Acorn Partners
The tech partner founders wish they'd had from the start. We build the product, run the team, make the calls a CTO would make — and take our pay in some mix of cash, equity, or revenue share, so we only do well when you do.
They've built something real — customers, revenue, momentum — but the software underneath was put together by whoever was cheapest, or by some folks that have long since moved on. Now the technical side is holding them back, and after a disappointing partner or two, they're not sure who they can trust.
"You shouldn't have to wonder whose side your tech partner is on."
That's the gap we step into. Not as a consultant who hands you a report and moves on — as the technical partner you wish you'd had from the start.
I'm David Baker. For nearly thirty years I've built and run software — web platforms, products, the messy real systems businesses actually depend on. Acorn Partners is the side of our practice where we step in not as an outside advisor, but as the technical partner / business analyst founders need to work along side to build platforms that scale.
That means we build the product, bring or assemble the team, and make the calls CTOs make: architecture, strategy, hiring, the hard tradeoffs. We care about the whys of your business at least as much as the hows — every technical call is made in service of where you're trying to go. We sit beside you in the rooms that matter: with investors, with strategic partners, with the people who need to believe in what you're building.
The clients we have now, we've had for years. We don't leave when the first version ships.
Let's be plain here, because plain (and clear) is how we do everything. We're not an investment fund. We don't write large checks.
What we invest is the thing that's genuinely scarce: nearly thirty years of judgment about how real products get built, the team we can put around you, and our own time and reputation. And we take our return the way a true partner should — in equity, or a share of revenue — alongside or instead of fees.
If we're asking you to trust us with the most important part of your business, our own money should be on the table next to yours.
That single fact changes everything that comes after it. Nothing to upsell, no hours to pad, no reason to do anything other than build the most valuable thing we can, together. We do well when you do well — not before.
We work from the Middle East (Jeddah in Saudi Arabia), and that matters. Founders in the region get product work built to the standard Western investors expect — from someone who actually lives here, speaks the language, and understands both cultures.
Founders in the US get a partner who can open doors in this market. The thread through all of it is the same: We bridge gaps — between business and technology, between founders and the teams they need, between the West and the Middle East.
We speak plainly, not in jargon. We're honest about cost and quality: where to spend, where to save, and what we'd do if it were our own money. We're not the cheapest option, and we don't try to be. We'd rather lose a deal than oversell one.
This is deliberately a small practice. We can be a real partner to only a handful of founders at a time, so we're careful about fit — and honest, early, when there isn't one.
A partnership this serious shouldn't begin with a leap of faith. So it doesn't.
We talk about your business — what you're building, where you're stuck, and what the right kind of help actually looks like. No pitch; just an honest conversation.
Most engagements begin with a short, fixed-scope piece of work — a product review, a build plan, or a first working piece of the product itself. Clear price, clear end.
If that first phase earns it — and only then — we talk about the deeper build: the team, the years-long commitment, and the equity or revenue-share structure that aligns us for where we're headed next.
How true that is. But it doesn't happen quickly.
We find it takes good soil, patient tending, and someone who'll still be there years later to see it through. That's the kind of partner we are. We don't build for a fast launch and a quick exit. We build for the thing that's still standing — and still growing — in a decade.
If you think in generations, so do we.
If you've read this far and found yourself nodding — that's usually a good sign.
