Saro Saravanan

CTO · Builder · AI-native Engineering Leader

Decades of experience building, scaling, and operating software — from a $100M-valuation founder-CTO exit to systems that millions of Americans use every day.

Founder-CTO of Emplanet, a J2EE 401(k) SaaS platform Forrester called "light years ahead of Fidelity and Vanguard" ($36M raised). Chief Architect at Fidelity Investments for NetBenefits (10M+ users), Plan Sponsor WebStation (30K+ employers), and 20+ other flagship products. Engineering leader and inventor behind TSA PreCheck and TSA CAT ($85M program win) at IDEMIA. Today, technical due diligence practitioner at the largest TDD firm worldwide (Crosslake Technologies) and founder of Verby, LLC — an AI product studio shipping five products since 2024. Increasingly the diligence work is AI/ML — disruption-risk assessment for software targets, AI-readiness review across infrastructure, architecture, organization, and operations, and sell-side coaching that helps portfolio companies build genuine AI capability rather than AI veneer.

Holder of seven U.S. patents in identity, biometrics, and web application architecture. Co-author of two books on operating system internals. Certified Scrum Product Owner.

Currently open to: Full-time CTO · Fractional CTO · Board / Technical Advisor · Technology Due Diligence
Westborough, MA · saro@cyberviso.com · saro.saravanan@gmail.com · (508) 341-2042

Recent 0–1 Builds

Five AI products shipped through Verby, LLC since 2024 — vibe-coded, agent-assisted, founder-led from spec to first paying customer.

2026

Meera.tours

meera.tours

Newest Verby, LLC product. Launching 2026.

2026

Route Outlook

routeoutlook.com

Weather-aware road trip planning. Shows weather, live traffic cameras, accidents, and construction along your entire route — timed to when you'll actually be there. 511 data from 12+ states; 25,000+ traffic cameras.

Route intelligence · weather modeling · real-time DOT integrations
2025

Joonoo.art

joonoo.art

Personalized AI children's storybooks where the child is the main character. 50+ languages, 15 illustration styles, instant digital delivery or printed keepsake. Paying customers worldwide. An experiment in vibe-coding and agentic business operations.

Next.js · Claude agents for marketing & operations · generative content · e-commerce
2024

ZipMVP

zipmvp.com

AI-powered tool that builds and launches SaaS MVPs in hours directly from a product specification. 95% automation. Subscription model includes fractional CTO/CPO/CISO services. Partner in the Middle East.

AI-driven code generation · full-stack scaffolding · secure-by-default architecture
2024

Verby

getverby.com

A pocket AI coach for life skills development — communication, relationships, leadership. Personalized tracks for solopreneurs, managers, executives, students, and families. Currently in the product-market-fit stage.

Conversational AI · personalized coaching tracks · mobile-first design
Fractional

Selected fractional / advisor AI work

Catalyx — FDA chatbot and unmet-medical-need research agents for pharmaceutical clients (F500 RAG).

The Ferguson Group (TFG) — agentic SharePoint research bot that pulls grant and advocacy background from internal documents for a federal-grants consultancy.

Oho Ventures — Google BERT-based NLP that improved insurance customer-support response times by 50%+.

Experience

Founder

Verby, LLC — AI Product Studio
  • Founded and lead an AI product studio shipping consumer and B2B products. Five products live across 2024–2026: Verby, ZipMVP, Joonoo.art, Route Outlook, and Meera.tours.
  • Solo and small-team builds combining LLMs, agents, and traditional full-stack engineering — from idea to first paying customers.
  • Verby, LLC products run on Next.js, modern serverless stacks, and Claude-based agents for marketing, operations, and content.
2024 — Present

