Luis Saffie

I started as a software engineer in Chile, moved to Canada, and spent the next two decades building and scaling technology organizations. Amazon, Wealthsimple, HomeStars. Startups I built and sold. Every company had the same problems.

Tech debt crushing velocity. Teams that couldn't ship. Product and engineering speaking different languages. Launches that shipped but didn't sell. Founders watching their technical advantage slip away.

At Amazon, I built the workforce systems deployed across warehouses globally—systems that had to work flawlessly at massive scale. At Wealthsimple, I led infrastructure and security as the company scaled. At HomeStars, I was CTO through the acquisition.

Most recently I was contract VP of Engineering for AutoTrader's AutoSync software business, where I reorganized engineering around clear ownership, introduced estimation and roadmapping practices that unblocked a stalled e-commerce platform initiative, and led adoption of AI-assisted engineering workflows.

I learned that fixing these problems isn't about technology. It's about alignment. It's about getting product, engineering, and business speaking the same language. It's about building systems that don't break at 3am. It's about shipping the right things, fast.

After doing this inside companies for 25 years, I realized I could have more impact doing it for many companies at once. So now I take it on one or two days a week, and I own the result.

I'm based in Toronto with my wife and two boys who keep me grounded. When I'm not fixing companies, I'm building things—home renovation projects, a backyard oasis with a pool and fireplace, tweaking guitar setups until they're perfect.

I bike, lift weights, BBQ obsessively, and take family trips. These keep me balanced and give me space to think through complex technical challenges away from the screen.

As a dad of two energetic boys, I've mastered the art of context-switching—debugging production issues while refereeing sibling wrestling matches. Turns out that skill transfers pretty well to managing multiple stakeholders in a crisis.