Refer a VP/Dir Engineering or startup CTO who wants to better understand why and how to build with serverless

Hi! Paul Swail here.

You’re reading this page because you’re a trusted friend, client, or colleague and you’re curious how to refer someone to me.

If you have a colleague, friend, family member, or anyone else who is in need of serverless, cloud or DevOps expertise that I can provide, I invite you to connect them with me.

My solemn promise to you is that I will provide your referral with whatever help I can to within the best of my abilities — and if I can’t help, I will see to it that they’re connected with someone who can help them.

And if you’re someone who was referred to me who landed on this page, I’m delighted to connect with you. Read through this page for a sense of who I can best help, the problems I can best help with, and how I might be able to help you. Then, get in touch with me and tell me more about your company, the problem you’re facing, and how I can help.

“What type of clients do you work best with?”

My ideal clients are small teams who are building a product on AWS (be they in a startup or a small team within a larger company) and have specifically chosen to use a serverless tech stack. While they have their own developers, they typically have limited (or no) in-house experience with delivering a serverless application in AWS right through to production and beyond.

“What problems can you help with?”

Here’s a selection of the problems I can help:

  • Defining an architecture and delivery plan for a new serverless application (See my service: Serverless Application Roadmap)
  • Identifying issues within an existing AWS serverless application, recommending how to address them and helping you during implementation (See my service: Serverless Architecture & Process Review)
  • Getting answers to any serverless questions you have, at the strategic or technical level (See my service: Serverless Clarity Call)
  • Building out a secure multi-account AWS environment, DevOps delivery pipelines and scaffolded codebase for new greenfield serverless applications (See my service: Serverless Launchpad)

“How should I refer people to you?”

The best way to refer someone to me is to send them a link to my contact page. That is the best way for us to start the conversation, so I can best understand how I can help them and their team.

Send them a link to this page: https://serverlessfirst.com/contact/. Please let them know that when they fill out the form, they should put down your name as the person who referred them to me.

Further on down this page, I’ve included an email that you can copy and paste and send to anyone you’d like to refer to me. The email introduces me, explains what I can help with, and outlines my service offerings. (Feel free to make any changes you’d like before you send it.)

“Do you have an introduction email I can use?”

Sure do! Just copy and paste this, replacing their name and the relevant bits (marked “TK-” so you can easily find them) and send the email off to someone that you’ve identified (CC or BCC’ing me at paul@serverlessfirst.com, preferably, so I know that you’ve referred them to me and can prepare for them to reach out to me).

Hi [TK - NAME],

You mentioned that you were looking for help with [TK – Problem or issue facing their team OR an outcome they’re looking for, ideally related to designing or building a serverless application].

I’d like to introduce you to Paul Swail, Independent Cloud Architect at ServerlessFirst.com, who specializes in helping software development teams deliver production-ready serverless apps on AWS. You can view all his service offerings here: https://serverlessfirst.com/services/.

I’m familiar with Paul’s work and highly recommend him as someone that you speak with. I’ve CC’d Paul on this email. He’ll be replying in a day or two to learn more and set up an initial call with you.

Looking forward to hearing how the conversation goes,

— [TK Your name and signature here]

Thank you!

I deeply appreciate you taking the time to read this page and consider referring someone to me.

And if there is anyone I can refer to you, just email me and let me know and I’ll see who in my network is a match for your services.

Thanks,

— Paul Swail, Chief Cloud Architect & Founder, ServerlessFirst.com