Bernardo F.

Bernardo F. is a proven product & technology executive with 17+ years of experience building high performing teams and scaling early-stage startups to profitable businesses. His career spans diverse industries and company stages, from established aerospace and embedded software to SaaS and cloud native startups where he held product leadership and C-Suite roles.

From hands-on developer to VP Engineering at TrainingPeaks and subsequently CTO of parent company Peaksware, he helped the Boulder-based startup grow from 20 employees to over 300, defining the technology strategy, developing talent and leaders, and successfully innovating within decades of legacy technology at high scale. Most recently, he has applied the same lessons through evolving principles, practices, and frameworks to Heroic, a crowdfunded content publishing startup, and Confiant, a VC-backed and profitable adtech cybersecurity startup.

As a connector and communicator, he excels at the intersection of business, product, technology, and people. Passionate about optimizing team dynamics, solving challenging problems collaboratively, disagreeing and committing, and driving performance through psychological safety and a commitment to excellence. He continues to specialize and apply Participatory Decision Making through collaboration, mediation, and decision-making frameworks. Bernardo is deeply passionate about and skilled in applying modern product model thinking and frameworks to creating structure from the organized chaos of startups heading into their next phase of growth.

Bernardo holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering and is a lifelong learner, continuing to pursue educational opportunities in many forms, from Graduate school to executive coaching and online workshops. He volunteers weekly as a Court Appointed Mediator in small claims and family court to hone his conflict resolution skills which he brings back to his daily leadership work. Bernardo speaks English, German, and Italian at a native level and is actively learning to speak Spanish. In his spare time, Bernardo is an outdoor adventurer and experienced risk taker – mountain biking, rock climbing, trail running to paragliding, freediving, and spearfishing – he takes all opportunities to explore the world and connect with fascinating people. He splits his time between his long-time home in Denver, Colorado and his newly adopted home in Santa Barbara, California.