Technology Due Diligence Practitioner

Crosslake Technologies
  • Practitioner with the largest technical due diligence firm worldwide; lead and contribute to engagements on behalf of private equity and venture capital firms evaluating software acquisitions and growth investments.
  • Assess engineering organizations, architecture, scalability, security posture, technical debt, AI/ML readiness, and team capability across companies in fintech, identity, SaaS, and enterprise verticals.
  • Author actionable diligence reports and 100-day plans that inform multi-million-dollar investment decisions and post-close value-creation roadmaps.
January 2022 — Present

Principal · Cyberviso LLC & Saro Saravanan & Associates

Fractional CTO, Strategic Advisor, Hands-on Consultant
  • Fractional / Interim CTO and strategic advisor to early- and growth-stage companies needing executive technology leadership without a full-time hire. Aligning tech strategy with business goals, leading digital transformations, building teams, and overseeing product development.
  • Intuitus Cyber — Head of Strategy for a SOC-as-a-Service startup commercializing defense-grade cybersecurity from The Boeing Company. Created vision and mission, investor pitch deck, product sales deck, sales training, blog and PR content, competitive analysis, channel strategy.
  • Agile Fractal Grid — Cross-consortium product owner across Energy, Telecom, Computing, and Economic Development. Selected the U.S. Air Force DevSecOps reference architecture (Kubernetes, Istio, OWASP, Terraform, Ansible, ELK, Prometheus) for continuous Authority-to-Operate. Acted as cybersecurity and cyber-physical-systems security lead.
  • The Ferguson Group (TFG) — Built an agentic SharePoint research bot for the federal-grants consultancy that pulls grant and advocacy background from internal documents to support proposal development.
  • FaceLabs.AI — Strategic advisor on investor deck, product development, and marketing for a facial-recognition access-control and visitor-management startup.
  • Oho Ventures — Selected Google BERT for NLP-driven customer-support email triage at a major insurance firm; improved response times by 50%+.
  • Instant Systems, Inc. — Venture Advisor (Aug 2024 — Present).
September 2018 — Present

Fractional CTO

NuBinary, Inc.
  • Provided strategic and technical leadership to startups and growing businesses on a fractional / interim basis — aligning technology strategy with business goals, leading digital transformations, managing technical teams, and overseeing product development across multiple client engagements.
October 2021 — May 2025

Chief Science & Technology Officer

Independent Grid Solutions
  • Supported business development to bring Enercap, a supercapacitor battery solution, to large electrical-grid operators in the United States.
  • Engaged with utility operators, grid integrators, and technical decision-makers to translate the supercapacitor technology into deployable energy-storage offerings; advised on technical positioning, customer engagement, and partnership strategy.
January 2023 — December 2023

CTO, Special Projects

The Sun Company Americas, Inc.
  • R&D and new-product introduction in integrated business systems for residential and commercial solar projects.
  • Research and product development for energy-storage systems, supporting the mission to democratize and accelerate green electrification.
January 2022 — December 2022

Vice President, Technology & Innovation

IDEMIA (formerly MorphoTrust USA)
  • TSA PreCheck. Engineering leader of the award-winning agile team that delivered TSA PreCheck, the nation's pre-eminent registered traveler program. Led teams up to 80 engineers and a $20M budget.
  • Transformation. Product owner and transformation leader who re-engineered the core biometric credential issuance system, introducing agile, CI/CD, 12-factor, DevOps, PaaS, IaC, and a modern tech stack — dramatically lowering delivery cost.
  • $200M LOB. Program director for a $200M line of business. Led corporate, product, and technology strategy. Practiced business model and value proposition canvases. Negotiated cost-saving vendor contracts. Catalyzed customer success for facial-recognition wins with DHS, CBP, airlines, and sea ports.
  • $85M TSA CAT win. Product architect and capture lead for TSA CAT, an identity-verification program covering 450 U.S. airports, openly competed for six years without a winner. Conceptualized and prototyped a patent-pending solution within six months. Winner of award for most innovative sales process.
April 2013 — September 2018

