SOC 2 for SaaS Startups: What It Actually Costs in 2026
Audit fees, compliance platforms, pentests, and the engineering time nobody budgets. A realistic first-year SOC 2 number for a single-product SaaS team under 50 people, with sources.
20+ years of making software systems do what they're supposed to do
Performance audits, architecture reviews, and hands-on technical leadership. From someone who opens your codebase, not a slide deck. Also available as Fractional CTO →
How I help
Pick the problem that's costing you most
Hands-on engineering, not PowerPoint consulting. Each starts with a free 30-minute scan.
AWS Cost Optimization
Cut your cloud bill 20-50%. I find the waste and ship the fixes. Savings land on your next invoice.
Learn more →Performance Engineering
Slow app → fast app. Real results: 3s → 80ms response, 2× checkout conversion.
Learn more →AI Enablement
Production AI, not demos. LLMs, RAG, and agents wired into your existing stack.
Learn more →Scale Readiness
Survive 10× traffic. Capacity planning, autoscaling, and architecture so launch day is boring.
Learn more →Security & Compliance
SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR. Technical controls and docs to pass the audit. From someone who ships in healthcare and GovTech.
Learn more →Not sure which?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll find your biggest bottleneck and I'll tell you exactly what I'd do.
Learn more →Also: Architecture Review, Senior Tech Advisory, CI/CD & Automation, Legacy Modernisation. Ask about any of these →
Results
Numbers from real engagements
20+
Years of experience
$1M+
Cloud costs cut
2 kHz
IoT data processed
15×
Release cadence
12 AWS mistakes
killing your budget
A free PDF checklist covering the most expensive mistakes I see in cloud setups, and how to fix each one in under a day.
Why me
Senior hands-on help, not slide decks. I open your codebase, find the real bottleneck, and ship fixes with your team - in weeks, not quarters.
20+ years across backend, cloud, and IoT. Shipped at scale from early-stage startups to global enterprises. Oracle Certified Professional: Java SE 11.
When your system is slow, expensive, or fragile - I'm the engineer your staff lead calls.
Backend
Java, Kotlin, Python
Cloud & Infra
AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, Kubernetes, Terraform, bare-metal Linux
Data
PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, MongoDB, Kafka, RabbitMQ (also: MSSQL, DB2)
Practice
Performance, DDD, Event-driven, CI/CD
Industries
IoT · Autonomous Logistics · GovTech · Fintech · Healthcare · Telecom
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Valkey: Cut Your ElastiCache Bill Without Touching App Code
Valkey is 20% cheaper than Redis on nodes, 33% cheaper on serverless, and the only ElastiCache engine eligible for a Database Savings Plan. Wire-compatible, in-place upgrade. The bigger win is the audit it forces: what you are caching and what you can switch off.
Karpenter: Cutting EKS Compute Cost Without Breaking Things
Karpenter can take 20 to 40 percent off your EKS compute bill, more with Spot, without refactoring a line of app code. Why it beats Cluster Autoscaler, the audit sequence to roll it out safely, and the gotchas that quietly cost people money.
Build an MCP Server in Java with Spring AI: Give Your Product an AI Interface
On a well-built Spring Boot app, exposing your product to AI agents is almost trivial: annotate a service method, add one starter. The wiring is the easy part. Choosing what to expose and securing it is the real work. Here is the honest version, on Spring AI 2.0.
Ready to fix what's slowing you down?
Book a free 30-minute call. We'll look at your biggest bottleneck and I'll tell you exactly what I'd do - no strings attached.