Product development is going through its largest transformation since the compiler. The teams getting ahead of it aren’t just adopting new tools, they’re rebuilding how they work around what those tools make possible. That is what Brent Maxwell has already done. It is why he is joining Software Combined as the group’s first Chief Technology Officer on 2 July.
As CTO of Synthetix, Brent rebuilt the entire engineering function around AI-driven development and delivered a high-frequency derivatives exchange in four months, a build that typically takes years. He got there by changing the process, the culture and the approach first. The speed was the result.
That is the capability, and the thinking, we are bringing into the portfolio.
“What drew me here was the model. Software Combined backs its businesses and the people inside them for the long term. That’s not common in this space. My job is to work alongside teams that are already excellent and help them move faster, bring the pace and depth of AI development into each business. Thirteen portfolio companies and growing. That’s a real opportunity.”
Brent Maxwell, Group CTO
Brent’s focus spans AI readiness and development velocity across the portfolio, technical due diligence on future acquisitions, and building a technical leadership community across the group. His brief is to understand each business on its own terms and find where he can genuinely help. He is not arriving with a template.
The fair question from CEOs in the portfolio, each running their business in their own way, is what this means for them. The answer is the same as it has always been: protect what the founders and team built and help it go further. Brent is the technical and innovation dimension of that commitment.
“We’ve acquired 13 businesses. In every one of them, the founders built something genuinely worth growing, not just maintaining. Our job is to continue their mission and take it further. His job is to make sure the technical and innovation capabilities of these businesses keep pace with the opportunity ahead of them.”
Evert den Hollander, Co-Founder & CEO
Thirteen businesses at different stages, with different cultures and different technical starting points. Brent’s job is to meet each of them where they are. It is exactly what Software Combined is built to support.