Engineering Consultant

MorphoTrust USA (L1 Identity Solutions, Secure Credentialing Division)
  • Delivered drivers' license systems for several large U.S. states and the National ID and Passport system for Paraguay. Worked directly with state and national commissioners, government ministries, CIOs, CISOs, architects, developers, and SREs in a comprehensive solution-architecture, engineering, integration, deployment, and program-management role.
  • Turned around a $45M critical failing program and delivered ahead of customer expectations.
  • On-time delivery at 40% cost savings on programs >$10M.
June 2008 — April 2013

Managing Director

Everbeam, Inc.
  • General manager of a product-development consultancy providing on-shore, off-shore, project-based, and strategic services in product management, business and technology development, and GTM.
  • Interim CTO at tapdancelive.com (online skills testing); Director of Product Strategy at AssureTec; Lead Architect at Ipswitch.
December 2005 — June 2008

Founder & CTO

Mediabee
  • Created a patent-pending cross-platform rich Internet/desktop application used by thousands of users worldwide.
  • Bootstrapped the company; oversaw investor presentations, marketing, product development, and technology architecture. Managed an offshore development team.
September 2002 — June 2006

Founder & CTO

Emplanet
  • Launched a J2EE Internet-based white-label self-service 401(k) SaaS platform for fund companies that Forrester called "light years ahead of Fidelity and Vanguard."
  • Raised $36M. Secured MetLife and PNC Bank as both investors and customers.
  • Built Participant, Sponsor, Advisor, Admin, and Partner Stations along with a state-of-the-art data center, common-component web service delivery infrastructure (web, speech-IVR, wireless, SSO, partner), and a highly automated back-office trading and reconciliation system.
January 2000 — July 2002

Consulting Chief Architect

Fidelity Investments
  • Hands-on Chief Architect for 22+ flagship SaaS products, including Fidelity NetBenefits (10M+ users) and Plan Sponsor WebStation (30K+ employers).
  • Designed and implemented Catalina, the highly available, highly scalable, secure web-application architecture and integration platform that became the standard for Fidelity's online services. Secured multiple patents in web application servers and tools.
  • Delivered SLAMNet, NCCMTnet, Health & Other Benefits, Quicken Financial Planner, Portfolio Planner, Pension Modeler, Digital Library, Pension Planner, PSW Reporting, PSW Internet Workbench, PSW Treasury, PSW Interchange, and more.
October 1995 — February 2000

Principal Engineer

Digital Equipment Corporation
  • Co-authored the authoritative reference OpenVMS AXP Internals and Data Structures.
  • Developed the standalone backup environment for VMS. Ported VMS to Alpha, NetWare, and Windows NT.
  • Taught crash-dump analysis to field engineers worldwide to rave reviews.
September 1986 — September 1995

Career Highlights

Founder-CTO · $36M raised

Built Emplanet, a J2EE 401(k) SaaS Forrester called "light years ahead of Fidelity and Vanguard." Closed MetLife and PNC Bank as both investors and customers; reached a $100M valuation.

22+ Fidelity products · 10M+ users

Chief Architect for NetBenefits, Plan Sponsor WebStation, and 20+ other flagship SaaS products. Designed Catalina, the platform that became the standard for Fidelity's online services.

$85M TSA CAT win

Cracked a six-year unwinnable competition at IDEMIA by prototyping a patent-pending identity-verification solution in six months. Led capture and customer success.

TSA PreCheck

Engineering leader of the award-winning team behind the nation's largest registered-traveler program. Led teams up to 80 engineers and a $20M budget.

5 AI products shipped (2024–2026)

Built and launched Verby, ZipMVP, Joonoo.art, Route Outlook, and Meera.tours through Verby, LLC — solo and small-team builds combining LLMs, agents, and full-stack engineering.

Investor-side diligence at scale

Practitioner at Crosslake Technologies — the largest TDD firm worldwide — since 2022. Inside the engineering orgs of dozens of software companies on behalf of PE and VC investors.

