# Dacard.ai | Darren Card, Fractional CPTO & AI Product Consultant

## About
Dacard.ai is the consulting practice of Darren Card, a fractional CPTO and AI product consultant based in Vancouver, BC, Canada. With 20+ years building B2B SaaS products across eight industries, he helps companies build AI-native products, scale from $0-to-$50M ARR, transform AI operations, and lead 0-to-1 product development. He has taken an AI-native product from concept to General Availability as a founding CPTO.

## Services
- **AI Product Strategy:** Define AI product vision and architecture. LLM/RAG pipelines, semantic search, AI pricing, build-vs-buy decisions.
- **0-to-1 Product Development:** Idea to shipped product. Product discovery, market validation, category creation, MVP scoping, team hiring.
- **Growth & Scaling:** SMB-to-enterprise transitions, ACV optimization, enterprise GTM, Series A/B scaling playbooks.
- **Fractional CPTO:** Combined product and technology leadership 2-4 days/week. Vision, architecture, hiring, shipping.
- **AI Operations Transformation:** Stand up agentic workforces. Coding agents, QA agents, support agents, process automation, change management.
- **Product & Technical Due Diligence:** Independent assessment for PE/VC firms and acquirers. Product-market fit, tech debt, AI readiness, team capability.

## Expertise
- AI Product Strategy (LLM/RAG, Semantic Search, Conversational AI)
- AI Operations Transformation & Agentic Workflows
- 0-to-1 Product Development
- Fractional CPTO / Fractional CTO / Fractional CPO
- B2B SaaS Scaling ($0-to-$50M ARR)
- Product-Led Growth (PLG)
- Category Creation
- Enterprise Go-to-Market
- Pricing & Monetization Strategy
- AI Pricing and Credit Systems
- Product & Technical Due Diligence
- M&A Advisory
- SOC 2 Compliance
- DORA Engineering Performance
- Series A/B Fundraising Support
- Process Automation & Change Management
- Composable Commerce (MACH)

## Industries
- E-Commerce
- MarTech
- Learning / HR Tech
- Enterprise Events
- Market Research
- IT Services / MSP
- AI / ML
- SaaS Infrastructure

## Engagement Types
- **Advisory:** A few hours per week for strategic guidance and gut-checks.
- **Focused Sprint:** 4-8 weeks with specific deliverables and outcomes.
- **Fractional Leadership:** 2-4 days per week as part of the executive team.
- All engagements start with a free 30-minute strategy call.

## Notable Experience
- CPTO (Employee #1) at Lexful. AI-native SaaS from idea to GA.
- VP Product & Technology at Cognota. Pioneered LearnOps category, $5.5M Series A.
- Director, Product at Elastic Path. Post-$43M Series B, MACH Alliance.
- Director, Product at Allocadia. Scaled $5M to $20M ARR.
- Venture Partner at Top Down Ventures.

## FAQ
- **What does a fractional CPTO do?** Think of it as having a senior product + tech leader on your team 2-4 days a week. I own product vision, technical architecture, hiring, and shipping, without the full-time cost.
- **How do you help SaaS companies implement AI?** I help companies build AI-native products, purpose-built around AI capabilities. This includes AI product strategy, LLM/RAG architecture, AI pricing models, and build-vs-buy decisions.
- **What types of SaaS companies do you work with?** Mostly B2B SaaS at Series A through Series B, $1M to $50M ARR. Especially teams where AI is core to the product.
- **What's the difference between bolting AI on and building AI-native?** Bolting AI on means adding features to existing architecture. AI-native means the product is designed around AI capabilities from day one as the core experience.
- **How are engagements structured?** Focused sprints (4-8 weeks), ongoing advisory, or fractional leadership (2-4 days/week). Every engagement starts with a free 30-minute call.
- **How much do you charge?** Depends on engagement type and scope. Advisory starts at a few thousand per month. Pricing is discussed transparently on the first call.

## Contact
- Email: darren@darrencard.com
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/darrencard
- Website: https://darrencard.com