.
- Built an engineering organization from 0 to 11 people, including hiring, team structure, performance management, and delivery processes.
- Managed seven-figure technology budgets with end-to-end ownership across architecture, infrastructure, engineering, vendors, and delivery.
- Delivered more than 50 production web applications across SaaS, e-commerce, marketplaces, and custom platforms.
Profile verified 2026-10-12. Direct contact details are shared only after a mutual introduction.