About
Darcy Reno
Hands-On Portfolio CTO & CTPO
I'm a hands-on technology executive — a CTO and CTPO who still gets into the code. For 25 years I've built, scaled, turned around, and sold software and media businesses, with about half of that in C-suite and CTO roles across VFX, animation, CAD/CAM, e-commerce, edtech, SaaS, and PE-backed software portfolios.
I do the work myself rather than hand it to a team and review the output: modernizing aging products, building with small teams, and sitting with customers to work out what's worth building — then structuring the work so they help fund it. The businesses I'm most useful to are established, doing a few million in revenue, and have stopped growing, with an aging product and a stalled roadmap.
How I work
I've led large engineering organizations — scaled engineering teams, managed technology across a 14-unit portfolio, and made the restructuring and headcount decisions that came with it. I know that world from the inside, including how much of a CTO's week goes to meetings and reporting rather than to the product. I spent years there, and I chose to work differently.
I take no direct reports. I stay in the product and the technology, close to the customer, and I do the delivery work myself rather than delegating it and reviewing the result.
I use AI tooling where it lowers the cost of understanding and refactoring old code. It's a tool in the work, not the pitch.
Selected track record
- Minga
- Rebuilt the engineering organization, doubled the team, and prepared the company for acquisition.
- Canada Drives
- Cut engineering headcount by 50%, saved $7.5M annually, and increased team productivity 200%.
- Constellation Software
- Portfolio CTO across 14 SaaS business units: technical due diligence, pre- and post-merger integration, and turnaround triage.
- Technicolor
- Helped scale the business into the largest VFX company in the world.
- Bardel Entertainment
- Grew the studio and prepared it for a successful sale.
- FNX Technologies
- Co-founded and exited via acquisition by LFX Digital.
Right now I'm the hands-on CTPO modernizing a 35-year-old point-of-sale platform inside a vertical-market software holdco — in the code, talking to customers about the modernization, and structuring the work so they help fund it.
Let's talk
If you're a CEO whose software has stopped moving, or a PE operating partner who needs a portfolio company modernized before exit, that's the work I do.