Barberry Labs

Fractional CTO leadership for teams that need sharper technical direction and real delivery follow-through

Barberry Labs helps founders, operators, and growing technical teams get CTO-level judgment without hiring a full-time executive, while still having access to hands-on delivery depth across cloud, telemetry, product systems, automation, and technical review. You work directly with Heinrich Heesen in Pretoria, remotely worldwide.

Book a paid architecture session Message Heinrich on WhatsApp

Remote senior technical consulting. Fewer, higher-intent leads, clear scoping, async by default, production-aware delivery, and practical follow-through once the plan is agreed.

Where Fractional CTO support fits

The gap between executive decision-making and systems that still need to work in production: a roadmap that is not grounded in delivery reality, brittle cloud platforms, telemetry you cannot yet trust, product teams that need senior guidance, support queues that keep exposing the same underlying failures, or a dispute that needs a calm, defensible view.

From paid scoping to focused delivery

Fractional CTO first, delivery capability underneath

Start with the leadership problem. The supporting capability lanes below show what Heinrich and team can help deliver once priorities, scope, and technical direction are clear.

Fractional CTO

The flagship offer: part-time CTO leadership, technical direction, roadmap realism, and execution follow-through without a full-time executive hire.

Fractional CTO

AWS architecture & development

Design, review and improve systems that must stay secure and reliable under real load.

AWS & cloud

IoT & telemetry

Device-cloud paths, time-series and dashboards that operations can actually use.

IoT & telemetry

AI & automation

Workflow-first agents: triage, retrieval, reporting — with guardrails and hand-off.

AI & automation

Expert witness

Independent, precise analysis when software, cloud, network or telemetric detail is contested.

Expert review

Training & documentation

Workshops and writing that make your team stronger after the session, not just notes.

Training & docs

Why clients hire Heinrich

Fractional CTO leadership Direct senior access Paid scoping before larger delivery Product proof through PoolSense Telecoms, IoT & operational systems depth

The practice is intentionally narrow: Fractional CTO and CTO-level work where production judgement, systems depth, and hands-on delivery change the outcome, not generic agency throughput.

Under that leadership layer, the work pattern is consistent: product engineering, platform implementation, telecoms-informed infrastructure thinking, telemetry and field tooling, support escalation, production fixes, workflow design, operational handoff, and structured scoping that turns messy requirements into buildable plans.

In practice, that often means stepping into half-defined initiatives, finding the real delivery constraint, writing down the next sensible path, and staying close enough to the work that implementation, testing, and support reality stay connected.

Depth of experience behind the Fractional CTO offer

Heinrich’s experience is not limited to one technical niche. It spans telecoms and hosted voice, ISP and network infrastructure, AWS and cloud systems, IoT product development, operational platforms, workflow automation, customer-facing service delivery, and founder-led product work.

Telecoms, VoIP and ISP leadership

Years of experience in voice, carrier interconnects, billing logic, network operations, and infrastructure reliability, including CTO and technical-director level responsibility.

Product and platform building

From internal business systems and B2B SaaS platforms to sensor-driven IoT products like PoolSense, with a bias toward systems that need to survive real usage.

Operations and execution reality

Support pressure, workflow automation, production fixes, field-connected systems, and the commercial realities of teams that still need to deliver after the plan is written.

How engagements start

From R7,500 for a paid architecture session

Preferred path: paid session to clarify risk and options → written scope or sprint → proposal, delivery or retainer as the fit is clear. Custom quotes follow scope.

Book an architecture session Send a short brief

Engagement and availability confirmed before work begins. VAT and terms on proposal.

Product proof: PoolSense

PoolSense ties cloud, sensors and customer experience into one product story — evidence that Barberry can ship, not only advise.

Sensing, connectivity, cloud data, alerts and a customer app — a reference line for how Barberry thinks about telemetry end to end.

Read PoolSense & product story

Recent work: clear solutions, not slide decks

A sample of what delivery looks like in practice: product and app build work, multi-tenant IoT platforms, B2B SaaS, operations-grade integrations, and the support and maintenance discipline needed to keep real systems useful after launch. Each line of work is backed by production tooling, tests, runbooks, and enough operational context to keep delivery grounded in real usage.

The experience underneath this work reaches much further back than the current site has shown so far: telecoms leadership, ISP and hosted voice infrastructure, board-level technology roles, carrier and billing integration, product invention, IoT hardware-to-cloud delivery, CCTV and access-control operations, workflow automation, and internal business systems that have to support real teams.

That broader context is one of Barberry’s real advantages. Clients are not only getting a consultant with one narrow technical specialty, but someone who has repeatedly had to connect strategy, systems, operations, support, and delivery in commercially real environments.

Production telemetry product (PoolSense family)

Shipped line: sensor hardware and embedded stacks, LPWAN, serverless cloud APIs, and customer mobile surfaces — a reference for how end-to-end IoT is owned as a product, not a demo.

Product journey & patterns

Multi-tenant water-plant and IoT platform work

Per-tenant assets, ThingsBoard-class rules and notification paths, and automation that lines up with real shift work — including integration touchpoints to field service and support systems so telemetry becomes action, not noise.

How Barberry does IoT & telemetry

Enterprise B2B SaaS on AWS (hard domains)

Long-lived SaaS: fixed-asset and reporting depth (depreciation, fair value, document libraries), serious automated tests, and production observability — the kind of stack that has to pass audit and handover, not only a launch demo.

AWS architecture & development

Utility telemetry: from firehose to shift-ready views

Anonymised regional operator: reduced alert fatigue, clearer ownership between field and control room, and a cloud time-series path that was cost-defensible. Read the case for the narrative.

Read the anonymised case

Named references where NDAs and permissions allow. This strip is a capability sample, not an exhaustive list.

Latest insights

Practical writing on scoping, telemetry and sound technical decisions.

How to scope an AI agent project without wasting budget

Problem framing, workflow boundaries, pilots, and when not to build an agent at all.

Read article

All insights

Common questions

Is this a dev agency or a solo consultant?

Clients work directly with Heinrich. Engagements are remote-first, structured, and high-trust — not a rotating bench.

What should I send first?

Short context: problem, stack, desired outcome, rough budget, timing, timezone. Or start with a paid session.

Do you work outside South Africa?

Yes. The practice is set up for remote work with customers in the UK, EU, US, Middle East and across Africa, as well as in South Africa.

Is there a long-term retainer model?

When fit is right, multi-month advisory or a scoped retainer is an option. It starts with scoping, not a generic pitch.

Send a brief Message on WhatsApp Book session

Selected career experience behind Barberry Labs

A condensed view of the experience stack informing today’s Fractional CTO and delivery work.

iConnect SA, CTO/CIO and director

Board-level technology leadership across telecoms, hosted PABX, voice routing, billing systems, ISP growth, monitoring, compliance, and platform integration in a business that grew to more than 130 staff.

ClearVoice, technical director

VoIP systems design, implementation, support quality, supplier negotiation, CRM and technical-team leadership in a commercially sensitive voice environment.

Pro Automation, founder

Patented PoolSense product development, manufacturing policy, funding and go-to-market setup, and the practical realities of turning an IoT idea into a real product line.

Unifier CCTV, business and technical leadership

Business management, ERP automation, quoting and workflow systems, field team coordination, access control, and large CCTV installations tied to customer operations.

Red Olive and consulting delivery

AWS IoT Core, WordPress and ThingsBoard integration, PWA and mobile-linked solutions, sensor management, data visualisation, and installation-team support.

Earlier engineering foundations

Wireless networks, hosting platforms, VoIP engineering, radio planning at Vodacom, and formal computer engineering training from the University of Pretoria.