Engineering intelligence from someone who lived the problem
15+ years of engineering leadership. One recurring problem. Finally solved.
"Monday standup: 'Everything's on track.' Thursday: Critical blocker found. Friday: Scrambling to salvage the sprint."
The problem I couldn't ignore
Across three companies and countless sprints, the pattern was identical
The information was always there. The signals existed. But I only found them after they mattered. As VPE at Chewy, CTO at a startup, and Director at ModMed, the struggle was universal: catching issues before they derail sprints.
The daily time sink
Jira
Filter boards by team, status, assignee
GitHub
Check notifications, find stale PRs
Slack
Search threads for buried blockers
Calendar
Check who's OOO that might cause delays
30 minutes later: Rough picture assembled. But the window to prevent problems? Already closed. Just cataloging damage.
The worst part? Knowing you're missing things. That nagging feeling. And being right more often than you wanted to be.
The journey to Vectyr
From 10-person startups to public company scale
Rich Kroll
Founder & CEO
Engineering Director
ModMed
Led engineering teams building healthcare software. Learned that delays impact patient care - and that manual status tracking across distributed teams was unsustainable.
VP Engineering
Chewy (NYSE: CHWY)
Managed multiple teams at public company scale. Realized every engineering leader faces the same problem: finding critical issues before they derail delivery.
CTO
Play2Pay
Scaled engineering from 4 to 20+. Spent 30-45+ minutes daily hunting for blockers across Jira, GitHub, and Slack - with that nagging feeling of always missing something.
Fractional CTO / Consultant
Independent
Worked with companies across the spectrum - from startups just getting started with an idea to VC-backed scale-ups to global enterprises. Saw the same blockers and communication challenges everywhere, regardless of company size or maturity.
Founder
Vectyr
Built the tool to solve the problem experienced across 15+ years of engineering leadership - intelligence, not more dashboards.
The "aha" moment
During a brutal sprint with a client, we missed a launch deadline because of a PR that sat for 3 days waiting for a review from someone on PTO.
The information was in three different places: GitHub showed the stale PR. Slack mentioned the PTO. Jira showed the dependency. But no single system connected the dots.
That's when it hit me: I wasn't looking for better project management tools. I needed intelligence, not more dashboards.
The data existed. The signals were there. What was missing was a system that could read the same sources I was reading, spot the patterns I was looking for, and alert me before disaster struck - not 48 hours after.
Why Vectyr exists
Not as a theoretical exercise, but as the tool I desperately needed
Problem
Wasting 30 minutes daily hunting across 15+ browser tabs
Solution
Daily AI summaries in Slack with all blockers surfaced
Problem
Discovering critical issues Thursday when sprint started Monday
Solution
Proactive alerts 48 hours before problems impact sprints
Problem
PR stalled 3 days waiting for someone on PTO
Solution
Cross-tool pattern detection: stale PR + OOO = alert
Problem
Sunday night anxiety about what you missed
Solution
Confidence that critical blockers surface automatically
48 hours early. Not 48 hours late.
How we work
Principles that guide how we build and what we prioritize
Proactive over Reactive
You didn't become an engineering leader to play whack-a-mole with fires. Catch blockers before they escalate, so you can lead instead of react.
Simplicity over Complexity
5-minute setup. No new workflows. No dashboards to check. Just Slack alerts when something actually needs your attention.
Trust through Transparency
Every alert shows the data, not just the conclusion. See exactly what Vectyr detected and why it matters. No black box recommendations.
Built for people like us
If you've ever had that Sunday night anxiety wondering what you missed, Vectyr is for you.
If you've ever explained to a VP why the sprint slipped because of something that "should have been obvious," Vectyr is for you.
If you've ever wished you had 30 more minutes in your day to actually talk to your team instead of searching through tools, Vectyr is for you.
This isn't built by product managers guessing at what engineering leaders need. It's built by someone who sat in your seat for 15+ years, from 10-person startups to public company scale, and finally decided to fix the problem.
Join us
Vectyr is in early access, and we're working with engineering leaders who are tired of the same old problems. Let's catch blockers before they become fires-together.
5-minute setup • No credit card required • Cancel anytime