A working operator,
writing about
building product.
I'm Ryan Pestano, co-founder and CPO at Bedrock Platform . We're building a next-generation agentic-driven demand-side platform. Outside Bedrock, I write, advise a small number of founders, and run occasional product-strategy engagements for AdTech, MarTech, and AI-native companies.
Notes from the working desk.
Long-form posts on product strategy at scale, the org-design problems that show up in AdTech, and the AI questions founders are actually asking me. Written by an operator, for operators. New pieces land roughly every other week.
The AI You're Paying For Is Cheaper Than It Should Be. That Won't Last.
The frontier AI we're all paying for is almost certainly priced below what it costs to run. Here's why that won't last, and why learning the alternative now is the calm move.
What "Local AI" Actually Means (It's More Like Owning a Car Than Calling a Taxi)
Running AI on your own computer sounds either trivial or impossible depending on who you ask. It's neither. Here's the plain-English version of what local AI is, why a gaming PC is often enough, and what you're not signing up for.
Why Bother? Give Your Local AI a Job: Meet the AI Butler
A local chatbot is just a more private version of what you already have. Wrap a model in an agent and it becomes a butler: one that remembers you, acts on your behalf, and answers to nobody else.
Two engagements open. One full.
I take a small number of paid engagements at any time, and each has a defined shape, a defined cost structure, and a defined exit. I don't do retainers without a deliverable, I don't do "advisor for equity" deals, and I don't do strategy decks. If you're not sure which engagement fits, the first call is free.
Advisory
High-level advisory for founders and the investors who back them. Product strategy, go-to-market, and partnerships. Roadmap pressure-tests, sharper positioning, technical due diligence on the product side, and the second opinion you want before a hard call. Short-form by design. Founders and investors only.
Product Strategy
A fixed-period workshop for technical founders and product leaders. We pressure-test the roadmap, the operating cadence, and the bets you're making, including where AI actually fits into the product and the team, and where it doesn't. Concrete output, not a panel-talk.
Fractional CPO
Embedded product leadership for 3–9 months. I run the function alongside your founders, build the operating cadence, hire the first product hires, and hand back a self-sustaining org. Not a coach. Not an advisor. Currently fully engaged and focused on Bedrock Platform.
Twenty years building advertising infrastructure. Writing in public about how to do it well.
I've spent the last two decades building products in programmatic advertising. Most recently, VP Product and GM APAC at IPONWEB (now part of Criteo) and VP of Product and Operations at Amobee (which became Nexxen). Today I'm Co-Founder and CPO at Bedrock Platform, where we run a next generation agentic driven demand side platform.
Fractal CPO is the independent side of the practice: writing, advisory engagements, and product-strategy work for founders building something hard in AdTech, MarTech, or AI-native B2B. Operator work, scoped to the time you actually have. The writing is the part I care about most. Everything else grows from it.
If it's specific, let's talk.
Most readers come for the writing and stay there, which is the right shape. If you're a founder or investor with a specific problem, drop me an email. No slide deck, no NDA. You describe the shape of the problem; I tell you whether I can help and, if I can't, who you should be talking to instead.