Pete builds the whole thing, not just the code.

Pete has spent twenty years moving fluidly between the terminal and the boardroom. He started as a systems engineer building embedded software for AXON body-worn cameras at TASER International, where Rick Smith, the CEO, called him “one of the best we’ve had here.” He has since led engineering organizations ranging from three people to three hundred, and he still writes code in production.

That combination, deep hands-on ability plus genuine executive judgment, is the whole proposition. Pete can take a complex technical concept and break it down to terms a business leader acts on, and then go build the thing he just described.

The latest work is AI, done responsibly

As CTO for IntraEdge’s Truyo, Pete architected an AI governance platform that detects, documents, and monitors how AI gets used inside an organization, and built the best practices to go with it. He has developed agentic AI frameworks twice over: one for architecting and developing applications, another for running sales campaigns wired into HubSpot.

At UST Global he architected AI Sentry, a computer-vision system pairing IP cameras with on-premise inference, and sold it into retail and pharmaceuticals at a 75% close rate, proof he can build the product and then put it in front of buyers. Most recently, as CTO at MarketTime, he led the adoption of AI tooling across the development process while cutting IT spend by half a million dollars.

Mantichor’s own products lean hard on this thesis: AI agents under an experienced hand produce real, shippable applications. RefSquare is the proof, built almost entirely with Claude Code and guided by domain expertise.

Range that pays off for startups and incumbents alike

Pete has reduced IT operating costs by 20% over eighteen months, overseen $8M in networking upgrades, run M&A due diligence and integrated acquired platforms into a single architecture, and rebuilt a technical sales strategy that grew services revenue 130% year over year. He has also designed embedded hardware and interactive kiosks, migrated FIPS-140-compliant applications to the cloud, and built campaign-finance tooling for the Arizona Secretary of State.

For a young company, that means one person who can stand up the product, the team, and the go-to-market. For an established one, it means an operator who has already done the integration, the governance, and the platform consolidation that scale demands.

Outside the work

Pete is a USSF soccer referee, a licensed club coach, and a high-school varsity soccer coach in Gilbert, Arizona, the lived experience that became RefSquare. He founded STEAMworx, an after-school STEM program, and served a decade as president of his local PTO. He is also a founder of Whispering Harvest, a working farm and wedding venue.

Pete’s ability to take complex technical concepts and break them down into the simplest terms that a layman businessman can understand has been critical to the success of numerous companies.

Chris D., tech entrepreneur, Chicago

You are one of the best we've had here.

Rick Smith, CEO of TASER (now Axon)

Track record

• CTO
  IntraEdge / Truyo AI governance platform, agentic frameworks for dev and sales, blockchain-based privacy-compliance SaaS, team of 300.
• CTO
  MarketTime led AI tooling adoption, cut IT spend $500K, moved offshore dev onshore at lower cost, ran M&A platform integration across a 30-person org.
• Systems Engineer II
  UST Global architected AI Sentry vision platform; sold into retail & pharma at a 75% close rate.
• CTO
  Around Campus / nuOrder consolidated three platforms, migrated APIs Ruby→Node on AWS, shipped three sites and two apps in nine months.
• CTO
  Barrett-Jackson live-TV production software, $8M infrastructure, core-system migrations; campaign-finance tools for the AZ Secretary of State.
• Sr. Systems Engineer
  TASER / AXON embedded software for body-worn cameras; grew professional-services revenue 130% YOY.