01 / build
Senior capacity that ships
I build alongside your team: architecture, backend, and the glue work that never makes the roadmap but decides whether the product is reliable. I don't need supervision, and nothing gets quietly passed to someone junior.
- aEmbedded development — weeks to months, inside your codebase and standups
- bFocused builds — a scoped system or service, delivered working
- cUnblocking — the migration, the performance cliff, the thing no one wants to touch
02 / advise
An honest technical read
I write findings for people who have a decision to make: what's actually at risk, roughly what a fix would cost, and which parts are healthy and better left alone. I still ship production software, so the assessment comes from practice.
- aTechnical due diligence — for investors, before the term sheet
- bAudits & architecture review — codebase, infrastructure, process
- cAdvisory & mentoring — for founders and engineering leaders
03 / approach
The pivot, not the push
Most technical problems don't need more force. There's usually one point where a small, correct change carries the load; the work is finding it, then making the change.
Locate
I read the code, the logs, and the team before forming an opinion. The real risk is rarely where the pain is loudest.
State it plainly
You get plain language with costs attached. Sometimes the finding is "this is fine, keep it."
Apply the force
When you've hired me to build, I make the change myself and stay accountable for how it turns out.
04 / about
Thorsten Spieker
I've spent more than a decade building and leading engineering: Oracle, Betable, and Wealthfront in Silicon Valley, then Avi Medical here in Munich. Depending on the year, that meant writing the system myself or being accountable for the people who did.
thor.co is deliberately small. There's no bench behind me and no account manager between us; if we work together, you work with me.
- Avi Medicalengineering leadership
- Wealthfrontfintech, scale
- Betableearly-stage platform
- Oracleenterprise systems