Founder, CPO and fractional product leader

Building great products is hard. Take all the help you can get.

I’ve taken two consumer ventures from zero to exit. Now I work alongside start-ups, established businesses, investors and consultancies on the product problems that matter most.

Co-founder and CPO, WaggelAcquired 2026

Get in touch How I can help

TL;DR

I’ve spent 20 years building digital products. I started out in engineering and UX, then moved into product strategy for some of the world’s best-known brands.

Then I built and exited two ventures of my own. Neither would have got there without the people who gave me their time when I needed it most.

Now I get to return the favour. I’ve been stuck in plenty of the same places, and I know which questions get things moving.

Who I work with

Start-ups and scale-ups
From a blank page to product-market fit, and the growth that follows.
Established businesses
A new proposition, or one stubborn product problem that needs fresh eyes.
Investors and private equity
A product view on a portfolio company, or one you’re thinking of backing.
Consultancies and agencies
Senior product leadership to bring in alongside your team on client work.

Clients

Some of the clients I’ve had the privilege to work with.

What I do

I don’t have all the answers. Nobody does.

What I do have is the experience to pull on the right thread and ask the right questions, so that together we can move you in the right direction.

Whether you’re starting something new or untangling one stubborn problem, it usually comes down to these three.

01Vision and strategy
Find the north star
Where are we going and why?
Chasing product-market fit or protecting it, strategy drifts. We’ll stress-test yours until it holds up under pressure.
02Metrics and gates
Map the path
How will we know it works?
We’ll agree the few metrics that matter, and the gates that tell you when to push on, change course or scale.
03Team and process
Build the engine
Who and what gets us there?
We’ll work out the team you need, and the processes and rituals that keep it aligned and moving.

How we can work together

Fractional CPO
Product leadership, part-time
I lead product alongside you for a fixed period, typically 2–3 days a week for 2–6 months.
Advisory
Regular, ongoing support
A sounding board for the decisions that shape the business, and someone to think out loud with.
Workshops
Focused problem-solving
One stubborn problem, tackled together with your senior team in hands-on workshops.
Focused sprints
Create good habits and rhythm
A short burst of work, great for helping teams gel and settle their processes.

My ventures

I’ve been a founder, twice. I know how hard it is.

A pet insurer people actually like.

Co-founder, CPO and board director · Founded 2017, acquired 2026

In 2017 pet insurance didn’t speak to millennials at all. The brands were old-fashioned and dull, and the policies were too complicated to understand. We bet that four things would win where the incumbents weren’t even competing:

Best-in-class digital experience. We built everything in-house, aiming to be the Monzo of pet insurance, from first quote to self-service.
Effortless choice. Product choice architecture that took the friction out of picking cover.
A brand they recognised. It spoke to digitally savvy urban dog owners in their own language.
Refreshing honesty. Communications that sounded authentic and human, not like an insurer.

Result

Eight-figureARR
Six-figurecustomer base
~100employees
Acquiredin 2026

My favourite moments

“Pet Insurance Sucks”

The inflection point.

I didn’t believe pet owners wanted to be convinced insurance was fun or interesting. They wanted an insurer that understood it sucked to pay monthly for something you hoped never to use. I wanted them to feel we were in it with them, not against them.

It changed everything. Policies flew in, and our CAC dropped ~50%.

The cover of Waggel Zine Issue 3, The Productivity Issue: the title set on bright isometric blocks

The Zine

Months of traffic in a week.

I wanted Waggel to matter to people before they’d committed to a dog. The Zine joined the conversation urban dog-owners-to-be were already having, about identity, connection and the role dogs play in our lives, and it was made to be shared.

Issue 3 was picked up by a British tabloid. In the first week of May it brought in more traffic than all our paid marketing had that year so far.

Kibble

A companion app for urban dog ownership, with a connected wearable.

Working with pet brands at Ogilvy, and getting my first dog, Sailor, inspired me to create a product for people like me: urban millennials new to dog ownership. The app offered training and education for city life with a dog.

We were also developing a wearable to spot the early signs of skeletal and joint conditions, where early intervention can change the course of a dog’s life, when Kibble was acquired in 2018.

Fun fact: I took it onto The Apprentice in 2017, where I humbly declared myself the smartest person in the room. Lord Sugar disagreed.

In their words

“Ross … can advise you where you may bump your head and when to duck in time!”

“Wise and considered, well-calibrated and straight-to-the-point advice and guidance on start up financing, traction metrics, product-market-fit indicators, and growth milestones, all while remaining empathetic and kind … would hire him again and thoroughly recommend.”

James H. · Founder · 2026