# Silverback CTO

> The Velocity Process in public — one company built per day for 30 days using AI coding agents.

Silverback CTO is the consulting practice of Todd Merrill, a 30-year CTO veteran who has rebuilt his entire development methodology around AI coding agents. The Velocity Process compresses months of product development into days without sacrificing business fundamentals. The 30-day build challenge is the live public proof of concept.

## About Todd Merrill

Todd Merrill is a consulting CTO, fractional executive, and founder based in Atlanta/Alpharetta, GA. He has 30+ years of CTO experience serving PE/VC-backed companies in the $10M–$500M range. He is the creator of the Velocity Process methodology and has built 22+ production applications using AI coding agents. He hosts the business podcast Tales From The Sky Lounge, is founder of Silverback CTO and Silverback Ventures, and is a general partner of CogleGroup — an AI-native services firm (with Jim Hasty as GP).

## The Velocity Process

The Velocity Process is a rapid product development methodology that uses AI coding agents (primarily Claude Code) to compress traditional development timelines. The core insight: the bottleneck is no longer code — it is problem definition. A precisely written problem spec produces a working product in hours. Key principles:

- Problem definition is the highest-leverage activity
- Business model decisions are human work — execution is AI-assisted
- "Done" means working product with pricing, waitlist, and business model — not just a demo
- Every build is a real business someone could fund, launch, or acquire

## The 30-Day Challenge

Starting May 1, 2026, Todd Merrill is building one company per day for 30 days using the Velocity Process. Every build is public: working product, business model, live URL, GitHub repo with full Claude Code prompt spec, and architecture documentation. The live feed is at www.silverbackcto.com/builds.

## Services

### Silverback Ventures (Venture Partner / Studio)
AI-native venture studio. Equity partnerships and co-founding on high-signal problems where AI provides an unfair speed advantage. Default engagement model: equity-aligned partnership with cash optional. Todd serves as Venture Partner alongside founders, with 30 years of CTO experience, top-25 global consulting CTO recognition, and active LP investing in AI funds.

### Consulting CTO
PE/VC-backed companies in the $10M–$500M range. Board-level technical leadership and architecture engagements at AI speed. Focus: technical strategy, AI transformation roadmaps, technical due diligence, and acceleration of portfolio companies. Engagement structure aligned with venture timelines, not hourly billing.

### Silverback AI Agency
The Velocity Process productized for client companies. Rapid MVP development, AI integration strategy, and technical due diligence for investor portfolios.

## Portfolio (Velocity Launch — May 2026)

### Cyber Savi MSP cluster (Days 1, 4, 5, 6, 8)
- **SecureStackScan / securestackscan.com** — AI-native security assessment platform with a CISO MCP endpoint; sells to the MSP / vCISO / fractional-CISO channel (Day 1).
- **CompliancePulse / cybersavi.com/compliance-pulse** — The continuous-compliance spine of the CyberSavi MSP operating system; framework coverage across NIST 800-171, CMMC L2, SOC 2 CC, HIPAA, and ISO 27001. In revenue (Day 4).
- **CyberSavi Academy / cybersaviacademy.com** — Multi-tenant security awareness training for MSPs; dynamic modules generated against live threat intel; SCORM 1.2 + xAPI auditor-grade reporting (Day 5).
- **CyberSavIQ / cybersaviq.com** — Personal/reputation layer: Internet Dossier + LLM Perception Report; couples into CompliancePulse evidence per tenant (Day 6).
- **GovernAI / governai.cloud** — AI governance module for MSPs and vCISOs (ISO 42001 / NIST AI RMF / EU AI Act / Colorado AI Act / NYC LL 144), co-built with Cyber Savi Security (Day 8).

### Federal & Defense (Day 2)
- **SecureLink / securelinkvpn.io** — FIPS 140-validated publicly-routable static IP for Starlink / Starshield CGNAT, in AWS GovCloud. CMMC L2-aligned. Software and managed-router SKUs.

### Physical Goods (Day 3)
- **PartFoundry / partfoundry.shop** — On-demand replacement-parts manufacturing for the $15B obsolete/discontinued parts market. Public repo and business plan (Day 3).

