Your Tech Transformation Partner
JF Dupuis Transformation Partners
AI is transforming every function of every software company, simultaneously. Unlike previous technology waves that IT could absorb gradually, this one demands organization-wide adaptation at speed.
The challenge? Technical teams, executives, and investors are all speaking different languages about AI and most are struggling to make decisions based on reality vs hype.
You need a partner who has that combination of front line experience with tech company turnarounds, and hands on building with AI. Someone who understands what's real versus marketing, and can translate between all three stakeholders. Three decades of transformation experience, now augmented by hands-on AI implementation.
Every software company's challenges are unique like a fingerprint — and they're compounded by the language barriers between engineers, executives, and investors. Focused Boutique consulting cuts through the noise.
Our Way of Working
The Translation Problem
Technical teams speak in sprints and architecture. Investors speak in IRR and exit timelines. Executives speak in market share and revenue.
Now add AI to the mix—and everyone's frantic.
Your engineers are excited about capabilities they can't explain in business terms. Your executives are getting pressure from boards who read about AI in the WSJ. Your investors want to know if AI is a threat or opportunity to their thesis.
You need a partner who speaks all four languages fluently—and who works daily with AI-augmented systems, not just read about them but building with them.
When AI strategy gets lost in translation, you either move too slow and get disrupted, or move too fast on the wrong things and waste resources.
How We Work
Discovery: What's keeping stakeholders up at night? (It's usually different answers.) but AI is definitely in the mix
Assessment: Deep organizational and technical strategy analysis to identify what's really blocking progress.
Translation: Actionable transformation roadmap that engineers, executives, and investors all understand and buy into.
Execution: Whether it’s Hands-on implementation, Fractional Executive, or ongoing advisory support—whatever your situation requires.
Common Scenarios
Turnaround Situations When technical debt meets business reality. Restructuring teams, refocusing roadmaps, and rebuilding stakeholder confidence. AI can accelerate turnarounds—if applied to the right problems.
Market Strategy Pivots Repositioning your technology and team for new market opportunities. AI is creating new market openings while closing others—we help you read the landscape accurately.
Scaling Challenges Whether growing rapidly or rightsizing strategically, AI changes the math on team structure and capability requirements. We help ensure your organizational design reflects the new reality.
AI Strategy and Integration Most companies are either paralyzed by AI overwhelm or chasing shiny objects. We help you identify where AI creates genuine competitive advantage—and where it's a distraction. Our approach: start with your actual business problems and teams, not the technology.
Pre-Sale Preparation Getting your house in order for due diligence. Today that includes: What's your AI strategy? Where's your technical debt creating AI adoption barriers? How defensible is your business against AI-native competitors? We help you address these critical questions.
Investor Relations Translating technical roadblocks—especially AI-related ones—into business context. Helping boards understand what's realistic, what's at risk, and what resources are actually needed. Cutting through AI hype to give investors a grounded perspective.
Post-Merger Integration Aligning acquired technical teams with parent company strategy—including harmonizing AI approaches and tools. Managing the cultural and operational friction that kills most mergers, now complicated by different AI maturity levels.
For Investors and Boards
✓ Clear, jargon-free assessment of technical strategy and AI readiness—how to get the most from your portfolio companies
✓ Honest evaluation: Is AI a threat or opportunity to your investment thesis?
✓ Risk identification before it becomes a deal-killer—including AI-specific risks like talent dependency and technology lock-in
✓ Realistic timelines and resource requirements for AI initiatives
✓ Unbiased perspective not influenced by internal politics or vendor relationships
For the Exectutives
✓ Honest assessment of what's blocking your transformation—and whether AI can actually help
✓ Cut through AI hype: what's real, what's marketing, what matters for your specific situation
✓ Actionable plan that doesn't require you to become a data scientist
✓ Partner who can execute or advise, depending on what you need
✓ Someone who has built AI-augmented systems, not just consulted about them
For Technical Teams
✓ A leader who understands the actual constraints you face—including the real capabilities and limitations of current AI tools
✓ Someone who translates AI opportunities into language that gets budget approval
✓ Strategic guidance on tech debt, architecture decisions, AI integration patterns, and where to get best advantage from emerging tools
✓ Practical perspective on team structure as AI changes what's possible with smaller teams
Three Decades of Turning Tech Challenges Into Competitive Advantages
30 years in the software industry—not as an observer, but in the trenches making transformations work. Now applying that experience with AI tools that amplify what a focused consultant can deliver.
