How I Build Technology Businesses for Scale.

A product can work and the business around it can still fail.

Customers may want it, but onboarding takes too long. Sales may grow, but every new account needs more support than the last. A successful pilot may never become a contract because nobody planned how the customer would actually buy.

These are design problems as much as commercial ones. In my experience, they are the most common reason good technology never becomes a lasting business. The way I avoid them has a name: concurrent product and process design.

At a glance

• Concurrent product and process design means developing the product, the delivery processes and the route to market together, not in sequence.
• Every product decision changes the business: implementation cost, training, support demand, pricing, security requirements and sales cycle.
• My method draws on three disciplines: engineering, operational leadership in critical infrastructure, and a decade of international business consulting and political strategy advisory work.
• In a portfolio of products, each one must earn continued investment through evidence appropriate to its stage.
• Scale is earned by testing assumptions early, while the business is still inexpensive to change.

Where the method comes from

I completed a Master of Engineering Science in Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales, specialising in Concurrent Product and Process Design. The principle is simple and widely proven in manufacturing: when the people designing a product work alongside the people who will build, deliver and support it, problems are found when they are cheap to fix rather than after launch, when they are expensive.

I have applied the same principle to technology businesses. The product is only one of three things that must be designed. The other two are the process that delivers it and the route by which customers find it, buy it and keep using it.

Every decision changes the business

A feature affects far more than the product.

Decision	What it also changes
Adding a feature	Implementation effort, training, support demand and the price customers will accept
Choosing a target market	Security and compliance requirements, sales cycle length and the type of support needed
Selecting a pricing model	Cash flow, customer acquisition cost and how quickly the business can grow
Choosing a delivery model	Gross margin, staffing, quality control and the ability to serve customers in other regions

Looking at these dependencies early helps a team make better commitments. Before expanding a product, I want to understand who needs it, why they would buy it and what it takes to serve them well. I also want to know which parts of delivery can become repeatable, because repeatable delivery is what allows margins to improve as the business grows.

A business grows more reliably when its team can explain those relationships as clearly as the product’s features.

Operational experience: systems must work under real conditions

Before building technology businesses, I was Area Manager for Telstra Critical Infrastructure Facilities in New South Wales, responsible for more than 2,200 sites.

That role teaches a discipline that many technology founders learn late. A system must function under real conditions, at scale, with people relying on it every day. Reliability, safety and the consequences of failure are not abstract. When something goes wrong at that scale, the cost is immediate and visible.

I carry that discipline into Sharktech Global. A product is not finished when it works in a demonstration. It is finished when it can be delivered, supported and relied on by customers who have no interest in how it was built.

Strategy experience: decisions interact with institutions and incentives

I also spent a decade in international business consulting and political strategy advisory work, including engagements as a subject matter expert through the Guidepoint expert network.

That experience taught me to consider how commercial decisions interact with institutions, regulation, incentives and the people responsible for implementation. A product aimed at government, a regulated industry or a large enterprise lives or dies on whether it fits the buyer’s processes, approvals and risk appetite. Understanding that early shapes what we build and how we sell it.

At Sharktech Global, I bring these perspectives together. The aim is to turn an idea into something customers can use, the team can deliver and the business can sustain.

A portfolio needs focus

I have led the launch of four products in Australia: Flagman.ai, VCPility, Launch Your Dream.ai and Accrual OS. Launching several products gives Sharktech multiple opportunities. It also creates a responsibility to allocate time and capital carefully.

My rules for managing the portfolio are straightforward:

1. Each product needs a clear customer and a reason to exist. If we cannot state both in a sentence, the product is not ready for further investment.
2. Investment follows evidence appropriate to the stage. Early on, that means demand and successful implementation. Later, it means repeat use, retention and improving delivery economics.
3. Learning is shared, accountability is not. Insights travel across products, but each product has clear ownership and its own measures.
4. Services can reveal products, but only with proof. Client work often uncovers recurring problems. Turning one into a product requires evidence that it exists well beyond a single engagement.

Scale has to be earned

My ambition is to build globally competitive businesses from Australia. Reaching that requires more than launching products.

We need a credible way to reach customers, a delivery model that can grow without costs growing at the same rate, and a clear understanding of where the next dollar of investment will make the biggest difference. These are the questions investors ask, and they are the questions I ask of our own businesses first.

Concurrent product and process design helps me ask them before the business becomes expensive to change. That is how I approach scale: develop the product and the business together, test the assumptions early and let the evidence guide the next commitment.

For conversations about investment, strategic partnerships or technology CEO opportunities, contact Dainu Devis.

About the author

Dainu Devis is an Australian emerging technology CEO. As Chief Executive Officer of Sharktech Global and Divine Lab Worx, he brings a decade of international business consulting and political strategy advisory experience to building emerging technology businesses. His work spans engineering, operations, product development and economic strategy, with concurrent product and process design at its centre.