WHO WE ARE
About BrainStormers
BrainStormers is a technical and product consultancy built for startups and run by its two founders.
The drawing shows our company as a code repository and, under it, a code owners file naming who owns product, engineering and the handover, beside our principles.
Scale-ups and established companies hire us too, for fractional leaders, audits and short projects.
01HOW IT STARTED
The BrainStormers story
BrainStormers was founded in 2018 and is based in Toronto. We started with product: discovery, market validation, user testing and design for founders from pre-seed to Series A. MVP builds and team support followed once products were ready for them.
Today we run two connected tracks you can hire together or apart: engineering, led by Thanos Gkanas, and product, led by Roger Grekos. Advice on what to build is hard to act on with nobody to build it, and engineering goes further when someone has checked the feature is worth building.
That covers the full range of engineering and product services for startups, from a first validation sprint to AI code fixes, crisis response, pricing and scale planning.
Most of our clients are startups. We also take short engagements with scale-ups and established companies: a fractional CTO or product lead, an audit before a big decision, or senior hands for a quarter. We are a Toronto startup consultancy working with teams worldwide.
02THE MOMENTUM IDEA
From first thought to shipped
The three marks under our name are the three stages of every engagement.
THE SPARK
The first mark is advice. We look at the product, code and plan with you, name the real problem and agree the next step. Sometimes it is a small fix your own team can make.
THE DRIVE
The second mark is the hands-on build. We write the code, run the research or redesign the flow, inside your repository and tools, so you see progress as it happens.
THE LANDING
The third mark is shipped. Work counts when it is live and your team can run it, so we finish with a handover: what changed, how to run it and what to watch next.
03THE FOUNDERS
Meet Roger and Thanos
Roger works on the surface of the product: users, evidence, pricing and plans. He has 12+ years in product, from X, the moonshot factory, to PayEm, Huuuge Games and Find.co. Thanos works on the system underneath: architecture, code, infrastructure and incidents. He has 20+ years building software, at SAP, Pitney Bowes, Oliver Wyman, Lendis and Find.co, among others.
Roger Grekos
CO-FOUNDER · PRODUCT
I start with who uses the product, what they pay for today and where they give up. The plan comes after that.
A plan is only as good as the evidence under it.
Thanos Gkanas
CO-FOUNDER · ENGINEERING
My first question is how the system fails today, and who gets woken up when it does.
Every fix ships with notes your team can follow without me.
Say the thing
We tell you what we see in plain words, including when the answer is to wait, cut a feature or not build at all.
Evidence before effort
We test the riskiest assumption first, with users or with code, so time and money go to the part that matters.
A founder on every engagement
Roger or Thanos leads each piece of work, so you know who is accountable.
Built to hand over
We document as we go and plan the handover from the start, so your team owns the result when we step back.
05
Company facts
Our registered details and how to reach us.
- Legal name
- BrainStormers Group Ltd / Ltee
- Company number
- 1059244-7
- Founded
- 2018
- Based in
- Toronto, ON
- Address
- 240 Richmond Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 1V6
- hello@brco.dev
06EXPLORE
Where to go next
Browse the services, find the page written for your situation, or read our product management articles for founders and engineering guides.
07FAQ
Questions about BrainStormers
When was BrainStormers founded?
BrainStormers was founded in 2018 and is based in Toronto. The early work focused on product discovery, market validation, user testing and product design for startups. Today the company runs two connected tracks, engineering and product, that founders and teams can hire together or separately.
Where is BrainStormers based?
BrainStormers is based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and works with teams worldwide. Engagements run on calls, shared documents and the tools your team already uses, such as your code repository, design files and issue tracker. The work fits around your team.
Who runs BrainStormers?
BrainStormers is run by its two co-founders. Roger Grekos (Co-Founder, Product, Project & Scale) has 12+ years in product and covers validation, discovery, UX, pricing and scale planning. Thanos Gkanas (Co-Founder & Head of Engineering) has 20+ years building software and covers architecture, AI code fixes, crisis response and infrastructure. One of them leads every engagement, and both work on combined product and engineering projects.
How is BrainStormers different from a development agency?
A development agency is usually set up to build what you hand it. BrainStormers also helps you decide what to build: product work such as validation, discovery and pricing sits next to engineering, and you can hire one track or both. Roger or Thanos leads each engagement, and the work ends with a handover your team can run.
What does the BrainStormers dash stand for?
The dash under the BrainStormers name is three rounded marks in one line. The crimson spark stands for advice, the coral drive for the hands-on build and the teal landing for shipped work. Read left to right, they describe how an engagement moves: from first thought to shipped.
NEXT STEP
Bring us the problem
If you want senior people who stay close to the work, start with a 20-minute call. Prefer to write? Tell us about your project and we reply with a next step.