Media & Partnerships
I've spent twenty years leading engineering organizations and built two seven-figure software companies. Now I test the software and AI tools that save solo founders, entrepreneurs and professionals time or money, and show what it takes to build seriously cool things with them. If you're producing a show, programming an event, or looking for a partner who'll use the product first, everything you need is on this page.
The audience
Solo founders, entrepreneurs and professionals who want to build seriously cool things with AI. They follow to find the software and tools that save them time or money, and to see how those tools hold up on real work.
Primary platform: Instagram @davecto. Audience numbers, recent Reels and rates are on the rate card.
Topics
Some of these I've lived through directly. Others are dense research I've read closely enough to translate into what to actually do. Happy to go deeper on any one, or shape a segment around your audience.
If the next model is twice as smart, does your startup get more valuable or go out of business? I read the reports and launches founders don't have time for, from a16z's State of AI to Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl, and turn them into businesses worth building: who pays, what to build first, and what could kill it.
Good for Startup and founder podcasts · Entrepreneurship and business shows · Panels on AI and startups
Every week there's a new plugin, repo or scanner promising to save founders time or money. I install them on real work, measure what changes, and say plainly when one doesn't hold up. Which tools earn a place, which to skip, and how to tell the difference before you've spent a weekend on it.
Good for Productivity and tools shows · Founder and creator audiences · Workshop format
AI makes it easy to build software, and just as easy to build it badly. I've built two seven-figure software companies and been there for the cleanup when the wrong call gets made. The boring decisions that matter: a proven stack, deploying on day one, error tracking before your first user, and the database and infrastructure fixes that cut a bill without buying a bigger server.
Good for Technical and business crossover shows · Beginner-to-intermediate builders · Workshop format
Being good at prompting won't set anyone apart for long. Automating a real workflow, getting a team to adopt it and measuring what improved will. For professionals who want AI to show up in their next review, not just in their browser tabs.
Good for Career and workplace podcasts · Team leads and managers · Corporate workshops
I started posting at 44 with twenty years of credibility and no social media instincts, and the first videos did terribly. What it took to build a real audience from there, including the parts that didn't work and the confidence I had to make up before I'd earned it.
Good for Personal branding and creator-adjacent shows · Founder podcasts · Career pivot audiences
Formats
Selected appearances
Interview
A conversation on what's coming next for AI in marketing: decision models that score sentiment instantly, websites that reshape themselves around a visitor (one click on sales content, and their next homepage is built entirely for someone in sales), and Cloudflare's pay-per-crawl model, which puts a toll booth in front of content so AI bots pay a different rate than human readers.
Talk
California Glass Association
A session for glass industry executives on where AI is genuinely useful in their operations today — drawn from directly leading development of the industry's first AI-assisted takeoff tool.
Brand partnerships
Short version: I use it, then I tell people what it's actually like.
See the rate card for pricing, audience numbers and recent Reels.
For producers
Copy whichever length fits your format — no need to ask.
Short — 34 words
Dave Brown is a CTO with 20+ years in tech who has built two seven-figure software companies. He tests AI tools on real work and shows founders and professionals what's worth building with them.
Medium — 70 words
Dave Brown is a CTO and technology executive with more than twenty years leading engineering organizations, and he has built two seven-figure software companies. On Instagram he tests the AI tools, repos and services that promise to save founders time or money, gives an honest verdict, and breaks down what to build as the models get smarter, from a first vibe-coded app to startup ideas pulled from the latest research.
Long — 122 words
Dave Brown is a CTO and technology executive based in New York with more than twenty years leading engineering organizations and building the software that runs underneath real businesses. He has built two seven-figure software companies, directed an AI-assisted takeoff tool for the glass industry, and built ecommerce infrastructure handling over $125M in monthly revenue. He started posting at 44 with no social media experience and now reaches hundreds of thousands of people a month, testing AI tools on real work, showing solo founders and professionals how to build with AI without the expensive mistakes, and turning dense industry reports into businesses worth building. His take is the same whether a tool is free or sponsored: what it's actually like to use.
Get in touch
Pick the closest match — it lands in the right place with the subject already filled in. A couple of sentences about your show, event, or product is plenty to start.