A university spin-off has adoption but still runs a research roadmap
Technical opportunities keep winning priority. We define the buyer, customer outcome, discovery questions, and product sequence needed for repeatable adoption.
FRACTIONAL CPO · Zurich
Fractional CPO Zurich
Hybrid · train from Innsbruck via Bregenz · on-site as surchargeable add-on
Remote-first product leadership for Zurich. Paid on-site discovery, board workshops, and stakeholder interviews can be planned by rail from Tirol, with the travel visible in the quote.
Reply within 4 working hours. Usually within 1.
AwardedTop 100 Young Companies in Austria. #36 in 2024, #58 in 2023 (GEWINN magazine).
Shipped75+ products, 5+ years, across 17 countries.
LanguagesDeutsch, English.
ReviewsGoogle 4.7 stars. Trustpilot 4.5 stars.
Working with Wavect in Zurich
The Canton of Zurich describes a high-tech ecosystem spanning AI, computer vision, quantum computing, autonomous systems, engineering, and university spin-offs. ETH Zurich reported 37 new spin-offs in 2024, with AI and biotechnology strongly represented.
Research strength does not automatically produce product clarity. A team can have defensible technology and still need to decide which customer problem, workflow, evidence, and market sequence deserve the next investment.
That is the CPO scope. We own customer evidence and prioritization after product-market fit. We do not claim Swiss legal expertise, a Zurich office, or local clients we cannot name.
Two Zurich situations where a fractional CPO fits
The role starts when research evidence must become repeatable customer evidence.
An AI or high-tech team has many plausible markets
The technology can serve several workflows, but the company cannot learn from all of them at once. We force a segment and evidence order.
The first 30 days with a Zurich product team
We separate what the technology can do from what the product must prove.
- Reconstruct customer evidenceReview interviews, usage, pilots, sales, research claims, partner requests, and assumptions currently presented to investors or the board.
- Choose the product proofDefine the target workflow, buyer, outcome, and next evidence threshold.
- Create the research-to-product cadenceSet discovery, prioritization, roadmap review, and rules for when technical exploration earns product investment.
Zurich high tech: CPO, CTO, or CTPO?
The Fractional CPO
owns customer evidence and product sequence. The Fractional CTO Zurich
owns technical evidence, engineering, and production. The Fractional CTPO
owns the boundary if the two cannot be separated.
// SOURCESWhat we use for Zurich product context
We use these sources for local context. They do not imply a partnership, endorsement, office, or client relationship.
- Canton of Zurich: High-tech ecosystemOfficial overview of Zurich's AI, computer-vision, quantum, autonomous-systems, engineering, and spin-off ecosystem.
- ETH Zurich: 2024 spin-off reportOfficial report on the number and fields of ETH spin-offs founded in 2024.
- Canton of Zurich: AI Innovation SandboxOfficial programme addressing regulatory and data questions in applied AI.
Engagement tiers and transparent pricing
Four ways to start. Each one has a clear scope and a clear cancellation policy. No hours tracked, no surprise invoices.
CPO-on-Call
Async roadmap triage, prioritization calls, discovery sanity-checks on demand.
4 to 8 hours per month
FROM
€2,500/ month
Start here →Embedded Fractional CPO
Own the roadmap and the discovery cadence. Prioritization framework, stakeholder alignment, sequenced backlog.
1 to 2 days per week
FROM
€12,000/ month
Start here →Product Due Diligence
Fixed-price product, roadmap, and market-fit assessment for fundraising or M&A. Investor-ready report.
1 to 3 weeks, fixed
FROM
€8,000fixed
Start here →Discovery + Roadmap
Two to three week deep-dive into the product. Prioritization framework and a sequenced roadmap.
2 to 3 weeks, fixed
FROM
€3,500fixed
Start here →Fixed-price engagements (Product Due Diligence, Discovery + Roadmap) are signed SoW (Werkvertrag). Wavect is legally bound on scope and deliverables. Retainers (CPO-on-Call, Embedded Fractional CPO) run as a freier Dienstvertrag and cancel weekly with no notice.
// 03How the network model works
Three things that make this different from hiring one product consultant with one calendar.
You hire two founders, not one consultant.
Kevin and Christof are on every engagement. One is your product and CPO interface, the other keeps the roadmap honest against what is actually buildable. No account-manager handoff, no junior on the call after week three.
The bench scales when the work does.
15+ specialists we have shipped production work with. When product decisions need deep domain input (security, ML, mobile, IoT), they plug in under the Wavect SoW. One contract, one invoice. We stay accountable for the outcome.
You stay in control of the contract.
Werkvertrag for fixed-price work (signed scope, legally bound). freier Dienstvertrag retainer for ongoing product leadership (cancel any week). No hour tracking. No scope-creep invoices. The price you sign is the price you pay.
Who is in the room
Two managing directors. Both technical. Both on every engagement.
Kevin Riedl
Managing Director, Operations and Product
- Engineer since 13: TypeScript, C#, Rust, still in the pull requests.
- Founder-led podcast, 96 episodes with 9-figure founders.
- 75+ products shipped across 17 countries.
Christof Jori
Managing Director, Software
- Enterprise architecture, AI, and system reliability.
- Test-driven development, QA as a business enabler.
- 10 years cross-domain engineering.
Looking for a different city?
Fractional CPO Innsbruck →Fractional CPO Tirol →Fractional CPO Vienna →Fractional CPO Graz →Fractional CPO Linz →Fractional CPO Salzburg →Fractional CPO Munich →
Back to Austria →
// proof
Proof, not promises
4 years
Inside the City-Scale Build
Smart City IoT for Innsbruck: hardened LoRaWAN infrastructure, evaluated and integrated multi-vendor devices, wrote the per-device …
Kubernetes
LoRaWAN
Docker
2 months
0 to Enterprise
Institutional bond analytics platform, zero to enterprise-ready in 2 months; raised multiple rounds.
NestJS
React
Typescript
7 services
Unified Testing
1.5 years owning QA across seven services and multiple vendors. Quality stayed shippable through every refactor.
React
Java/Kotlin
Go
These are selected projects, not our full portfolio. We have shipped 75+ products since 2018.
What clients say
LinkedIn
If you're thinking about digitization of your company, tokenization, coding... you name it, I'd strongly recommend to get in touch with Kevin. His knowledge in the field is unparalleled and working with him a sheer pleasure as he is a super nice guy, strategic thinker and proactively hard worker. Thanks for your brilliant work Kev!
LinkedIn
I got to know Kevin around 1 year ago and have been working together with him since then. His vast knowledge in tech and programming combined with his business acumen makes him the go-to person for me in regards to any tech-related topics. Regardless if it is a project in the field of blockchain, IoT, or any other software development domain, I can recommend reaching out to Kevin to benefit from his tech know-how and a business relationship based on trust and customer centricity.
Trustpilot
Excellent work. The collaboration was very pleasant and you always had the feeling of being in good and capable hands.
Independently rated 5.0/5 on Clutch Read the reviews
Fractional CPO Zurich: local questions
Customer evidence, without borrowing credibility from ETH or the canton.
Two founders. One number. Reply in four hours.
Reply within 4 working hours. Usually within 1.