Sometimes it's the people. Sometimes it's the process. Usually, it's the technology.
When I look at a business, I see the people, the process, and the system underneath them both. The people are usually good. The purpose is usually real. What holds performance back, almost every time, is the technology.
My whole career comes down to one passion: using technology to unlock people, teams, and whole companies to perform at levels they never thought possible.
I'm David Stetler. Here's the story.
The wiring.
My dad worked at IBM, and I grew up watching what a computer could do for one person. By ten I was running my own lawn business and organizing it in Excel before I knew the word operations. Kansas State gave me both sides: the business school and the school of engineering, all the way down to machine code. Building was never a career choice. It was the wiring.
Engineer and founder.
Started in healthcare software at enterprise scale. Moved into marketing and donor management software, where I discovered rapid development and fell in love with building internal systems fast. Then the leap: an ecommerce company where I built the business and the platform from scratch, storefront to payments to automated fulfillment.
Cerner · an ecommerce startup, founded and run
Builder of organizations.
Ten years leading in the nonprofit world: eight programs, two departments, three community ventures, donor support doubled. The lesson that stuck: purpose drives people, and technology, implemented with intention, multiplies what purpose can do.
Mission Adelante
The technical COO.
C-level seats, most of them fractional, for companies at their growth ceiling. The same job every time: lead the people, honor the purpose, and re-engineer the workflows, data, and technology until performance caught up to potential. Including R&D leadership for enterprise clients in healthcare, entertainment, and technology.
Laminate Works · RESTO Athletic · Half Price Banners · Another Reality Studio · World Wide Technology · Universal Studios · City Lifestyle
Founder, tektos.
The whole career, one job: engineering the system your business runs on. Mine runs on it too.
A consultant consults.
A builder builds.
I'm an agentic engineer. I build systems that transform how businesses work, and how high they perform.