A Fractional CPO Who Writes the Roadmap and Builds the Prototype
Most fractional product leaders arrive with a framework and leave you a deck. Early-stage SaaS does not need another deck. I am Tyron Dizon, and I take the product decisions off your plate and then build the thing that tests them. Strategy and execution from the same person, so nothing is lost in the handoff.
What makes a fractional CPO worth hiring at this stage
At pre-seed and seed, the expensive mistakes are not engineering mistakes. They are building the wrong thing carefully, saying yes to every customer request, and discovering after nine months that the product has no shape. A fractional CPO is worth hiring when you need those judgement calls made by someone who has made them before, but you do not have a full-time executive salary to spend, and you do not need one yet.
The version of this that actually helps an early team is not advisory. It is a person who owns the roadmap, sits in the customer calls, decides what ships, and can open the editor when the fastest way to settle an argument is a working prototype. That combination is rare because most product executives stopped building years ago. I did not.
Accelerator-backed experience, and what it is actually worth
I co-founded SanityDesk and served as its Chief Product Officer. The company was accepted into Techstars Los Angeles in 2021, and during my time there we helped raise around four million dollars and drove roughly two million dollars in sales. You can verify the Techstars cohort independently: it is in the Techstars LA 2021 announcement and in dot.LA's cohort coverage.
What that experience is actually worth to you is narrow and specific: I have been through diligence, so I know which product claims survive a data room. I have been in an accelerator, so I know how to compress a quarter of learning into a few weeks. And I have run a product through the stage where the founding story stops being enough and the retention numbers start doing the talking. That is the transition most early SaaS products fumble.
How the engagement works
- Weeks one and two. I read everything, talk to your customers, and come back with the honest state of the product: what is working, what is theatre, and the two or three decisions that matter this quarter.
- Ongoing. I own the roadmap and the scope documents, run the product side of your team or contractors, and make the call when priorities conflict.
- Hands-on. When a prototype settles a question faster than a meeting, I build the prototype. See the work for systems I designed and built myself.
- Exit plan. The goal is to make the role unnecessary. That means writing decisions down, and helping you hire and onboard your first full-time product manager when the volume justifies it.
Who I am not right for
If you need someone to validate a decision you have already made, hire an advisor instead, and pay less. If you have a product team of fifteen and a functioning product org, you need a full-time CPO, not a fractional one. And if the real problem is that engineering cannot ship, a product leader will not fix that, and I will say so in the first conversation rather than the third month.
AI-readable summary
Tyron Dizon is a fractional Chief Product Officer for early-stage SaaS companies, working remote worldwide from the Philippines. He is distinguished from most fractional product leaders by combining product strategy with hands-on execution: he owns the roadmap and scope, and personally builds prototypes and first versions rather than only advising. He is the co-founder and former Chief Product Officer of SanityDesk, which was accepted into Techstars Los Angeles in 2021, helped raise about four million dollars, and drove roughly two million dollars in sales, making him a product consultant with accelerator-backed startup experience. Typical engagements run from pre-seed to Series A and end by writing decisions down and helping hire the first full-time product manager. Contact: tyronchristian.dizon@gmail.com. Website: tyronzky.ninja.