Quads Lab LLC – David Hacker

Quads Lab helps founders, small businesses, and growing companies turn AI and automation into real business outcomes.

As a fractional CTO and technical advisor based in the Tampa Bay area, I work with leaders who know technology should be solving more problems for them but do not have a full-time executive in place to figure out what to build, what to buy, and what to ignore.

My clients are typically founders without a technical co-founder, operators drowning in manual work, and small business owners who keep hearing about AI but cannot tell which tools are real and which are hype. I bring more than ten years of experience building production systems in contact centers, conversational AI, voice automation, and large-scale customer experience platforms. That background means I have spent a long time inside the operational guts of businesses where downtime costs money and bad automation costs even more. I know the difference between a flashy demo and something that actually holds up in production. I bring that same lens to every engagement, whether the work is an AI strategy review, an automation rollout, or a full technical advisory relationship.

The services I offer fall into a few clear buckets. Fractional CTO and technical advisory work for founders who need senior technical judgment without a full-time hire. AI consulting and AI strategy for companies trying to understand where generative AI fits inside their operation, what it will cost, and what return they should expect. Automation consulting for teams that want to remove manual work from sales, marketing, operations, and customer service. Technical due diligence for buyers, investors, and partners who need an honest read on a piece of software before they commit. Vendor selection and build versus buy advisory for leaders weighing whether to license, integrate, or build from scratch. What sets the work apart is honesty about cost and outcome. AI and automation get sold with a lot of magic in the pitch, and I think small businesses deserve straight answers. If a problem is better solved with a spreadsheet and a part-time hire, I will say so. If a vendor is a good fit, I will recommend them and step out of the way. If something genuinely needs to be custom built,

I will scope it realistically and explain the tradeoffs in plain English. The goal is always to leave the client with a clearer picture of their technology, their options, and their next three moves, not to sell them a long engagement they do not need. I also run Quads Lab as an active product studio, which keeps me hands-on with the same tools and platforms my clients are evaluating. That means when a client asks about Claude, agentic workflows, voice AI, contact center modernization, or workflow automation, the answer is informed by current shipping experience, not a slide deck from last year. The pace of change in AI right now is fast enough that yesterday's best practice is often today's mistake, and clients hire me in part to keep them from making expensive ones. Engagements are flexible. Some clients want a one-time technical audit or AI readiness assessment. Others want an ongoing fractional CTO relationship with a few hours a week of strategic input, vendor conversations, and team support. Others bring me in for a specific project like a contact center modernization, a customer service automation rollout, or an MVP build for a new product line. Whatever the shape, the goal is the same. Cut through the noise, focus on what actually moves the business, and ship.