The people who scope the engagement are the people who do the work.
Bottega8 brings AI, ML, Agent, data, product, engineering, and corporate-finance judgment into the same
engagement. There is no junior handoff and no account-management layer standing in for practitioners.
The team behind Bottega8
Principal-level product, engineering, AI, and finance leaders who build the production foundation, trust infrastructure, operating capability, and company economics around AI and Agents.
Nick Talwar
CTO & Partner
At Microsoft, Nick built Search and Recommendations backend systems and web services at global, Windows scale. As a multi-company CTO with 18+ years leading AI, ML, product, and engineering organizations, he connects technology and IP strategy to greenfield businesses, enterprise value, and operating economics.
Engagement responsibility
Executive AI strategy, interim CTO leadership, product and platform architecture, and accountable delivery
Specialty
Agentic AI systems, automation, platform architecture, IP strategy, and zero-to-one product development
Mark Hendrickson
AI Architect & Distinguished Engineer
Product executive, founder, investor, and advisor with 25+ years building and guiding technology companies. He designs deterministic memory, context systems, and agent Infra that turn model capability into durable products and production systems.
Engagement responsibility
Principal-level agent and product architecture, technical strategy, and production system design
Specialty
Deterministic memory, context systems, production agent Infra, and durable AI products
Matthew Kirk
Principal AI Architect & Advisor
An O’Reilly author, applied mathematician, and former financial quant, Matt brings deep machine-learning foundations to the design and delivery of modern AI products. As a CTO, Principal AI Architect, and hands-on engineer, he has led AI systems from product strategy and architecture through evals, production delivery, and scale.
Engagement responsibility
Principal AI architecture, applied modeling, eval strategy, and hands-on production delivery
Specialty
Agent systems, applied AI and ML, search and recommendations, evals, and production reliability
Manju spent 30+ years as VP of Engineering at HPE and Delphix and in engineering leadership roles at NetApp and HP, delivering mission-critical compute, storage, and networking infrastructure products. She has taken organizations through major transformations, IPO readiness, platform modernization, and post-acquisition integration, building the operating discipline that lets complex enterprise systems ship predictably at scale.
Engagement responsibility
Enterprise engineering leadership, complex delivery, AI adoption, transformation execution, and executive alignment
Specialty
Product readiness, platform modernization, post-acquisition integration, and organizational transformation at scale
Amelia Leigner
Head of Product, Growth
Fractional CPO and multidisciplinary product and go-to-market leader with 10+ years guiding numerous startups from seed stage through exit. Amelia turns consequential opportunities into clear product decisions, adoption paths, and measurable outcomes, combining product strategy, customer research, product design, growth, and AI-native product operations to make forward-deployed engineering successful.
AI-native product operations, zero-to-one products, product-market clarity, growth, and user research
Todd Larsen
Principal Engineer & AI Partner
Hands-on principal engineer and engineering leader who turns complex product and architecture decisions into durable production systems. Todd leads principal-level implementation while aligning engineers, executives, and operators around governed workflows and measurable outcomes. Drawing on his Technical Leaders background, he also leads Bottega8’s training, education, curriculum, and organizational transformation practice, helping teams operationalize agentic systems and AI-native processes for sustained adoption and continued development.
Engagement responsibility
Principal engineering, hands-on architecture and delivery, technical enablement, and organizational transformation
Principal engineer with two decades leading complex refactors, product re-architecture, and greenfield development across AI, Agentic AI, and high-consequence production systems. He brings hands-on architecture and implementation depth to modernizing legacy platforms, building new products, and carrying systems from technical design through reliable production.
Engagement responsibility
Principal engineering, hands-on architecture, complex refactors, and greenfield AI delivery
Specialty
Agentic AI systems, product re-architecture, platform modernization, MLOps, and security
CPA and corporate finance executive who brings the financial rigor and controls thinking that enterprise and investor scrutiny demands. His background spanning accounting, VP of Finance, and CFO roles gives him a full view of the financial engine, from operating plans and investment decisions to performance reporting and the underlying economics of product and technology transformation.
Engagement responsibility
Financial strategy, transformation economics, operating plans, and financial controls
Specialty
Corporate finance, accounting, investment analysis, performance reporting, and governance
Next decision
We would enjoy comparing notes.
Tell us where AI matters, what has stalled, and what must hold up under scrutiny. We will tell you plainly whether we are the right fit.