### Velocity Studio deals (Day 7)
- **TrainTogether / traintogether.dev** — Goal-oriented community fitness platform, Atlanta-first beta Q3 2026. First publicly-disclosed Velocity Studio deal; founder Philippe Kabasele.

### CogleGroup AI-native services firm — Cogle GTM cluster (Days 9–12)
- **CogleGroup / coglegroup.com** — AI-native services firm; software company masquerading as a services firm. GP partnership with Jim Hasty (Day 9).
- **CounselExpress / counselexpress.app** — Privilege-preserving litigation support for personal injury attorneys; Electron desktop app, Claude Sonnet over AWS Bedrock, files-stay-local. Built for the post-*Heppner* regulatory shape (Day 10).
- **ChamberAdvance / chamberadvance.com** — AI-powered member engagement for chambers of commerce. In revenue with Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce (Day 11).
- **PlanCheckers / foco.plancheckers.com** — Planning-permit software running today for a major Atlanta-area county (Day 12).

### Investing arc (Days 28-29)
- **PIM** — Personal Investment Model. Karen Rands's 21-sector investing framework made interactive. Anchors the Investing arc (Day 29).
- **SapphireInvestments / sapphireinvestments.io** — AI-powered quantitative analysis and signal generation for self-directed investors. Five strategy engines (TrendFollower, MomentumScanner, MeanReversionEngine, VolatilityRegime, FundamentalScreen), $99 Standard / $299 Premium pricing, accredited-investor-gated autonomous-execution tier shipping Q3 2026. Regulator-correct architecture: Sapphire never holds client funds (Alpaca custody, FINRA member, SIPC-insured), accredited-investor verification per SEC Rule 501 of Reg D required for autonomous execution, platform-level hard drawdown stops, 7-year signal-and-trade-recommendation retention per SEC Rule 204-2. Operator-validated co-founder Jim Rozich (Founder/CEO WheelUp Sales) with advisory board Caroline Cooley (Summit TX Capital, former Goldman Sachs VP) and Adam Benson ($3B small-cap fund manager). Live at sapphireinvestments.io (Day 28 PM).

### IRL Premium / Consumer Discovery (Day 28 AM)
- **ConnoisseurPlatform / Unshucked / unshucked.co** — Untappd for oysters. Social discovery platform scoped to the oyster category first, with expansion architecture for steaks, BBQ, craft spirits, cheese, and cigars. Almanac of 14 varieties at launch (Beausoleil, Wellfleet, Pemaquid, Kumamoto, Apalachicola, Murder Point + 8 more), check-in flow with photo and tasting log, raw-bar geo-discovery, partner-cohort intake for raw bars and oyster farms. React PWA + AWS Lambda + DynamoDB single-table + Cognito stack. **Kirby Winters** as GTM Lead & Strategic Partner — cross-domain operator (same Kirby Winters publicly named in the run as the CyberSavi founder; oyster industry expertise + craft vodka brand are his other-life domain). Marketing surface on GoHighLevel at unshucked.us, PWA at unshucked.co. Sixth proof point in the IRL Premium arc (Days 22–28). Live at unshucked.co (Day 28 AM).

### Media & Methodology
- **Tales From The Sky Lounge / tftsl.podtosite.com** — Business podcast for PE/VC operators and founders.
- **Substack / toddmerrill.substack.com** — Long-form essays on the AI-native operating model and the Velocity Process.

## Contact

- Email: todd@silverbackcto.com
- Booking: https://fantastical.app/toddmerrill/silverback-cto
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/toddmerrill
- Substack: https://toddmerrill.substack.com
- Podcast: Tales From The Sky Lounge — https://tftsl.podtosite.com

## Pages

- [Home](https://www.silverbackcto.com): Challenge overview and recent builds
- [Build Feed](https://www.silverbackcto.com/builds): All 30 daily builds with full documentation
- [Velocity Process](https://www.silverbackcto.com/velocity): Methodology overview
- [About](https://www.silverbackcto.com/about): Todd's background and Silverback story
- [Work With Me](https://www.silverbackcto.com/work-with-me): Services and booking

## Technical

- Stack: Astro (SSG), CSS custom properties, Google Fonts, Vercel
- Content: Markdown-based content collections, one file per build
- Launch: 2026