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Jon BrydenFractional CTO

About

I've run the technology, and I've run the business.

Most technology advisors have done one of those. The combination is the reason clients keep me around after the first project, and it is why I tend to reach for the cheap answer before the impressive one.

Jon Bryden

Enterprise technology leader

Nearly a decade at the National Registry of EMTs, including years as Director of Information Technology. Led a 20-person technology organization across engineering, QA, cloud, data, security, and enterprise systems.

Technology leadership for a mission-critical national platform serving 600,000 clinicians. Contributed to 99.95% platform uptime. Reduced support demand by more than 45%. Cut peak ticket backlog from 255 to under 50, more than an 80% reduction.

Led the 0-to-1 launch of a national EMS licensure platform: 25 member states, 350,000+ clinicians, cross-state API integrations.

Regulated, mission-critical, and national in scale. The kind of environment where being wrong about someone's licensure status is a serious problem rather than a bug ticket.

Operator, not just an advisor

Co-founded and scaled a multi-channel eCommerce business past $10M in annual revenue. I co-founded BZB Marine & RV and ran operations from 2016 to 2023, across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and direct-to-consumer.

I owned logistics, fulfillment, marketing, vendor management, and the systems underneath all of it. I also carried the P&L, which is the part that actually changes how I advise.

When I tell a client that a build is not worth the money, it is because I have been the person deciding whether to spend it.

Still building

I carry the whole arc myself: the technology strategy, the product thinking about what to build and why, and the delivery. Most advisors own one piece and hand off the rest.

I am hands-on today, not just in the room. Current fractional work includes an active engagement with a founder-led specialty healthcare provider, replacing a CEO-run manual process with an automated operating system, and a new sprint for a home care provider that keeps employee records in step between its payroll and care management systems.

Co-founder and fractional CTO of EMS Conferences.

Embedded AI across requirements, prototyping, development, testing, and code review under written governance, compressing feature discovery from weeks to days.

Recent builds include Capital Record, which gives AI assistants persistent, user-approved investment context, and an investment research system where specialized agents gather the evidence and a person approves the assumptions before any valuation runs. My AI advice comes from building systems like these.

Built Scanimo in React Native and launched it in both the Apple App Store and Google Play. Staying close to the tools is how the advice stays honest.

The arc

Where this came from.

  1. 2026 to present

    Independent

    Fractional CTO and Technology Advisor

    Hands-on technology leadership for founder-led companies. Current work includes an active engagement with a specialty healthcare provider, an employee data integration for a home care provider, serving as fractional CTO for EMS Conferences, and building and operating Scanimo.

  2. 2017 to 2026

    National Registry of EMTs

    IT Business Analyst to Director of Information Technology

    Delivery and product lead for core certification platforms, then Director of IT. Also served as technology owner for a separate national EMS licensure compact, leading its platform from the first decision through launch.

  3. 2016 to 2023

    BZB Marine & RV

    Co-Founder and Head of Operations

    Built the business across Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and direct-to-consumer. Owned operations, systems, and platform strategy.

  4. 2014 to 2017

    State of Ohio

    Agile Business Analyst

    Enterprise tax system delivery, including the Ohio Business Gateway, working alongside large-scale engineering teams from Accenture and HP. Where I learned how enterprise delivery actually works, and how it fails.

B.S. Business Administration, Accounting, The Ohio State University. Executive leadership program with Tingle Leadership, 2024 to 2025.

How I think about AI

Adopt it deliberately. Keep control.

  • Business outcome first. If it does not move a measurable outcome, it does not get scaled.
  • No single point of dependency. Design for model portability and replaceable components.
  • Data governance is not optional. Not all data belongs in external systems, and that gets decided before the build, not after.

The people behind all of it.

Outside work, I'm a husband and dad. My wife and our three kids, Benjamin, Isabella, and Josephine, are the center of my life. They are also the clearest reminder that good work should support a meaningful life, not crowd it out.

Jon and his wife overlooking a green hillside and lake
My wife and me.
Three children standing together outside under a blue sky
Benjamin, Isabella, and Josephine.

Where I work

Based in Columbus, Ohio. I work with clients remotely across the United States, and on site when the work calls for it.

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