Let's chat

One AI-enabled
senior operator.

Tech that works for you, built by someone who gives a damn. Stack-agnostic, tool-agnostic, AI-augmented engineering from strategy to production code — for startups, scale-ups, and non-tech businesses.

The full picture.

Let's chat → See my work
Shape
Build
Integrate
Automate
Lead
High Stickers PAJ by Imparato Iris Galerie Plancton by Pimpant Koudetat CHU Nantes Guest Suite Asmodee Ypocamp Le Wagon Drakkar
Nicolas
Nicolas
Nantes, France

I've been turning ideas into production systems for over a decade — backends, platforms, APIs, AI pipelines. The kind of code that runs businesses, not just demos.

Along the way, I spent 8 years teaching engineers at Le Wagon across Amsterdam, Tokyo, Nantes, Copenhagen, and more. Teaching thousands of students to think about data, architecture, and product didn't make me less of a builder — it made me a sharper one.

Today I work as a fractional CTO and product engineer for teams that need senior firepower without the agency overhead or the full-time ramp-up. I embed in your team — to untangle your problems and bring your ideas to life.

Working together

You've got the vision.
You need the builder.

New product to launch?
Work with the builder, not an agency?
Tech project, no tech team?
Need senior firepower?

I'll pressure-test the idea, find the fastest path to something real, and build it end to end.

A technical co-founder's brain without giving up equity. I figure out what actually needs building, challenge the rest, and own the outcome.

PAJ by Imparato
Read more →

A theater discovery platform that didn't exist — from product vision to AI-powered search, shaped and built with a 4-dev team from day one.

Culture & Entertainment
Active collaboration
Koudetat

From concept to streaming platform as part-time CTO — defining what to build and how, not just executing someone else's spec.

Culture & Entertainment
Robin des Fermes #1

A Swiss farm-to-consumer marketplace shipped from zero — leading 2 junior devs through architecture decisions and into production.

Food & Agriculture

One senior operator. Full ownership. No handoff risk.

The person you talk to is the person writing the code. No account managers, no handoff chains, no process between you and production.

High Stickers
Read more →

One person rebuilt what would typically be scoped for a team. 2+ years of direct pair-programming with the founder — the highest hourly rate that ended up costing the least.

E-commerce
Iris Galerie

One tech lead connecting desktop, mobile, ERP, and API into a coherent system — direct ownership of the layer everything else depends on.

E-commerce
Active collaboration
Guest Suite

A CEO who needed features in production, not a 3-month discovery phase. One senior dev, 2-week sprints, shipped tools — every cycle.

SaaS & Tech

Systems you can understand, run, and own.

I build for your autonomy, not your dependency. Every decision explained, every system designed to outlast the engagement. You don't need a tech team — you need the right build, once.

Plancton by Pimpant

A consumer brand shipping 1,000+ personalized kids' magazines monthly. Worked alongside another senior dev for 3+ years, building a platform the team could eventually run on their own.

SaaS & Tech
Astreinte Vitale / CHU Nantes

Paper on-call lists and manual phone cascades replaced with a system hospital staff actually use for emergency surgery coordination. Built for people who need absolute reliability.

Healthcare
Asmodee

A board game publisher needed daily intelligence on the crowdfunding market. Built dashboards a non-technical team reads and acts on every morning.

Culture & Entertainment
kwali / Ypocamp

A dealership network with no tech team wanted to push a management system forward for their entire industry. Built it from scratch with a domain expert partner — for a niche nobody else was serving.

Travel & Hospitality

I walk into complexity and unblock everything.

Fractional CTO, tech lead, or the engineer who unblocks your team when it matters most. Messy systems, competing priorities, tight deadlines.

High Stickers
Read more →

Fractional CTO for 2+ years, pair-programming with the founder in real time. The goal wasn't to write all the code — it was to make the founder the most prolific contributor to his own product.

E-commerce
PAJ by Imparato
Read more →

Leading 4 developers while designing the AI architecture — the senior technical brain a growing product needs before it can afford a full-time CTO.

Culture & Entertainment
Active collaboration
Iris Galerie

API tech lead in a multi-vendor ecosystem — desktop agency, mobile agency, devops freelancer, ERP teams. Every other system depends on the API layer I'm responsible for, so I became the person who understands how it all fits.

E-commerce
Active collaboration
Robin des Fermes #1

Mentoring 2 junior devs through their first production launch — technical leadership where the team ships and levels up, not just the codebase.

Food & Agriculture

How I work

Principles, not processes.

No discovery phases that take longer than the build. No decks full of jargon. No sprint rituals that exist to make you feel managed. No teams where you never talk to the person writing the code.

I understand your business first.
If I can't grasp what makes your company tick, I'll say so. The most expensive mistake in tech isn't bad code — it's building the wrong thing well.
Tech is everyone's concern.
The best work happens when you lean in, not when you hand off. I won't work with people who refuse to engage.
Momentum over perfection.
I push to ship something real as fast as possible. Scope it tight, measure the impact, then iterate. Progress you can see every week.
I'll challenge how you define the work.
If the specs are wrong, I say so. If there's a critical need no one's addressing, I'll raise it — even if it's outside my scope.
Everything changes. I plan for it.
Requirements shift, markets move, priorities flip. I build systems and relationships that absorb change instead of breaking from it.
A note on tools

Why technical stacks don't matter (anymore)

The more AI progresses, the less single-language expertise matters. Experienced engineers can now move across tools, frameworks, and infrastructure with almost no hard boundaries — what matters is understanding your problem clearly enough to pick the right one. What used to take weeks of ramp-up takes hours.

The real bottleneck was never the syntax — it was understanding your problem, your data, and your users. That's what I optimize for. The stack follows.

