Consulting and technical leadership for organizations that have had enough of engineering theater.
What we do
Part-time technical leadership for companies that need senior engineering judgment without a full-time executive hire. We've filled this role in clinical AI, government infrastructure, and early-stage product contexts — where the cost of poor judgment is high and the tolerance for theater is low.
Honest assessments, not comfortable ones. An outside perspective on what you've built, what you're building, and what will become expensive.
From initial prototype to production system. We've built at every scale, from two-person startups to government-grade infrastructure serving hundreds of thousands of users.
Early-stage work for founders who need to understand the landscape before committing to build. Market research, competitive analysis, system design, and feasibility work — along with the written deliverables that make the substance legible to investors, boards, and procurement.
For larger builds that need a full team. Staffed from engineers we've worked alongside — not sourced from a directory. Marcus leads the engagement directly.
We've kept systems running for over fifteen years. We take on maintenance contracts for software that needs to stay alive and secure without constant attention.
Selected work
Sepsis detection and public health monitoring systems deployed at major US health systems and government clients. Software that runs where failure has real consequences: strict validation, integration with legacy health records, multi-year uptime expectations. A decade navigating the particular discipline this requires.
A data platform serving the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Aid, handling sensitive program data at national scale. Earlier: a search engine built on a full-population dataset. Both projects required building for accuracy, durability, and long-term maintainability over speed-to-market.
Structured research and technical design for a startup entering a specialized insurance market. The engagement covered competitive and regulatory landscape analysis, data source identification, system architecture, and investor documentation — all before production development began. The kind of work that prevents expensive mistakes and creates a defensible foundation for fundraising and build decisions.
Rapid prototypes and technical documentation for founders preparing for fundraising. The pattern: a technical founder with a real insight who needs to make the substance legible to non-technical investors and boards. We build the prototype, write the technical brief, and ensure the engineering story holds up under scrutiny.
How we engage
Most projects begin with imperfect specifications and reveal their true shape as the system is built. This is not a failure of planning — it is the nature of the domain. Risk is inherent, and it lives on both sides of any engagement.
We make this explicit from the first conversation. Estimates are hypotheses, not commitments. Scope will evolve. The engagements that work are the ones structured to absorb that honestly — with clear communication, short feedback loops, and a shared understanding of what is known, what is assumed, and what will only become clear by doing.
Clients who expect certainty upfront are not a good fit. Clients who want a partner who will tell them what's actually going on, and adjust with them — those conversations tend to go well.
About
Artilect US is led by Marcus Persson Rydberg — a Swedish engineer, two-time founder, and O-1 visa holder based in Texas. He started writing software professionally in 2003 and has not stopped.
Before Artilect US, he co-founded Luminare, a clinical AI company that built sepsis detection and public health infrastructure for major US health systems and government clients. He spent a decade in clinical settings, navigating the particular discipline required when software failure has real consequences.
Before that, Artilect AB — a data platform serving the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Aid. Before that, a search engine built on a dataset of the entire Swedish population. Before that, KTH.
Artilect US draws on a close network of engineers and former colleagues — many from the Luminare years, and backed in part by Artilect AB in Sweden, which has operated since 2009. For larger engagements or when specific expertise is needed, the right people are available. This is a small group who have built serious things together, not a directory of contractors.
Thinking
In an era of abundant code generation, the bottleneck is no longer writing code — it's verifying, aligning, and interpreting it. The practices worth defending are the ones that conserve human attention and keep feedback loops short.
"In a world of abundant generation, engineering becomes the discipline of verifying, aligning, and interpreting systems — using both technical feedback loops and human judgment to continuously reconstruct truth from multiple imperfect signals."
A working synthesis of twenty years of practice, incorporating Dave Farley, Kent Beck, Andy Grove, Donella Meadows, Nassim Taleb, and others. On what engineering actually is, why feedback loops matter more than frameworks, and how to lead technical teams without burning them down.
Read it →Contact
We're selective about engagements. Before reaching out, it helps to have a sense of scope, timeline, and what a successful outcome looks like for you. We'll respond promptly and honestly, including if we're not the right fit.