Matt Watson is a four-time tech founder with 20+ years as a CTO and CEO. He co-founded VinSolutions, an automotive CRM that he bootstrapped to over $30M in ARR and sold to AutoTrader in 2011 for $150M. VinSolutions is still the #1 CRM in the automotive industry.
He went on to found Stackify, a developer-focused application monitoring platform that exited to Netreo. Today he is the CEO of Full Scale, an offshore development company with 300+ engineers in the Philippines that has helped 200+ tech companies build and scale software teams.
Matt is the author of Product Driven (2025), a leadership playbook for engineering leaders whose teams are busy but not building what matters. He also writes the Product Driven newsletter and hosts the Startup Hustle podcast, which has surpassed 6 million downloads over hundreds of conversations with founders, operators, and investors.
Career Highlights
VinSolutions, Co-Founder & CTO
Bootstrapped this automotive CRM to over $30M in ARR and sold VinSolutions to AutoTrader in 2011 for $150M. It remains the #1 CRM in the automotive industry today.
Stackify, Founder
Full Scale, CEO
Full Scale has 300+ engineers in the Philippines supporting 200+ tech companies with embedded development teams that augment in-house engineering.
Startup Hustle, Host
Top entrepreneurship podcast with 6M+ downloads across hundreds of interviews with founders, operators, and investors.
Find More From Matt
Product Driven
Matt's 2025 book lays out a five-part framework (Vision, Focus, Clarity, Ownership, Courage) for engineering leaders whose teams are busy but not building what matters.
Read the bookProduct Driven Newsletter
Weekly writing on engineering leadership, product thinking, and the CTO career arc, for tech founders and the engineers becoming the leaders their companies need.
SubscribeStartup Hustle Podcast
6M+ downloads across hundreds of conversations with founders, operators, and investors about what actually builds a company.
ListenRecent Posts by Matt
July 28, 2026
Why Our Customer Success Managers Are the Reason Offshore Works
Every Full Scale client gets a customer success manager. Here is what they actually do: daily reports, weekly meetings with our engineers, m...
July 24, 2026
User Acceptance Testing Isn t a QA Checkbox. It s a Leadership Call.
User acceptance testing checks whether you built what the business needed, not just whether the code runs. Here s why that matters more with...
July 24, 2026
The History of Offshoring: From Factory Floors to Modern Development Teams
The real history of offshoring, from 1960s Hong Kong factories through Y2K and NAFTA to today s staff augmentation model, told by a CTO who...
July 23, 2026
Full Scale vs. a Traditional BPO: We re Not a Call Center
Full Scale s CEO explains why hiring software engineers is nothing like staffing a call center, and why we ve never really competed with a t...
July 22, 2026
Staff Augmentation Proposal: What I Look For Before It Goes Out
What actually belongs in a staff augmentation proposal, the red flags vendors hope you miss, and why the document tells you more about the w...
July 22, 2026
Top Mobile App Development Frameworks in 2026: The Framework Matters Less Than Who s Coding It
Mobile app development frameworks in 2026: Flutter, React Native, Kotlin Multiplatform, .NET MAUI, and native, plus what AI actually changed...
July 21, 2026
Developer Flow State Didn t Die. It Turned Into a Babysitting Job.
AI didn t kill developer flow state, it changed what it looks like. Here s what the new version demands from engineers, and what it means fo...
July 21, 2026
IT Staff Augmentation: What It Actually Means, From Someone Who s Placed 1,000+ Engineers
IT staff augmentation, explained by someone who s placed 1,000+ engineers: what it means, what a traditional agency costs instead, and when...
July 19, 2026
Mobile App Development Trends in 2026: Skip the Listicle, Check the Hiring Math
Mobile app development trends in 2026: which ones actually change who you hire and what you build, and which are just recycled listicles.