Fractional Product Manager

I help early-stage SaaS founders ship the right things.

Senior product leadership without the full-time hire — remote, and in it with you every week, not a once-a-month drop-in. I co-founded a bootstrapped SaaS, turned it around, and sold it in 2024. Fractional time; full-strength product leadership.

Book a 30-minute call Start with a Pricing Diagnostic

No pitch deck. If we're not a fit, I'll tell you on the call.

If this sounds familiar

You have engineers. You know where you're headed. You don't have a product person.

That's the gap I fill. Most founders I work with are somewhere between $300K and $3M ARR — enough traction to matter, not enough headcount for a full-time PM.

Pricing set on instinct.

Your pricing hasn't really changed since launch. You suspect you're leaving money on the table. You're right — you usually are.

A roadmap that changes every Tuesday.

Everything feels urgent, so nothing gets the focus it needs. You want a system for deciding what's next, not another gut call.

No one owns “product.”

You're the founder, the salesperson, and the PM. Something has to give, and it's usually the deep product thinking.

What I do

Two problems I'm unusually good at.

Wedge A

Pricing & packaging

Most companies don't have a pricing problem. They have a "we set it in 2021 and never looked again" problem. I audit what you charge, who you charge, and how it's packaged — then give you a plan you can actually ship. At DoneDone, a single repricing lifted MRR ~30%, and I'd mapped the packaging overhaul for more. That's the playbook I bring.

Wedge B

0-to-1 product discipline

When you're building on instinct, a little structure goes a long way. I bring the discovery, prioritization, and spec discipline of a senior PM — without the bureaucracy — so your engineers build the right things and you stop second-guessing the roadmap.

The track record

I've done this with my own money on the line.

15 yrs

Bootstrapped, co-founder to exit (2009–2024)

+30%

MRR lift from a single pricing change

2.5×

Revenue at exit (2024), ~4× EBITDA

4.6

G2 rating, with NPS 50+

I co-founded DoneDone and ran product, pricing, and operations for 15 years — while my co-founder handled engineering. I took a declining product, relaunched it, grew it back to consistent growth, and led the sale myself in 2024. I've run payroll and made the bets. I'm an operator who happens to be a product manager, not the other way around.

NPS 50+ 4.6 on G2 MIT Applied Data Science

How it works

Light to start. Deep where it counts.

A call.

30 minutes. You tell me what's stuck; I tell you honestly whether I can help.

A diagnostic or a retainer.

Start small with a fixed-scope Pricing Diagnostic, or bring me on part-time as your fractional PM.

Part of your team, remotely.

I'm in your Slack, your roadmap, and your pricing model every week — remote, and in the flow, not a monthly drop-in. Leverage, under judgment.

I use AI heavily to move fast — research, drafts, models. You get the speed; I keep the judgment. Nothing ships on autopilot.

Ways to work together

Clear scope. Clear price.

Best place to start

Pricing & Product Diagnostic

A focused 2–3 week teardown of your pricing, packaging, and biggest product bets. Fixed scope, fixed price. The best place to start.

$4,500–$6,000 flat

Core engagement Recommended

Fractional PM Retainer

Embedded part-time as your product lead — 10–15 hrs/week, one anchor client at a time. The core engagement.

$6,500–$8,500 / mo

Lighter touch

Advisory / Office Hours

A lighter touch — a standing session for founder-level product and pricing decisions.

$1,500–$2,500 / mo

I take one anchor client at a time — by design. It means you get real attention, and it means I say no a lot.

Book a call to check availability

Who you'd be working with

Hi, I'm Michael.

I spent seventeen years building software companies — first an agency in Chicago, then DoneDone, a bootstrapped SaaS I co-founded and ran for 15 years. I owned product, pricing, and operations, took it from a declining product back to a healthy, profitable business, and sold it in 2024. I became a dad in April 2026, which is a big part of why I work this way now: a few clients, deep focus, no empire-building. You get a senior operator who's genuinely invested in getting your product and pricing right — and who's honest enough to tell you when something's a bad idea.

Let's talk

Not sure if it's a fit? That's what the call is for.

Thirty minutes, no deck, no pressure. Tell me what's stuck and I'll tell you if I can help.

Book a 30-minute call