Why fullpicture

Get a product engineer on founder mode.

Not an agency. Not a body shop. Not a consultant who stops at the deck.

fullpicture
Agency
Full-time hire
Consultant
Hands-on execution
✓
✓
✓
✗
Work directly with the builder
✓
✗
✓
✗
Full-stack: strategy to deployment
✓
Fragmented
Eventually
Strategy only
Ships weekly
✓
Not always
Depends
✗
AI-native workflows
✓
Rarely
If senior
✗
Challenges your specs
✓
✗
Sometimes
✓
You own everything — code, infra, docs
✓
Not always
✓
N/A
Monthly commitment, cancel anytime
✓
✗
✗
Sometimes
fullpicture

What clients say

I deliver. Don't take my word for it.

Nicolas played a crucial role in the complete overhaul of our e-commerce platform, www.high-stickers.com. He served as both an advisor and a safeguard, guiding me from the start of the project.

He has a sharp sense of priorities, offering real intelligence and vision when it comes to professional organization, profitability, and fairness. This clarity shows in how he directs development and engages in thoughtful debate when necessary.

Nicolas is incredibly efficient. While he may have had the highest hourly rate I've ever paid, he ended up costing me the least overall, due to his speed and effectiveness. You need to see him code live to fully understand!

He is a patient teacher and unwavering in his standards. When my feature requests weren't suitable, he wasn't afraid to say no, always digging deeper to uncover more fitting solutions with me.

Even with the less exciting code, Nicolas applies the same high standards. His dedication and personal investment also pushed me to raise my own standards, simply because he inspired me to.

And beyond that, he's fun to work with. His passion for coding and entrepreneurship is contagious. Peer coding sessions with him never feel like work and always leave me feeling satisfied with our progress and the time spent together.

Nicolas is a powerhouse, driven by an angel's heart.

Emmanuel
Emmanuel
CEO @ High Stickers

Nicolas has been working for Missions Plancton since the summer of 2022, and I am delighted with his services. Fast, attentive, and professional, he is always available to answer my questions or requests. And the icing on the cake, Nicolas is very friendly... Nothing to complain about, you can trust him with your eyes closed. I recommend Nicolas. Thank you!

Amandine
Amandine
CEO @ Plancton by Pimpant

I have worked with Nicolas in two startups, and he is the player you want in your team: his acute sense of focus and his strong-willed nature in difficult times make him a formidable startup founder and early employee. Don't be fooled by his technical expertise, as Nicolas is an entrepreneur before anything else: he knows a company is only as good as its capacity to understand and deliver to its clients, a quality seldom found among expert programmers. Nicolas is a white stag: a legendary creature of a noble breed.

Thomas
Thomas
CPO @ Koudetat

Working with Nicolas is always a pleasure. He gets it quickly. He delivers quickly. And he delivers quality. Communication is smooth, and he usually takes the time to make those small improvements that really make a difference in the final product. I'll continue entrusting Nicolas with projects without hesitation.

Thomas
Thomas
CEO @ Guest Suite

Working with Nicolas at Missions Plancton has been really helpful for me. As an introverted and shy junior developer, I often felt overwhelmed and unsure. Nicolas was always there to guide me through those early days. His constant support and reassuring presence made a big difference. He explains complex concepts in a way that's easy to understand. I might not express it perfectly, but I highly recommend Nicolas to any team looking for a knowledgeable and supportive mentor.

Fiden
Fiden
Junior Backend Developer @ Plancton by Pimpant

Jingles, music, filming, guest speakers… We pulled out all the stops to craft an exceptional content strategy centered around a streaming platform.

It was Nicolas who built this platform, wrote the code, and led the tech project, from server architecture to the front end.

It was a fast-paced environment where our ambition was to create a system that combined sales funnels with a seamless content consumption experience, all wrapped up in a custom-built website with a solid infrastructure.

Nicolas was invaluable in this mission, not only on the tech side but also in shaping the overall model. Working remotely with him was incredibly smooth, and I could rely on him at any moment, through the highs and the lows.

He doesn't sugarcoat things. If you're doing something wrong, he'll tell you—and that kind of feedback is invaluable for entrepreneurs.

His blend of business vision and coding talent makes him a key asset to any team, and I can only recommend working with him.

Nico, I'll take this opportunity to thank you. Thank you for this experience and the adventure we shared. Those who get to work with you in the future will be truly fortunate.

Valentin
Valentin
CEO @ Koudetat
1 / 6

Been at this a while.

10+
Years shipping
Real systems in production since 2016 — backends, APIs, AI pipelines
10+
Clients served
Startups, scale-ups, hospitals, and non-tech businesses
3.5 yrs
Longest engagement
Personalized kids' science magazines — platform built and maintained end to end
8 yrs
Teaching engineers
Lead teacher at Le Wagon, 10+ cities worldwide

Let's talk about what you're building.

30-minute call. No pitch deck. Just tell me what you're trying to build — I'll tell you how I'd approach it.

Let's chat → See my work
High StickersPAJ by ImparatoIris GaleriePlancton by PimpantKoudetatCHU NantesGuest SuiteAsmodeeRobin des Fermes #1Meme pas CapDrakkarHigh StickersPAJ by ImparatoIris GaleriePlancton by PimpantKoudetatCHU NantesGuest SuiteAsmodeeRobin des Fermes #1Meme pas CapDrakkar

Not a good time to collaborate?

No pressure. Explore at your own pace.

Free resources & tools
Checklists, frameworks, and guides for founders navigating tech decisions.
Browse resources →
Read our case studies
The full story behind each project — what I built and what the client got.
Read case studies →
Chat with our AI
Describe what you're building. Get an honest take on scope and fit.
Coming soon →