Yomi Akinlade — Technical Founder / Fractional CTO / Product Architect
Product-focused engineering
I help founders and leadership teams turn complex SaaS ideas into production-ready products, from discovery and architecture through hands-on delivery.
YomstarLabs is my product and technology studio. Through it, I build across education, sustainability, and operational systems, connecting technical decisions to product and commercial priorities.
System boundaries, data models, delivery sequencing, and scaling decisions grounded in product needs.
CTO-level framing
Discovery-led execution with practical scope control and outcome-focused prioritisation.
Founder-aware
Hands-on implementation across APIs, frontend, mobile, data, deployment, and platform operations.
Built to ship
Stakeholder alignment, delivery risk management, technical direction, and pragmatic governance.
Fractional CTO
Where I add value
I work across product discovery, technical direction, delivery, and iteration. The aim is useful value early, without creating a foundation that becomes expensive to change.
Turn an ambitious product idea into clear boundaries, priorities, and an executable platform plan.
Connect stakeholder goals, product sequencing, engineering decisions, and delivery confidence.
Make security, tenancy, data ownership, service boundaries, and operational constraints explicit early.
Stay close to implementation so architectural direction survives contact with real product work.
Selected work
Each project shows the role I played, its delivery context, and the evidence behind the architecture decisions. The deeper case studies retain the constraints and trade-offs that shaped the work.
Operational platform
Co-founder, product architect and hands-on engineer
Multi-tenant talent platform ecosystem spanning core product workflows, realtime collaboration, tenant ops tooling, and supporting web/CMS surfaces.
Multi-service platform build
Product architect and hands-on builder
Multi-service food product insights platform for emissions analytics, ingredient alternatives, and scenario-driven decisions.
Active pilot build
Founder, product architect and hands-on builder
Connects CRM, sales pipeline, project delivery, controlled service requests, and tenant-level access governance without becoming an unfocused all-in-one suite.
Delivered multi-client platform
Product architect and hands-on engineer
Shared API, web and mobile clients, direct video uploads and 30+ mobile tests.
Consultancy implementation
Technical implementation lead and consultant
Direct-to-R2 media pipeline with GPS-assisted store selection and manual fallback.
Proof of concept
Founder, product architect and hands-on builder
Audit trails, geospatial search, role guards and presigned uploads implemented.
Earlier foundational project
Full-stack engineering contributor
Realtime, geospatial, moderation, brand and analytics capabilities delivered.
Delivery evidence
The strongest evidence is in the systems shipped, the delivery constraints handled, and the operational capability left behind.
Maps & Pathways connects a multi-tenant product runtime, a dedicated operations control plane, and a commercial website/CMS. Its CEO reports that the platform is used by thousands.
ALT Coach shares one backend across React and Flutter clients, with tenant-aware workflows, direct video uploads, resilient mobile processing, and 30+ mobile tests.
Deovise and Tessera make tenant scope, permissions, audit history, resilient service boundaries, and controlled workflows part of the product architecture.
What collaborators say
Phil Beecher
CEO, Maps and Pathways; CFO, Active Learning Trust
Yomi works with Phil as co-founder of Maps and Pathways and through Active Learning Trust.
“From the very early concept stage through to a fully operational platform used by thousands of users, Yomi has been central to bringing the vision to life.”
Working with Yomi on the Maps and Pathways platform has been an incredibly positive experience. From the very early concept stage through to a fully operational platform used by thousands of users, Yomi has been central to bringing the vision to life.
Yomi has led the technical design and implementation of the system from day one. What stands out most is his ability to translate ideas into practical, well-structured solutions that genuinely work for organisations. The platform has been built in a way that allows us to continue expanding its capabilities as the needs of our users evolve, which has been critical as adoption has grown.
Beyond his technical expertise, Yomi has been a true partner in the development of Maps and Pathways. He regularly contributes to product thinking, attends client workshops and meetings, and supports conversations with potential customers to help ensure the platform delivers real value in practice. His willingness to engage directly with users and stakeholders has played an important role in shaping the platform and ensuring it solves the right problems.
When prospective clients see the platform for the first time, they very quickly recognise what it enables and the gap it fills in their current systems. A huge part of that is down to Yomi's insight, technical capability, and commitment to delivering a robust and scalable product.
I would happily recommend Yomi to anyone looking for a technical partner who can take an idea from concept through to a mature, production-ready platform while working collaboratively with stakeholders along the way.
9th March 2026
Graham Parker
Academy Improvement Lead, Active Learning Trust
Yomi worked with Graham on the ALT Coach platform.
“He takes the time to properly understand the problem before jumping into solutions, which means the work that comes out the other side is thoughtful, clean, and built to last.”
Working with Yomi has been an absolute win.
He's one of those rare engineers who truly embodies discovery-led execution - he takes the time to properly understand the problem before jumping into solutions, which means the work that comes out the other side is thoughtful, clean, and built to last.
Yomi is incredibly thorough and organised, but what really stands out is how collaborative he is. He communicates clearly, keeps everyone aligned, and makes the whole process feel smooth rather than stressful. You always know where things stand, and deadlines are consistently met.
If you're looking for a technical partner who combines solid technical execution with great team energy, Yomi is exactly that. Smart, reliable, and great to work with - I'd happily collaborate with him again anytime.
6th March 2026
Lars Kristensen
Data Scientist, Insights & Coffee
Yomi was Lars' client on the Deovise platform.
“Yomi is a conscientious, highly competent collaborator who swaps fluidly between business strategy and technical execution.”
I worked with Yomi on a project taking data science from early-stage startup work to scalable, production solutions and exploring future AI possibilities for the portfolio.
Yomi is a conscientious, highly competent collaborator who swaps fluidly between business strategy and technical execution. He is a true "Swiss-army-knife" of technology and has a rare ability to quickly learn and adapt on the fly, exemplified by how quickly he picked up Python and SQL for our project despite coming from a primarily web-focused stack.
Yomi is a genuinely nice person who truly cares about his teammates and the work. I have really enjoyed our collaboration and would recommend him for anything - from scaling an AI portfolio to looking after my kids.
18th February 2026
Now — July 2026
Validating a governed CRM → Pipeline → Projects workflow for service-led organisations before expanding optional modules.
Continuing product, collaboration, tenant operations, and platform delivery across an established multi-tenant ecosystem.
Contact
I work with founders and leadership teams on fractional CTO support, product and architecture advisory, platform delivery, and partnerships.