PayByPhone: Aligning Strategy, Sales, and Technology for Acquisition
PayByPhone faced three critical challenges: misalignment between software development, strategic goals, and sales strategy, well funded ‘race to the bottom’ competitors who were buying market share, and the need to position the company for acquisition.
I rebuilt the strategic framework to align all three functions, implemented a full cycle salesforce system, implemented proactive market segmentation and analysis, and transformed the company into an attractive acquisition target. The result: successful sale to Volkswagen Financial Services, who subsequently recruited me to replicate this transformation in Germany.
Experience:
Volkswagen Financial Services AG
• Berlin Digital Hub: Scaling Digital Delivery at 10x Cost Efficiency
VW Financial Services needed their Berlin digital hub to produce customer journeys at scale with dramatically improved cost-effectiveness. I implemented a new strategic approach and procurement model that reduced cost-per-journey by an order of magnitude—10x or more—while improving quality, component re-use and massively increasing output.
• Porto Application Center: Building a Strategic Tech Hub from Zero to 120
The Berlin success led the board ask me to co-found a new technology center designed for sustained cost advantage. I co-founded the Porto Application Center in Portugal, developed the strategic plan, and with my co-head, scaled the operation from two people to over 120 active staff in less than 24 months. We met and exceeded all targets. Porto tech hub is now a core component of VW Financial Services' global digital strategy.
The Active Network: Integrating 30+ Disconnected Applications
The company had acquired multiple software products over years of growth, creating a fragmented ecosystem that frustrated customers and limited scalability. I created an initiative to consolidate these 30+ separate applications into a unified multi-tier platform called ActiveWorks. This integration became central to the company's IPO strategy and positioned them for sustainable growth, and many of the components we defined in early 2000 are still high value assets today.
What I've Learned
Every software company thinks their problems are unique. They're right—but the patterns repeat.
The constant: Technical teams and business leadership speaking different languages. Investor timelines clashing with engineering reality. Organizational structures that worked at 50 people failing at 100.
What's different now: AI is the first technology shift that hits every business function simultaneously. Previous waves—networking, internet, mobile, APIs—could be absorbed gradually by technical teams while the rest of the organization adjusted over time.
AI doesn't work that way. It changes how you build software, how you serve customers, how you analyze markets, how you communicate, how you structure teams. Companies that treat AI as "an IT thing" will find themselves outmaneuvered by competitors who treat it as an organizational transformation.
What I've seen: Transformations succeed or fail based on alignment, frank assessment, and translation between stakeholders. The technology is rarely the blocker—it's getting everyone rowing in the same direction with realistic expectations.
What I've built: I don't just advise on AI—I use it. My consulting practice runs on AI-augmented workflows that let a solo practitioner compete with large firms. I've built software with AI tools. I understand the capabilities and limitations from direct experience, not vendor demos.
Partner Benefits
Why Work With Us
Practitioner, Not Just Advisor: I build with AI tools daily. When I recommend an approach, it's based on my past experience combined with daily use of the AI tools to build my own applications and tooling.
Fluent in Four Languages: Engineering constraints, business strategy, investor expectations, and AI reality—I speak all four.
Unbiased Perspective: No internal politics to navigate, no sacred cows to protect, no vendor relationships influencing recommendations.
Right-Sized Engagement: Hands-on execution when you need it. Advisory when that's more appropriate. Fractional leadership when the situation calls for it.
AI-Augmented Practice: My own practice demonstrates what's possible. Solo consultant, enterprise-grade output. Real world experience in challenging situations.
Book a Consultation Now:
Schedule a 30-minute introductory call. We'll discuss your situation, and I'll give you my honest assessment of whether I can help.