7 U.S. patents

Inventor on patents spanning identity verification, biometrics, document authentication, single sign-on, automated health checks, and web application architecture.

Books, white papers, awards

Co-author of two Digital Press books on operating system internals. Author of influential industry white papers on secure SDLC, smart-grid deployment, and digital business marketplaces. Multiple innovation awards.

Skills

Leadership & Strategy
Founder-CTO Fractional / Interim CTO Technology due diligence (PE/VC) M&A & post-close integration Engineering org design (5–200 engineers) Hiring & team building Lean-Agile · Scrum · Kanban Fundraising & investor relations Product strategy · portfolio management Vendor & contract negotiation Budget ownership ($1M – $200M) Government & F500 contracting
AI / ML & GenAI
LLM applications Agentic AI (Claude agents) RAG & vector search Prompt engineering & eval Foundation model selection AI safety & governance Generative content pipelines NLP (BERT & modern transformers) Biometrics & identity ML
Architecture & Platform
Cloud-native (AWS · GCP · Azure) Kubernetes · Istio Docker · Swarm Terraform · Ansible Microservices · event-driven Domain-driven design High availability & DR Observability (ELK, Grafana, Prometheus) CI/CD · DevSecOps
Security & Compliance
SOC 2 PCI FedRAMP TSA ATO · Continuous ATO HIPAA OWASP OAuth · OIDC · JWT 12-factor Biometrics & identity verification Secrets management SCADA & ICS security
Languages, Frameworks & Data
Java · Spring Boot Python Node.js · TypeScript C# · .NET React · Next.js · Vue PostgreSQL · MySQL · MS SQL · Oracle MongoDB · Redis Vector databases ETL & migration
Domains
Fintech & financial services Identity & biometrics Border security & GovTech Energy · smart grid · energy storage Cybersecurity Pharmaceutical & health Consumer AI

Patents & Publications

U.S. Patents
  • US9501882 — Streamline identity verification at airports and beyond (facial recognition without physical credentials).
  • US9481197 & US10037460 — Credential authentication: improved document authentication speed and accuracy.
  • US6631424 — Distributing information using a computer (application routing via URLs).
  • US6151686 — Automated health checking of web applications.
  • US5991878 — Single sign-on for web applications.
  • US20170118209 — Verifying liveness of an identification presenter.
Books
  • OpenVMS AXP Internals and Data Structures, Version 1.5 — Digital Press, 1994. Co-author.
  • VAX/VMS Internals and Data Structures, Version 5.2 — Digital Press, 1991. Contributor.
White Papers
  • Digital Business Marketplace — Forum Catalyst.
  • Provably Secure SDLC Processes Enable Frictionless Deployment of Smart Grids.
  • How to Assume an Assertively Proactive Security Posture for Your Organization.

Awards & Certifications

  • Microsoft Award for Technical Innovation — Fidelity NetBenefits.
  • Winner, Most Innovative Sales Process — for TSA CAT capture at IDEMIA.
  • Winner, Most Innovative Product — Government Security News Magazine.
  • Finalist, Best Security Checkpoint Solution.
  • Outstanding Service Award.
  • Certified Scrum Product Owner.
  • HIPAA Security · HIPAA Associate (HIPAAA).

Education

State University of New York at Buffalo

Master of Science
Mechanical Engineering · Computer Systems
1983 — 1985

National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli

Bachelor of Engineering (Honors)
Mechanical Engineering
1978 — 1983

Interests

Outside of work, I enjoy hiking, tennis, cooking, mindfulness practice, and a variety of music — especially jazz. I'm a lifelong learner who reads widely across technology, business strategy, and behavioral science.

Let's talk. If you're hiring a CTO, exploring a fractional engagement, looking for a technical advisor, or evaluating a software target for investment, reach out at saro@cyberviso.com or on LinkedIn.